Star Maps: World Savings Rail

MackenzieeisenhourNovember 29, 2025 22 min read

Words: Mackenzie Eisenhour

The World Savings rail was located at the entrance of Brentwood and West LA—just west of the 405, Westwood and VA grounds. It was one of those spots everybody knew but very few stepped to. I had lived near it since I arrived in LA from Europe back in ‘94. The rail itself—removed during the early ‘00s, before the space was entirely remodeled around 2020—was long (10 extended stairs) but was also a somewhat friendly-seeming large silver round bar. The spot, covered in red bricks and perched above Wilshire, always looked and felt so epic in footage and photos. As far as rails go, she was a looker. The building (11601 Wilshire) sits on the corner of Wilshire and Federal/San Vicente, across the street from the VA and catty corner to the West LA Army Reserve (also home to the fenced off West LA ‘Army Ditch’). Throughout the ‘90s the building’s façade was affixed with a massive WORLD SAVINGS (Bank) sign across it, hence the spot’s name. Let’s take a look back at the skistory*.

Guy Mariano, Noseslide, Tim & Henry’s Pack of Lies, Blind (’92)

The rail rocketed to stardom in ‘92 when Guy opened up his clips in Tim & Henry’s (’92 by Blind/Socrates Leal) with one of the first long-distance noseslides on a handrail. This was shocking to me at the time. I had never seen someone sit on a noseslide, let alone down a massive rail. It went from a trick you just dinged to being fully locked in, standing on it. Guy has since credited Gonz with unlocking longer noseslides but this one was a doozy in a video chock full of NBDs. Jed Walters (RIP) BGPs.

Rick Howard, Caveman-to-Slam and Farewell Kiss, Virtual Reality, Plan B(’93)
“Bah Bo Bah Bo” The first two Plan B videos were so influential that pretty much every word spoken, spot skated, and trick done was immediately memorized (and yelled at skate sessions). Included in those memorizations would be Rick Howard closing out his Virtual part blowing a kiss (post Helihop) from the marble block on the western end of the World Savings building, then opening the slam section with a caveman-to-slam on the rail as Tony Fergusson cheers from the sidelines.

Daniel Haney, 50-50 and lipslide, Welcome to Hell, Toy Machine (’96) Haney arrived in West LA and joined the Hot Rod Skateshop crew right around ’95. He immediately put a wrecking on every rail in the greater LA area—earning himself the nickname “Danrail” and landing a spot on Foundation. Included in that barrage, his 50-50 and lipslide at World Savings closed out the Jefferson Airplane adorned Friends section in WTH before Dan went back and redid both tricks for his ’97 Duty Now for The Future, Foundation part. Read his full interview below.

Joe Pham, 50-50, Acme ad, TWS back cover April ’96 and 411 Best of #3 (’96)

One of the first things to pop into my head when I thought of this rail is this Joe Pham Acme ad of a 50-50 that ran on the back cover of the April ’96 issue. That was a pretty heavy 50-50 to drop as an unknown back then. He looked so casual on the rail and I even like the ACME mosaic logo against that red brick. This story took a darker turn when I reached out to Barrett Loose (former Aesthetics filmer) and Chris Roberts to brainstorm for this article they both mentioned that Joe had also tried to 5-0 the World Savings rail that same day—only to seriously injure himself/knock himself out. I tracked down 411 Best of #3 and sure enough, along with Joe’s clean looking clips in the Chaos section (Joe’s footage starts at 40:03), including footage of the 50-50, the video ends and fades to black after Joe’s cringe-inducing slam on a 5-0 attempt. I hope you have since recovered and are doing well wherever you may be Joe.

Rick Howard, FS Boardslide, Mouse (’96) and TWS April 1997

After the slam in Virtual, Rickk returned with Skin Phillips and Tim Dowling (BGPs) in ’96 to get a frontside boardlside. This clip always hits with the War song in his part in Mouse and obviously Skin is one of the best skate photographers of all time so you knew this photo would go. I like that Tim is actually in the photo as he did seem like the official filmer for all West LA/Santa Monica in that Listen era. Is that a Hi-8 VX?

Ben Beasely, Back 50-50 back 180, Too Loud for the Crowd (’98), 151

Ben was a Santa Monica/West LA local that Eric Dressen had taken under his wing. Ben had/has the best 5-0s to fakie I ever saw. So much so that I copied his technique and owe him to this day just for that. Ben was the only person I know of to get a clip on the curved ledge to the side of the World Savings rail in the ’98 151 video Too Loud for the Crowd.

