I found this spot while walking around the neighborhood in Luecidia, a town within the city of Encinitas. It’s a brand new building that is currently vacant, with a few drainage ditches that go from the street to the parking lot. I thought nothing of it and figured some skateboarder would enjoy doing it, but a few weeks later I drove by again and saw a dumpster on site. I figured that over the weekend I could move the dumpster into position and try out the spot.

As it worked out, Hayden Ball had just moved back into the area. I called him up early on Sunday and planned to meet up. I told Hayden about what I had found and he was down to help me move the dumpster into position. We both decided we would skate it sometime later in the day, after we were warmed up. Though Hayden was skeptical that the obstacle was worth the effort and eminent danger of missing one’s foot and falling into the dumpster. Then we met up with the Santee guys at San Dieguito High School. When we were finished sessioning at the school, it was time to head back to the the spot we’d prepped.

When we got there Damien was not feeling it, Nick thought it was cool but didn’t think he could do anything worth a clip, and Lyle, well, he doesn’t skate that kind of stuff. So Hayden threw on his skates and decided to at least give it a try.

His first back royale was easy, so he stepped it up to a backside backslide, and then pushed it one step further with a fishbrain. But he landed forward. After seeing the back royale I started to shoot a few photos with my new SU-800 as the command and my SB-600 facing the dumpster to capture Hayden. Then he threw down another backside backslide and a perfect topsoul, but I wasn’t feeling my lens. I decided to switch my lens from my manual 50mm prime to my 70-200mm and told Hayden to get that fishbrain. Unfortunately, Hayden missed his fishbrian, catching his topside foot in the dumpster and his grabbed foot outside the dumpster, making him fall hard onto his elbow and side. He got up a bit dazed and pissed that he had busted up his elbow. Checking the resulting photo, I caught him right as his foot slipped into the dumpster. I thought it would be a huge ice but Hayden kept shredding and pulling the whole rest of the day, stacking clips for his profile in the SHOCK video. — Steve Steinmetz