I’ve met plenty of heads at these fullpipes over the years but only a select few have actually skated them. Even fewer have tried a ‘trick’ in them. This is because they are way gnarlier than they look. For starters they’re 6 feet + off the ground (Manhead hid a picnic table round the back so he could climb back up each time he had to retrieve his board) and they are only about 3 feet wide. Add to this the zero-flat-bottom-get-dizzy-as-f*ck-in-5-seconds factor and the dread of flying out of the side 12 feet into mid air is a very real prospect. Local Newquay legend Harry Bray once graced the cover of Sidewalk many 10 bags ago with a kickflip to fakie. Other notable stunts include Rob Smith’s frontside 180 grabbed exit and Tom Shimmin’s fakie steeze out.

After a long day teaching kids at camp WESC, I dragged Manhead to this spot with the promise of ‘Fullpipes’. I’m not sure he was too stoked when we got there! He definitely wanted to go further up the transition and pop higher, but the inexorable Cornish darkness encroached on his contact lenses.