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Video: Skateboarder Bombs Down Echo Park's Baxter Street
L.A.'s notoriously steep Baxter Street was just schooled by a skateboarder who took a gnarly ride down the epic hill.
While San Francisco get a lot of buzz for their ridiculous hills, Los Angeles is actually home to four of the steepest streets in the country, all of which actually beat out our neighbors to the north. (Shhh, don't tell them.) And Baxter Street, which runs through Echo Park and Silver Lake, is one of our most brutal.
With a 32 percent street grade and rollercoaster-like ride, Baxter has been challenging bicycles, cars, limos, buses and delivery trucks since it was devilishly engineered in 1872. And while some might cower at the sight of Baxter (or look for an alternate route), the epically steep hill merely stood as an invitation to pro-skateboard Don "The Nuge" Nguyen to take on the challenge of bombing down the hill on his board.
As you'll see in the video—or as you may know by experience—Baxter is not only dizzyingly steep, but is also viciously craggy. But, no matter, The Nuge was determined. He even ignores the warning of a little girl in the back seat of a passing car who yells, "You're going to die!"
(You can jump to the 2:21 mark if you want to skip the build up):
Whoa. Now might be a good time to mention that in case any aspiring skaters are thinking of taking The Nuge challenge, not only is it obviously super risky, it also could be illegal. A city ordinance passed in 2012 made it illegal to "bomb" steep streets for failing to use the road safely. If busted, offenders could be fined $250, which would be a total bummer.
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