Chris Roberts, Almost switch frontside noseslide (’99)

See full interview below. This was West LA folklore to some degree and I believe Chris spoke about his attempts in a German magazine at the time. Broad strokes—he went to the rail with Tim Dowling and possibly Ben Beasely to film a switch front nose, slid the trick almost all the way down, popped off only to twist his ankle on the stairs. By the time he healed up to try it again the rail had been removed.

Chad Muska, Tailslide-to-Fakie, Feedback (’99)

By ’99, Chad Muska was the new sheriff in town and no rail was safe. For his legendary part in Feedback—scored to his own Muskabeatz—in addition to Arco, the UCLA double-kinker, the VA rail, the super steep Westwood rail, the Bundy Hubba, OG Venice Hubba, “the day” in AZ and the rest—Chad tailslides the F out of World Savings (to fakie) at night going Mach 10.

Mark Gonzales, Intro to his part, Kicked Out of Everywhere (’99)

“Does it seem gnarly? It’s a big Ollie. Like, that’s big. I don’t know why I thought it was short cakes. I thought I was gonna 50-50 it and do another trick. Hello! It’s hard. You’re recording me bitch.” I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Gonz had done tricks on this without even documenting them in the ‘80s. This rail sits right in the same zone as the Federal Building rail he and Natas boardslid in ’86. But for Real’s ’99 video, his part opens with his monologue there. Verdict: Not short cakes.

Elijah Berle, 50-gap-50-gap-50, No Other Way (‘16), Vans

Cut to ‘16. The main rail was removed around ’00, however the brick ground and similar flatbars with the same thick round bar still ran along the edge of the building, leading down towards the big marble block Rick Howard had blown the kiss from. In Vans’ No Other Way, Elijah Berle, son of the Westside, pays homage to Guy, Muska, Rickk and the rest with a nollie flip up the sidewalk, 50-gap-50-gap-50 across three of the flatbars, before a wallie up the Rickk block.

Walker Ryan, Switch backside flip, Wilshire Wonderland (’19)

In ’19, the building got a full remodel and any remnants of the OG bricks and spot are now gone. Even the stairwell in front has been blocked off and there is now a café up top (Bluestone has decent espresso). But with every new remodel comes new spots. Walker Ryan took full advantage and switch backside flipped off the new sign onto the sidewalk in his Wilshire Wonderland part.

Chris Roberts, Switch Frontside Noseslide attempts,
World Savings Rail, circa ‘99
Full Interview:

ME: I had always heard this rumor that you tried a switch front nose down World Savings. I think there was a German magazine that asked you about it back then maybe?
Chris Roberts: Yeah, basically I went there with Tim Dowling and tried to film it. I was well into switch front noses at the time. I was practicing sitting on them on the beach ledge, courthouse stage, everywhere I could go switch front noseslide.

Was this like Listen days?
I’m really bad with time periods, but I would say around that time. Actually maybe a bit later.

Barrett was saying like ‘98/’99. Something like that maybe.
Ok yeah, that sounds about right. I went there with Tim and I was getting into it. Got down to maybe the third or fourth stair from the bottom, you know how they were longer stairs.

Yeah, and they're sharp as fuck too.
Yeah, I don't know how many stairs it is in total. Maybe you know?

It was a long ten-stair.
OK, so I got to like the 3rd or 4th stair from the bottom, like almost to the bottom. Slid it a few times. Then bailed one of them and my ankle caught one of the stairs. Kind of turned my ankle and couldn't try it anymore. Right then also I remember the security guard walking out right after I sprained it. And then I waited for my ankle to heal up. I wanted to go back and get it. Waited and waited and waited and then as soon as the ankle was better, they tore out the rail (laughs). So it was never meant to be I guess.

At first glance the rail looked sort of friendly, but then I mean, obviously I never stepped to it.
Yeah, it's not friendly.

Coming out of it looked gnarly, like landing into the downhill rollaway to Wilshire.
I had actually asked Tim if he had the footage of the attempts. I think he did maybe try to look for it a little bit but with no luck. I'm sure he has like 50,000 DV tapes. He probably wasn’t marking bails either. I think at the time we thought we would just go back and get it. But I really wanted the footage just to have it.

