BIRLOUT
POTENZA
While Rome burned, Nero fiddled, and when
California goes up, the locals tear it down.
Yes, it absolutely sucks that so much was lost
In recent fires throughout our drought-stricken
state of gold. Yes, I feel sorry for its victims.
And yes, all those abandoned pools were
screaming to be skated. So when no one was
looking a few brave skaters took down some
signs, climbed over some fences and made the
best of a bad situation. Here's what went down
in one particular town.
Week One (Post Fire)
Lotsa talk, little action.
"Yeah man, we should hit up those pools
sometime," was sald by everyone at least once
People had stood copingside.
We had to let the early post-disaster tensions
loosen up a little before anything was to be
skated. Besides, everything was still too hot up
there. Our urethane would have melted.
Week Two
Rumors of pools being found and skated
surfaced along with rumors of people getting
arrested for it. Utterances of "Dade, I hear it's
a bust," began to flood the air. Some people's
desire to skate gave way to a desire for a clean
police record. Difficulties finding a crew willing
to take the usual frespassing rap in exchange
for a few glorious moments in a pool plagued i
me. A few elite were skating.
but everyone else seemed to
have lost their balls on a
mini-ramp somewhere (not to
put down mini-ramps)."
Cheap excuses began getting
old: Lameness prevalled,
Week Three
Enough of this crap. I
secured some sketchy direc-
tions to a pool that had sup-
posedly been skated and
used that as a starting point
for my own reconnaissance.
I found myself up in the
fillls north of town cruisin'
around pretending to ignore
the suspicious stares from people who had
taken it upon themselves to protect the dirt
lots, burnt embers and all the other valuables
left by the fire. More than once as I stood
poolside, cars slowed down, vibed and sped up
again. I felt so much safer just knowing that a
bunch of parasolds with nothing better to do
were roaming the streets in their Oldsmobile
station wagons making the world a better place
to live in, Fortunately, the fences some of these
same people put up around their pools made
for nice beacons. They guided me right to
couple of worthy bowls that I would normally
have missed because they were set back from
the road. So in the end, paranola worked to
our benefit.
It was the luck of the dumb that led me to the
first of several pools that would send me into
seizures. A fat truck was trying to turn around
in front of me, so instead of sitting in my car
and pissing and moaning about it, I decided to
check out the immediate area.
"Ek-Ok-Erk-Eep-D-Oooooh!" would best
describe my reaction. She was smooth. She
was clean. She was beautiful. She had the
marks of previous jams and would most
certainly be getting some new ones. She also
had a next door neighbor who, although not as
clean, was definitely worth a little effort to
make her so.
Someone approached me. They had an
think I'll give this guy some crap" look on their
face. So I tore myself away in search of more
terrain. I'd have to wait until nighttime before I
could partake in this roller wonderland.
More pools, some had muck, some were
square some had been skated, and then there
were perfect virgins just waiting for me to
corrupt them. More suspicious stares from
people passing by. I guess they thought I was
going to steal some ashes, or maybe try to walk
off nonchalantly with a pool in my pocket. I
headed home and waited for a chance to strike.
Leaving those pools unskated was probably
one of the hardest things I've ever done. The
next couple hours(or maybe it was nine
eternides), I just sat there and resisted spon-
taneous combustion.
My roommate, lan got home just as the sun
was leaving the sky.
"Sup lan? How was work? Wanha go devir
ginize some pools?" Nothing more sald,
In a blur of boards, pads and pent-up aggres-
sion, we found ourselves at our first pool.
Some skaters were already there just staring
over the fence
What up, skated it yet?"
I don't know broh, I hear it's a fifty dollar
ticket or thirty hours of community service if
you get caught. Besides, someone put water in
the bottom."
"Screw it, I'll pay
lan and Phopped the fence and proceeded to
carve around the Insignificant puddle in the
bottom of the bowl that someone had decided
would be a deterrent to scum ke us. We gave
ourselves the usual cop-response time limit of
fifteen minutes. We added our wheel marks to
the collection already there and moved on.
We drove around looking in some places that
I hadn't checked earlier. Someone in a truck
followed us and when we stopped, turned
around. Probably to go home and complain.
lan gave his opinion of the pool paranola
scene; "Man, I want someone to say shit.
People don't even think about why we can't
skate. If we asked them why, they'd just stand
there going 'Uhhhh!""
We came across a right kidney begging us to
leave our marks. Under the fence and Into the
cement abyss. The moonlight barely lit the tight
transitions, which whipped us up onto the vert
faster than we could say, "Gee whiz, this pool
has tight transitions!" We forgot our time limit
and tamed those walls for about an hour. No
police ever came.
Some time later, kickin' it at a local rager, a
whispered conversation between myself and
some pool jammers floated through the air.
One of them showed me a blurb from the local
paper that he had attached to his skate. It said
something to the effect of: "A local man found
his pool drained and covered with strange
marks early this morning. It is suspected that
young juveniles drained his pool for the
purpose of skateboarding."
Plans were made to hit some pools, maybe
even go up in a plane for some real looking.
Hours, or maybe even days later found me
rolling with Frankie and Kit. After the usual
street spots began getting old,
the obvious solution popped
out of someone's mouth.
Let's go find a pool.
Back in the world of cinder
and ash, we came, we saw,
we carved.
We stumbled onto another
beauty at the same time as.
some other wayward rollers.
Hurry up and climb the
fence before the police see
us, someone said.
We were in and we were
skating not fifteen minutes
when someone that looked
more like a tourist than a
concemed citizen came out
Hey, any of you fellas know the owner of
this pool?"
NO.
"You know, I don't think you should be
skating it without having his permission.
The usual arguments ensued
"Man, we're just havin' fun. It won't harm the
pool, etc...
We left the pool with a little less coping, and
our trucks with a lede less metal, and this was
only the beginning of the coping casualties
So that's how it went and that's how it's still
going. I'd ke to say again that I sympathize
with the folks who lost everything in the burn. I
even met some skaters who lost their houses.
But remember next time disaster strikes your
town, try to keep a grin, get up and do what
you can to make a bad station better,