FERNSIDE

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW - A DIY STORY

PHOTOS by CHRIS DANGAARD, RUSS SAKURAI and VERONIKA REINERT

Nestled between million dollar Newport Beach homes and a thriving industrial zone a handful of local skaters gave birth to Fernside. The long rectangular shaped slab of cement is about a hundred feet long and sits next to a drainage ditch. Nobody is sure who built the rst mini cinder block ledge in the middle of the slab but it had been there for about four years. Alex, Logan, and Jack recently enlisted the help of around 20 other people who built the ll free quarter that sat at the back end of the area. Like everything that would eventually be built there, the quarter is pretty gnarly but it would become the cornerstone of the spot. Apparently at some point a disgruntled person tried to destroy one of the support columns for the quarter but after only destroying a portion of it gave up. The boys later repaired it and made it ridable again.

They added a tight wall quarter to the opposite end of the spot and the addition of “Maria’s boob”, a bump connected to the original ledge providing a pump to both ends of the spot.

The spot continued to expand over the course of about ve months and was being sessioned by all ages and levels of skaters. There wasn’t any negative vibes going on and for the most part whoever showed up was welcome to skate it, however, make no mistake the spot and its obstacles aren’t easy to skate. In fact Clayton Graul described skating the spot as “extremely violent”. The smaller wall is super tight and at some point the guys decided to add another layer of cinder blocks extending the vert, the thing was gnarly for sure but some were making grinds, ollies and other lip tricks daily. I asked Nic what the spot was like for him and he said: “it’s crusty, but it’s home”

Several days ago Nic went down there for a session and discovered that the entire spot had been cleaned out, most likely by the city at the request of some grumpy rich neighbors.

I asked Fern what his thoughts were about skating the DIY: “Skating there is like hitting a gnarly street spot, it’s pretty rough. I think the gnarliest thing I did there was carrying bags of cement down the trail in order to build.”

The recent Covid pandemic caused a lot of park closures leaving skaters with few to no options for places to skate and the original crew who had started the build were reluctent to continue because of it. One day during a session Fernando started hyping up Aidan and Nic to build more so they would have more to skate. Not too long after that the crew, along with Nic’s kids were hauling in wheelbarrows full of supplies and the build was back on.

I asked him how he felt about the spot being destroyed and he said: “We had a good run for about four months. I felt really satis ed about the work we did there. I spent a lot of time there cleaning the spot and keeping up with it. As far as it being gone now, well that’s just how DIY’s go. On to the next spot.”

I asked Aidan what it was like building and skating the spot, he replied: “Super tits hog tying paint hu ng turd throwing good ole fashioned fun. I think the best thing I pulled there was a wicked at ground G turn around the boob.”

Regarding its destruction he said: “I was super not stoked to see it go but low key stoked because I was over it, the energy wasn’t there once we gured out it was probably going to get destroyed but that didn’t stop us from spending our minimum wage earnings on muddy fun times. On to bigger and better things.”

Nic told me: “I was bummed as soon as I saw the spot was gone, especially since my kids had worked hard to help build it. I guess that’s how it goes with DIY spots though. I instantly called Fern and started talking about the next spot.”

In closing I would have to say that every DIY has its own life, from birth to death and like life itself, its all about what you do in-between.

Thank you to everyone who put work, time, money, and e ort into Fernside.

- Chris Daangard