Yeah, hopefully he finds it.
The thing about that rail was that it was fat. So it kind of acted like a ledge in a way. It was like skating a big double-sided ledge. That’s the way I was picturing it when I was rolling up to it.

Was the Guy noseslide in your mind too?
I mean for sure. I was hyped on all that shit. I even think Rick’s front board was before that too. All of that was huge to me. When did Muska do the tailslide?

Guy Mariano — *Guy’s noseslide in Tim & Henry’s (’92).*

Feedback, so around ’99. I think Muska had the last big clip before it was gone.
Ok, that makes sense, because I think it was a little after Listen thenwhen I tried it. Whenever they took the rail out was when I tried it. And I don’t remember being hurt at all during Listen. So it was when I was already on Chocolate. That makes more sense because I remember people at the time saying like, “Oh you’ll turn pro for sure if you get that.”

I think we all heard about it at the time and just the idea of it, because it was you and you were a ledge skater, we all wanted to root for the non-rail chompers.
Laughs.

Even as your friend, I think I wanted it to go down when I read that German mag interview.
(Laughs). Dude, I was ready to go back and do it and they fucking tore that goddamn thing out. I don't know the dates can be a little shaky though. I mean even Tim (Dowling) might now know a little bit better what the timeframe was.

Did you know where that rail was when you saw Tim & Henry’s?
In ’92? No, not yet. I started skating in ’91 and really didn’t venture out into Santa Monica and West LA until a couple of years later. So there was no way I would have known yet.

I just remember I had never really seen anyone sit on a noseslide like that. And that rail was fat almost like a ledge for slides so it seemed unique.
There was also the dude who got really fucked up on that thing. I think he tried to 5-0 it.

Yeah, Joe Pham. Barrett mentioned him too.
I think he got like permanent damage from the slam. That was what I heard. It was in a video too I believe.

Yeah, I found it in a 411. It’s harsh to watch. Bad news bears.
I remember it being just bad. He flipped over on his head. I hope he’s okay wherever he is today.

Agreed. Hope you are good Joe. Elijah hit it after they took the main rail out for his Vans part (’16). He goes like East to West on Wilshire and hits the three bars.
I do remember that.

Then Walker (Ryan) switch backside flipped off the new sign in his Wilshire part. You’ve seen the spot now right?
Oh yeah, it’s like unrecognizable. Well thanks for bringing up these bad memories and tricks that got away from me (laughs). Just trying to have a nice rainy Friday here.

Honestly, I remember I was rooting for you on that one hard.
I appreciate it dude. I think this might have been the first time I actually got on my hands and knees and actually prayed that Tim Dowling would find the footage (laughs). Without the footage, it’s all lore you know? I did this. I did that. And then there’s no footage. It was just me and Dowling and maybe that dude Ben Beasely was there.

Ben actually has a clip there in the 151 video. He back 50s the curved ledge on the side to back 180.
Oh shit. I don’t remember that. Yeah Ben. I just remember sliding that bitch. Getting all the way down, the ankle twisting, and the security guard coming out right then, and thinking like, “Couldn’t you have come out like two seconds earlier? I would have been good.”

You were the man for the job that’s for sure. The ones you did on the stage to fakie and straight were so locked.
I was practicing them because I knew I wanted to go there. Every beach seesion, every ledge, I was just sitting on them.

Maybe this will get Tim to find the footage.
It’s okay either way. It’s funny you called about this because I’m actually working on a video of my old skate footage, like growing up home bro-cam footage of us skating in Malibu and Santa Monica. From ’92 onwards.

I think the first time I heard about you must have been around ’94 at UCLA. Meter told me like, “There’s this dude Chris that can straight nollie heel into the fountain.”
Which is crazy because those dudes like Koston were already fakie flipping into it.

I know, but they were like Gods at that point. With you, it was like “One of us can do it too!”
Right, right. Like, “Oh this local kid can do it..” That’s hilarious.

Well thanks for reminiscing with me Chris.
Of course. Anything you ever need Mackenzie. Feel free to holler.

Daniel Haney
World Savings Rail
50-50 and Lipslide
Welcome to Hell (’96), Duty Now for Future (’97), and Duck Cinema (’97)

How are you feeling? You back in Arkansas?
I’m good. Yeah, I spend the spring and fall here.

