As skateboarding continues to progress at a relentless pace, we’re seeing young skaters take on spots that used to be career makers, cover grabbers, with an unprecedented level of ease. Most recently, we saw this with two back-to-back NBDs on San Francisco’s Wallenberg, the first being Toby Ryan’s nollie backside flip and the second being Dylan Jaeb’s fakie kickflip.

That’s the question we were interested in, so we called up Toby Ryan and Dylan Jaeb to ask them about their experience skating Wallenberg. From their opinion on the spots “hype”, thoughts on the community’s reaction and the intricacies of the spot, we’re certain you’ll find this curtain pull quite interesting.

Were you surprised that an NBD down Wallenberg still holds so much weight in the skate community?
TOBY(T): For sure. It was all super random. I lowkey claimed it, so it felt like I had to do it. I got there and I didn’t think it was that crazy. I’m hyped I did it, but I didn’t think it was going to be super out of the ordinary. I feel like if you have a trick it’s not that big, and I definitely fought other tricks a lot longer. I was practicing for it though, I was training [laughs].

DYLAN(D): It’s pretty funny that it’s the main thing people talk about with me now. When you do it, it just feels like another trick, like you’re just hyped you got something. I don’t know, none of my homies really skate big sets like that, so you get home and no one really cares that we did that, or at least it felt that way.

We’ve all seen this spot skated a bunch. Skating it for yourself, did it live up to your expectations?
D: Yes and no. It’s a long stair set, but with the roll in you’re going to clear it. The impact isn’t bad either because of how fast you’re going. There are so many videos about it, and they hype it up so much, and we were watching those on the way up and were super nervous, but then we got there and, realistically, it’s just a stair set. It can only be so fucked, like I know Davis Gap or something would be a lot more insane. There are skaters out there, skaters like Chris Joslin who skate a lot of stairs, that Wallenberg wouldn’t be shit for. They’ve definitely been to spots that are way bigger and done tricks down them.

“There are skaters out there, skaters like Chris Joslin who skate a lot of stairs, that Wallenberg wouldn’t be shit for.”

T: Dude, we were tripping at first thinking it was gnarly. Miles Silvas went back like ten times or something. The drive up was stressful for sure, but it ended up coming easier than I thought it would. I was there when Brandon Turner switch hardflipped it, so I knew what it was like before I said anything like “Oh, I want to go.” But even with all that, I got there and was like, “Fuck.” It is really big, but with the roll in and everything it’s not as bad. You just have to understand you’re going to clip a few times.

Speaking of the roll in, is that a cheat code or a necessity?
D: Yeah, I mean it’s so fast. Also, when you’re standing there looking down at Wallenberg from the edge, it looks so big, but as soon as you’re up on that roof looking at it it just looks like an eight stair or something. You can’t tell from that angle, which makes it far less intimidating. When they were pushing in, that’s so gnarly and sick, but it’s kinda just a big stair set.

T: I mean, there is no other way. I wish you didn’t have to use it. It would be way sicker to just bomb the hill if it was still like that. That’s way more badass. Pumping into a set is weird [laughs].

In terms of the physical toll it had on your body, was it more or less than expected?
T: It’s not too bad on impact, but you’re going so fast that the slam tumbles you hard, and you can’t really get away from it. You’re like rolling and ragdolling, kinda like a car crash. My hand was fucked, my hip was ruined, like the whole side of my body, but my feet weren’t exploded or anything.

D: It’s the same as jumping down a 10 stair or whatever that many times. They redid the ground where you land, and the fresh pavement stings really bad, which is weird. New asphalt has chemicals or something in it, and it burns way different than old asphalt. That night we went to the hotel after and were burning in the shower, like, “What the fuck is that?”

Did you know you were trying your ender?
D: No, Toby had a video part that was all done and he was going there knowing that was going to be his ender.

T: Yeah, I didn’t really have anything else that was significant.

D: I was just going to skate it with him. We both would have been too nervous to skate it alone, so I was going to be a homie, check it out, and maybe skate it. I had this part that I was going to put out on my YouTube, so I just figured I’d make it the ender for that. I wasn’t really thinking [laughs]. Primitive happened to be up there for a trip because Filipe [Mota] was trying a trick on Clipper, so it just worked out. Toby did his nollie backside flip and then we went straight to Clipper and watched Filipe heelflip back tail it. It was insane. The next day, since they had all the filmers up there, they came and filmed.

That’s insane, like you were going to put it on your personal YouTube?
D: It was pretty fried. I think I didn’t expect to do anything, like I just wanted to go skate there with no pressure, which meant no filmers. Just me and my friends. That felt more safe. I hate dragging people out, it’s so anxiety-inducing.

I didn’t realize you guys didn’t land your tricks on the same day. Can you take me through what happened?
T: When we first started skating it we were ollieing it and Dylan broke his tail, and he had to set up a new board, and I was already locked in trying my trick.

