Pipe Fiends: A Visual Overdose of Canada's Most Infamous Skate Spot

The 1976 Olympics left Montreal with the Big O, a huge bill to pay, and a mystical concrete tunnel known as the Pipe, a blessing to all skateboarders.

Pipe Fiends is about a legendary skate spot at Montreal's Olympic stadium. Who would have imagined the concrete tunnel leading to the Big O's outdoor track and field area would become a temple for Montreal's heart-filled skaters, and a canvas for writers, bombers, and especially chicken-scratch toys? The Pipe's destiny was inevitable. The proof is in the movement. One of the flukiest things in the history of skateboarding, the Pipe has amazed and uplifted thousands of skaters to this day. It has been in tons of magazines and videos, and many skate crews have rolled through town and hit it in awe.

With eye-popping photography and artwork, mini-interviews and epic quotes, this book celebrates the Pipe's origins, history, and the locals who can't get enough of its energy,their gatherings and camaraderie, and even their inspiring clean-up missions. Pipe Fiends features some of the most skilled tricks (and bails) that have been performed over the years by local legends and world-renowned skaters, and captivating testimonies from the crews that have called it home for decades give a firsthand view of the gnar things that went down on wooden toys.

2006 marks the Pipe's 30th anniversary, the perfect moment to honor this structure and the community it supports. Designed for artistic value with mass appeal, the Pipe has evolved from an abandoned natural phenomenon into a mecca for underground skaters of the world . . . One Love.

Photography by:

Dan Mathieu (Montreal); Judah Oakes (Vancouver); Jody Morris (California); Felix Faucher (Montreal); Pierre Alain Parfond (France-Montreal); Diana Day (Vancouver); Guy Levesque (Montreal); Louis "Ludwig" Corbeil (Montréal) . . . and many others