Not a bad life, right?
No man, it's a really good life like honestly. Obviously, there are still things I would like to happen here and there in life but when I stop for a minute and take some stock, you know, it’s not a bad landing.

So the World Savings handrail—I feel like it was central to like our neighborhood like it sat on the hill there, kinda epic. Do you remember seeing for the first time?
Yeah dude, I feel like that was one of the most recognizable spots. I didn't live on that side of town in the beginning. I lived in Hollywood, but just moving through LA and starting to see the stuff that I wanted to see that was high on the list. We actually lived right near that curved rail at the church on Sunset. That was like a block from my house. That was another Guy (Mariano) rail. He switch noseslid that one (footage was in the credits to New World Order [‘93]). He had the switch noseslide on that one and had done the noseslide down World Savings a year before.

Daniel Haney — *Daniel smith grinds the curved church rail of Guy fame in his Duty Now for Future part (‘97).*

Definitely two pivotal rails in skate history.
Exactly, so that World Savings rail stood out in my mind. Both of those noseslides were huge to me. Guy Mariano had a lot to do with it too, from the very beginning. From the first time we saw him in Ban This (’89). He was like our size and our age. Some of the other guys from that era were older, to me at least. But to see Guy killing it as a little kid, just like us at the time, it meant a lot.

I talked to Chris Roberts about trying to switch front noseslide it. He was saying the shape of the rail—that fat round bar made feel it almost like a double-sided ledge.
To be honest, that fat round bar made it way harder to grind. Grinding that thing was like standing on a balancing beam. I’d way rather grind a skinny round rail where you can cross-lock and all that. Maybe for noseslides and boardslides it was friendlier. I lipslid it, but the height was the biggest challenge with that. It was high to get on.
Was 50-50 the first trick you got there?
Yeah, I got 50-50 first. I remember practicing and getting really good at 50-50s at the Jack-in-the-Box on Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood. It had that big fat round flatbar.

Hell yes. I think that spot is still there. I see kids from Stoner hitting it now.
I would go there and grind that thing pretty consistently. It was pretty high too. In my mind it was comparable to the World Savings rail.

Where you pretty well on your way to crushing every rail in LA by then or was this still early on?
I feel like it was still early on. I remember going there with (Chris) Ortiz to shoot it. It was the first time I had shot with Ortiz. So it was still in the beginning of my time in the spotlight. I don’t think he knew who I was.

He was like the 411 guy and seemed like he shot like every photo/ad in TWS.
He got there, I was already trying it and he didn’t even get his camera out. It was really hard on my psyche (laughs). I remember thinking like, “What am I doing here? I’m about to grind this thing and once I do it, I don’t want to do it again.”

Is this like ’95?
I think 1995. Maybe early ’96.

Were the clips in Welcome to Hell the first times you 50-50d and lipslid it?
Was the lipslide in Welcome to Hell too?

Yeah, it ends the Friends section.
Okay, so yes, that was definitely the first time I did it. That footage might have even been from my sponsor-me-tape. Duty for the Future Now was afterwards right? So those Welcome to Hell clips were one of the first big things I got.

Welcome to Hell was such a monumental video. I thought it was gnarly at the time that you got to close out the Friends section as an unknown am—especially on that rail. To me that was the Guy rail so it had even more weight.
It was totally the Guy rail to me too.

Had you also seen the Rick Howard footage there from Virtual Reality?
Yeah, I definitely recognized it from that too. He does like the little fish thing and flops around on the ground (laughs). But nothing stood out to me more than the Guy noseslide. Certain things just blow your mind. It was next level shit.

Do you remember the actual day getting the clips or was it just in the mix somewhere?
I think I wound up skating that thing on the regular. I got pretty comfortable with it. So it wound up in like three different videos (laughs). It was in the Foundation video.

I saw that you are wearing a whole different outfit and you definitely refilmed it for that.
Exactly, I think even a different day there is also in Duck Cinema (’97 by Darryl Grogan). I would skate that rail pretty often and whoever was there filming would film it.

Did you ever try anything else on it?
I tried to back 50-50 it and could never get it. Honestly, that was one of the first disappointments in skateboarding for me. Up to that point, I felt like I was on a roll. I would claim something and I would be able to go follow it up. I’d go do it. I claimed the back 50 and went and tried and got fucking served. It was just so tall for me. To get up on there backside, and then also be in a position to balance on it the whole way down—it just did me in.

