Brick rattling memories of San Francisco’s skateboarding golden age

In Downtown San Francisco, where Market Street meets the Bay, lies one of skateboarding history’s most important sites. With smooth red bricks blanketing the floor and uneven concrete stair pyramids, the Embarcadero Plaza – or EMB to those with boards – was a focal gathering point in the street skating revolution that began at the beginning of the ​’90s. It’s where the likes of Mark Gonzales and Mike Carroll pushed the boundaries of what was possible on a board, while the ​‘Streets’ level from Tony Hawk Pro Skater was modelled on its unique layout.

“You’d go there and hear the bricks and people rolling around. You can’t explain it to someone who didn’t grow up going there and hearing it,” explains filmmaker and photographer Jacob Rosenberg. ​“The concrete is very heavy, so the grind is a real specific sound, and then it’s framed by these buildings, so it sounds kind of like an arena – it wrapped around you. Nothing else sounds like that, and then the bells [from the nearby Ferry Building] go off – it’s a very emotional place for many of us, and there’s a lot of nostalgia and meaning to it.”

Most of all though, EMB was where most of the city’s skaters congregated to socialise, pull tricks and generally pass time. In 1989, Rosenberg had begun travelling up to San Francisco from his family home in Palo Alto, and EMB was one of his most frequented terminuses. He’d become obsessed with skateboarding when he was 13 years old, subscribing to Thrasher and TransWorld, and realised that something special was happening there.

• Read next: Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ​’70s San Francisco

“We would take the train up to San Francisco and skate across to EMB,” he recalls. ​“At that time, you really knew about it because it had this one thing called The Wave, which was this half circle that you could carve. And because this was the transition from skateparks to street, it was a mystical, mysterious thing that made you interested in it.”

He began bringing his camera, and began shooting skaters for magazines, as well as an early camcorder, which he used to capture footage. He’d do so for the next few years, documenting the entirety of the EMB’s golden age between 1989 and 1993. Now, nearly four decades since he first began visiting the plaza, Rosenberg revisits it in a new two book set EPICENTER, which presents photographs and video stills in a nostalgic, electric throwback to its brick rattling, concrete grinding heyday.

Featured are key characters of the scene, from the aforementioned Carroll to Jovontae Turner 360 flipping the concrete stairs, as well as baby-faced shots of Rick Ibaseta, James Kelch and others. Across its spreads, EPICENTER forms a time capsule, filled with ​’90s attitude and throwback style. And in an accompanying book alongside the photos and stills, it also features contextualising text, including a roundtable discussion with Ibaseta, Kelch and Carroll, as well as interviews with the likes of artist Eric Merrell – who created two paintings to commemorate the plaza – and Steve ​“Shrewgy” Ruge, an early sponsor of key skaters in the scene.

• Read next: Catharsis and downhill madness in Medellín’s skate scene

EMB as a spot ultimately became a ​“bust” after 1993, after graffiti was found inside a hotel overlooking the plaza. Police presence quickly intensified in the area, and skateboarders were pushed out to other areas of the city. Soon after, the nearby Silicon Valley grew into the world’s tech centre, pushing property prices in San Francisco through the roof, changing the city’s landscape forever.

And now, it looks as if EPICENTER will be one of the last remaining artefacts that survives EMB. In April 2025, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the redevelopment of Embarcadero Park. With around $40 million committed to funding, the brick plaza that skaters have loved for decades is set to disappear.

“People are conflicted, but things change,” says Rosenberg. ​“Though the stairs and fountain are still there, the original spot is gone, and all the ledges that made it EMB are gone. People also feel like there needs to be some acknowledgement of the history, or some sort of skateable thing that needs to be incorporated into the future as a way of saying that this was important to skateboarding in the past.”

• Read next: The story of Latraac Skate Café, where tracks and tricks collide

It was this news that drove Rosenberg to dive into his archive in the first place. But although it focuses on the people and tricks of EMB, it also captures one of the few consistencies in a city that has constantly been in flux – skateboarding. ​“San Francisco’s always had this edge, because it’s gnarly at its core, especially in the early ​’90s,” Rosenberg says. ​“And although the city has faced gentrification, skaters are hungry to be against the grain. Skateboarding never left San Francisco after EMB. It went over to Pier 7, or went to Fort Miley, or places where skaters have always been.

“If you look at OG San Francisco skaters like Chico Brenes, or the GX1000 guys who are hill bombing the gnarliest hills, they’ve remained, and that’s the raddest statement,” he continues. ​“It reflects this attitude where they don’t give a shit about these other components going on in the city, and that’s inspiring.”

EPICENTER by Jacob Rosenberg is available to purchase from his official website. A corresponding exhibition at GCS Agency, 201 Jackson St. & 100 California St., San Francisco is on view through January 22, with a closing reception featuring Rosenberg, Ted Barrow, Mike Carroll and Greg Carroll.

Isaac Muk is Huck’s digital editor. Follow him on Bluesky.

Buy your copy of Huck 82 here.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.

Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.