For the third year running, hundreds of skateboarders descended on San Francisco’s Dolores Park last Thursday and gleefully threw themselves down one of the most famous hills in the city at reckless speeds. Some take the crowded Mission District hill on BMX bikes, some rip with no hands, and many tumble along the way.
“Everyone was seeking maximum brutality of epic proportions,” a skater who made the trip down from Sacramento told SFGate. Sounds about right.
In 2017, a similarly sized group assembled to bomb the hill, and San Francisco police cracked down hard. One officer bodychecked 19-year-old skater Anthony Economus into a patrol car, and cops later used rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. This year, the event was once again not permitted, but the police still let everyone skate unmolested. At least one person suffered a serious injury: Tomo Skate Co. founder Tomoko Oikawa fell and is currently hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. Many others fell at high speeds.
One stubborn car made its way down Dolores during the chaos and was pelted with beers. Facebook baron Mark Zuckerberg owns a fancy house not far from the top of the hill bomb; hopefully he was home when all of this went down.