Those stairs were super sharp too. I don’t know if you saw there was this Acme am named Joe Pham, he famously had the back cover of TransWorld 50-50ing it. But in 411 they showed him trying to 5-0 it and just taking the heaviest slam. Roberts and Barrett had heard that it was like a serious injury or concussion.
I remember Joe Pham. I heard about that actually one of the times I went to skate it. It might have been (Chris) Ortiz who told me.

Yeah, Ortiz is there I’m pretty sure in the slam footage. What did he say?
Dude, I like Ortiz now. But at the time I thought he was kind of a dick. It felt like he was very dismissive of me. Almost elitist in the very beginning. But I think I was about to skate it and he’s like “Oh, by the way, so-and-so nearly died here busting his head.” I was like, “I’m about to grind this thing and your telling me about someone that almost died?” It was kind of under his breath like, “You think you’re hot shit? So did this other guy…”

He might have honestly been traumatized from watching Joe’s slam.
I’m sure I was just young too and hearing it differently. Ortiz, if you read this I still love you but you seemed like a dick in the beginning (laughs). But I think as far as Joe Pham I think that was the ender for his skating days. I think that ended it. I talked to somebody else about it and I guess that kid had gotten really good at rails by then.

Yeah, he has clips in that 411 before the slam and he 5-0s UCI and just looks super casual on a bunch of rail tricks.
It might even have been Ortiz who was telling me he was really good and that this rail had done him in. All I was thinking was like, maybe tell me that after the session (laughs).

Your worst slam was on the back 50?
Yeah, other than that I might have tweaked an ankle trying to run out on the stairs. Luckily, though I don’t remember anything super heavy. I think on one of the lipslides I got both legs on one side of the rail and kind of flipped out of it.

Lipslide seems so gnarly to commit to. I don't see how you would get out if anything goes wrong.
I agree with you 100% and that's how both my feet wound up on one side of that tall son of a bitch. But it's funny man like when I look back, like who I am now and how my body feels now—I was like a little rubber monkey back then, dude (laughs). It almost seemed like it didn't matter what happened I could just roll out on my hands or whatever was needed to get out in one piece.

It's crazy that you survived all your escapades. You went hard.
So crazy. I look at some of it now and just think like, “That would break me in half if it happened today.” Like every bone in my body would break. I’d just be liquid.

Meanwhile somebody like Joe Pham, it can be one slam and it’s done. You went at so many dangerous looking spots and rails, took heavy slams but somehow came away more or less unscathed.
I don’t know how it works. Life is a trip. I’m grateful I guess that I got to do all that and walk away.

You saw the Muska tailslide I assume. What did you think when you saw that? It seemed like you, Muska and (Adam) McNatt had a little big rail battle going, with that curved rail downtown and then just sort of rail fever in general at that point.
If Muska or McNatt thought that I was competition that would have been a huge compliment to me (laughs). I might have been chasing them a little bit. I looked up to them of course. They had both been around for some time by then. As far as the downtown curved rail, I think Muska 50-50d it first, then McNatt, then myself.

To back 180.
(Laughs) Yeah, at that point it was just to keep it from being ABD (laughs).

What did you think when you saw that Muska tailslide?
Hadn’t Rick Howard already front boarded it by then?

Yeah. Three years before in Mouse.
I think to me that was the gnarlier one. That stands out to me so much more. Rick isn’t a rail skater but he did it so perfect. I mean, if you’re talking Muska FS tailslides too, I mean he did some gnarlier ones in my opinion. That crazy kinked Hubba he front tailed that’s like neck high. There is some other shit that Chad did that stands out more in my mind than that tailslide. But for Rick to get that, I was blown away. Not only is that a really gnarly trick, I mean your back is to the stairs the whole time, but it’s Rick Howard. I mean by then he’s a company owner. He doesn’t need to be putting it all on the line like that. But he did and that’s fucking crazy—he’s going to the gnarliest spot and doing something nobody else has done.

*Skistory, Eduskate, and all sk-prefixed words are registered trademarks of Nathanial Sherwood.

** Shout out to my friend Benny aka @gumbafosco who was/is a longtime Stoner local and worked a security guard gig at this building circa ‘22. I told you I’d show you all the skate history there. Hopefully this article does the trick. Sorry it took so long Benny.