D: For some reason it’s really hard for me to ollie stairs, and when I stuck an ollie I broke my board. I had to set up a new one, and by time I had the new board set up Toby was already sticking his nollie backside flip, so I hadn’t even tried a single fakie flip at that point. I went back up to throw another ollie but he was sticking every attempt, so I was letting him take my tries. He ends up landing it, rolls away perfectly and hugs Jim [Thiebaud]. It was great.

T: I did it, and this is super rare but the cops came and kicked us out. Dylan was sticking it, but we had to put the whole ramp back in the U Haul. It’s such a chore to skate the spot. Dylan’s like “Dude, I’m going to have to come back next week and figure it out.” and I’m like, “Nah, we’ll just come back tomorrow.”

“Fakie flip is way more fucked, especially fakie to fakie.”

D: The next morning I went back to try again. The first day was windy and cold, and the next day we got there and there’s literally no wind, no clouds in the sky, like the perfect conditions. Toby probably could have done it 10x easier in the weather that I had. I ended up trying it for like two hours, probably 100 tries. I couldn’t get my feet set up, since you have to roll off the roof into the ramp. I could get my foot into a fakie ollie position but I could never get my heel far enough off the board to fakie flip. A lot of them I’d just revert, run down the stairs or miss my pop. It was those attempts where you know, right when you roll in, that you’re not going to be able to do it and you just have to jump down it, which is so draining.

T: He did break his board again that day, but other than that it was so chill. I think fakie flip is way more fucked, especially fakie to fakie.

D: Yeah, I stuck one and my tail broke and I hit my head. That stick was for sure the one that I felt like I was meant to do, so when it broke I thought I was going to have to come back again. But all the homies rushed in and helped set up a new board. I swear it was the quickest board setup ever, like it literally took two minutes and we had a whole board ready. The new board felt stiffer and it made it way easier, and the next one I stuck I rolled away. I wheelbit a little and it felt like I clipped, it wasn’t the best roll away, but I was so done trying. It was a miracle that I made it.

Dylan, why did you choose to fakie flip it and did you consider the fact that nobody had done a fakie trick down it before?
D: That trick is one of the tricks that is less scary for me to try down stairs. It’s really easy to see, like if you do a treflip it’s hard to know whether you should commit, but with a fakie flip it sticks to your feet and you can choose whether to commit to it or not. That was the main reason. I’m just really comfortable with that trick, but it also made me really nervous, because if nobody had skated it fakie I figured there’s probably a reason. When we got there they said they had just redone the ramp for someone to skate it nollie and they were clearing it really easy, so maybe the ramp was faster.

You guys skate together a lot. Was there any sense of competition over who could land their trick first?
T: Nah, he’s my close homie. We were just both hyped to skate it together and not alone.

D: I don’t think Toby thinks about shit like that. We were both just skating. I did see the comments like “Are you pissed that he one upped you?” It’s not really the type of skating that we like to watch or do, so it’s hard to say.

Two NBDs on Wallenberg. What was the celebration like?
T: The night I did it, I was so hyped, but I felt bad because Dylan was really stressed out. I wasn’t stressed for him though, I thought he was chilling. I was getting fucked up [laughs]. Jim gave us the company card, and he was like, “Go get whatever!” We went to this sushi place and I got the most expensive thing on the menu, this wagyu steak. The next day I was so hungover at Wallenberg early in the morning.

“Jim gave us the company card, and he was like, ‘Go get whatever!'”

I remember we went to Deluxe after too, and Jim was so hyped, he was like “Grab whatever for anything.” He was walking me around the warehouse like, “Get this, get that.” I got like baby clothes [laughs]. Jim was like “Hey, someone will have a baby.” We got so much shit, and had to wheel the product out on a dolly. It was like those old Product Pillage videos.

D: I was so excited for Toby but so nervous for myself. That night I had so much anxiety and I was super quiet. Everyone’s hyped and I’m just so sore, thinking about skating that shit tomorrow. It was cool though, a classic celebration meal. I had never had something like that. The night I did it we just drove home [laughs].

Would you ever try another trick in the future?
D: Maybe. I know everyone wants someone to switch treflip it. There was the theory that Shane O’Neill had done it, and I think a lot of people have tried, so I think that’s the only one that’s really worth doing.

T: Realistically, probably not, but maybe just a straight nollie flip.

What’s your personal favorite trick to have ever gone down on the spot?
T: I’d go with the classic. [Andrew] Reynolds backside flip.

D: That Reynolds backside flip, specifically the rolling long lens angle of him doing the backside flip. That one makes me feel the most out of anything that has been done there. Or Shane’s nollie backside heel. I used to watch that part a lot as a kid.

So out of all the OG, legendary spots like Wallenberg, is there another spot of that caliber that you’d want to skate?
D: I don’t know if I’m a huge fan of going to these spots and doing NBDs, even though it is cool to get your name in the history books or whatever, but I don’t know. That’s not really my goal. Carlsbad Gap would have been really sick to have skated. We live really close to there, and I never got to skate it.

T: I wish the Carlsbad Gap was still around. It’s like right next to my house.

Interviews by: Ben Komins
Photos by: Bailey Schreiner
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