Romps on Secret Ramp Over for Skateboarders

The cover has been blown on a sweet secret shared in recent months by youthful skateboarders along the North County coast.

A noise complaint to Solana Beach City Hall will apparently mean the dismantling of a clandestine but sturdily built skateboard ramp beneath the overpass at Highway 101 and Via de la Valle, near the boundary between Del Mar and Solana Beach.

Driven underground by what they see as hostile political and economic forces, skateboarders see the imminent demise of their ramp as a sizable bummer.

“We’re not hurting anybody,” protested Rich Van Every, 15, of Solana Beach. “I guess the city will do what it’s got to do, but it means we won’t have anywhere to go. Nobody wants us on the sidewalks or streets, and the only skateboard park near here closed a year ago.”

Nobody is saying just who built the plywood ramp (“A bunch of locals,” Van Every said.), but the ramp builders obviously knew their stuff. This is no lean-to operation.

The bowl-like ramp is 30 feet wide, stretches 45 feet between two concrete retaining walls that are part of the overpass, and curves at both sides to a height of 7 feet. It is reinforced to prevent undue vibration.

Liability Problem

Still, the city governments of Solana Beach and Del Mar, and the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corp., are not amused. They want the ramp torn down as a safety hazard and because of the potential for liability.

The land is within the city limits of Del Mar, and it has fallen to Del Mar building inspectors to remove the ramp as soon as the paper work is completed. Santa Fe is involved because its Amtrak tracks are just east of the ramp.

Santa Fe spokeswoman Susan Saltzer says the ramp is on railroad property and the firm wants it torn down as soon as possible. “The liability is enormous,” she said.

“It gives us something to do,” said Jeremy Plum, 16, of Carlsbad, one of a dozen skaters using the ramp at noon Thursday. “It’s

particularly good for lip tricks (skating up one side, traveling along a horizontal metal bar and then zooming downward toward the other side).”

Michael Briganti, 23, skateboard enthusiast and management major at UCSD, said city officials should think of the rogue ramp as an educational facility to be protected.

“Skateboarding is more mental than physical,” he explained. “Kids learn more about themselves on a skateboard than in school. They learn about facing fear and controlling themselves.”

The skateboarders have attempted some rudimentary social control in hopes of protecting the ramp from official wrath.

Along with the normal graffiti are spray-painted warnings not to park in the Brigantine restaurant parking lot and not to litter. Ramp hours are listed as 6 a.m. to dark.

One warning proved prophetic--”Don’t skate at night or in the morning or the ramp will be torn down due to complaints from neighbors.”

Noise Called ‘Terrible’

A noise complaint from several residents at the nearby Sandpiper apartments brought the ramp to the attention of Solana Beach City Manager Michael Huse. He checked with Del Mar and Santa Fe and suddenly the ramp’s days were numbered.

Huse assured Sandpiper manager Val Korkman by letter that “the situation will be rectified very soon.”

Korkman, in an interview, said her tenants are plagued by incessant noise.

“It starts at 6 a.m. even on Sundays and it goes until 11 p.m., back and forth and back and forth,” she said. “The noise in the upstairs apartments is terrible. People can’t open their windows.”

Once the ramp is gone, skateboarders are unsure of their next move.

They are still mourning the closing in June, 1987, of an official above-ground skateboard park near the Del Fair fairgrounds. It closed to make way for a hotel.

A ramp in Leucadia is not seen as suitable for certain styles of skateboarding.

“This is it,” said Nick Nelson, 15, of Del Mar. “This was our place and now they’re taking it away.”