7:45 AM. The pool is finally drained as
I pull the pump up and out of the pool
and hand it back over the fence. I roll up
the 60-foot plastic hose as Oz uses the
cups of various sizes at the drain hole to
make sure the thing is totally dry and
ready for us when we get back. Man, is
the owner EVER gonna be pissed.
7:50 AM. We pull out of the drive-
we pai
way to meet our mutual friends at
our pre-arranged meeting place in
San Bernardino.
8:10 AM. I spot the rest of the crew at
the Del Taco parking lot and wonder
about taking three cars to every pool,
but it is Bob Barger day and nothing is
going to stop us; we're on a mission
from God.
8:20 AM. We pull into the driveway of
pool #1 and I notice that the house has
been freshly painted with a For Rent
sign out front. This will probably be the
last weekend.
8:22 AM. We all say our hellos, get our
gear, and proceed to the backyard
through the opened gate. I take a pic-
ture of all the assembled troops. So
far,
good.
so
8:30 AM. Warm-up rides for everyone
but me, because I always stretch first
but me,
then do 30 O push-ups for heart-to-limb
circulation, then test my reflexes with a
Bruce Lee sort of flippy floppy thing. I
know today is gonna be killer, for it is
also a full moon, which always brings me
good sessions for some reason.
8:35 AM. After a brief 15-minute warm-
up sesh, we make everybody grind,
take some mo' pics and video for his-
toric purposes, then split for the next
destination. We're only 20 minutes
behind schedule.
8:45 AM. We arrive at the Merrill amoe-
ba, the #2 pool on the list, disembark,
and as we start to jump the chainlink
fence
e I notice a black-and-white turning
the corner fast. We don't plan to stay
very long.
8:52 AM. I hear the ghetto bird whirling
around and notice it go right over the
pool above us. I quickly rise out of the
pool, which by the way is super gnarly
just to even grind, let alone do the box
in. As the 'copter gets nearer I start to
split because it's not worth getting bust-
ed and blowing our whole scene for one
shitty pool. The boys grind it fast and
we leave hoping the heli is looking for
somebody else.
8:55 AM. I lead the troops in my silver
Nissan to the next one on my list, which
is a little Blue Haven right-hand kidney
that has the best coping ever. The pool
is friggin' tiny but highly rippable, with
flatbottom at all.
little or no
Whipper
Whippersnapper deluxe-just ask Joey
Tershay and Farmboy.
9:00 AM. I can still see the helicopter
circling where we just were, and appar-
ently they are looking for us. I decide to
i
hightail it to pool #3, which is only 12
blocks away.
9:05 AM. We scope the scene and watch
the heli fly by, circling over and over
again right where we just were. I just sit
for a couple of minutes and trip that the
house is also freshly painted and the
fences are locked with brand new.
Master padlocks. There are No
Trespassing signs, so we all jump on the
side yard of the nice Mexican neigh-
bors, who've seen us a couple of times.
9:09 AM. Pool # 3. Right as we are
sweeping the wind dust off from the
Santa Anas the night before, I hear the
other neighbor say, "Hey, you're not sup-
posed to be there." I told him we would
posed to be
be gone soon and not to worry.
9:13 AM. After making the box and
doing the double double
doing the double double pretzel line, I
tell the boys I'm ready and watch Ruel
go over the stairs frontside ollie-like.
9:15 AM. The crew exits stage left, up
and over the locked fence that was sup-
posed to keep us out
us out.
9:20 AM. Once we reassure ourselves
that
at this is all
is all going to
gto work and we can
clearly see that the whirlybird has left
the area, we venture back to lil' kidney
which would be now pool #4.
9:25 AM. Back at the lil'
I' Blue F
Haven, we
all park. I always look for people peer-
ing out their front windows, and it looks
good.
Plus it's nice when the people
have seen you sometimes and you
wave and they wave back commu-
wave and they wave patt
nicating that neighborly I SEE
NOTHING
G Sargeant Shultz routine,
meaning they couldn't care less,
which is super cool. A mutual under-
Standing someth
standing sometimes creates lucky
15-minute barges.
9:29 AM. Ozzie slams super hard
'cause the pool, I shit you not, is no
more than nine feet wide. Kickturns
don't work well in tight situations.
9:31 AM. Rhino is dwarfing the pool
because it is seriously only seven
feet deep. When he stands up in the
deep end his head almost pops out of
the pool. Preston grinds and crails,
Ruel looks lost since this is his sec-
ond time here, and I struggle to
come to grips with the whippy tran-
ny and finally grind over the light
and death box after three tries. Talk
about warming up.
3:55 AM
9:35 AM. Another fence jump and
away we go to #5.
9:40 AM. When we arrive I notice that
the fence has been knocked down,
which allows easy access. Gotta love
that. Another Anthony nightmare...tight
with decent face-wall tranny, no hittable
mid or shallow end, huge three-inch
coping, a minimum of three feet of vert.
Complete hellpit but it's a virgin.
9:45 AM. After a quick cleaning of
six inches of water, we
not
it's
ater, we ride, deciding
not too o bad after all. I devirginize
her with a backside carve under the
diving board which always adds an
extreme twist to things. Rueler
grinds it frontside first, the bastard.
Toby grinds, while Rhino, Preston,
and Alan all jump in the shallow end
their fill.
to get the
9:55 AM. Again we leave to the green-
er pastures of San Bernardino travel-
ing along Route 66 eastbound. I turn
right on a lil' side street and the
Nissan express follows my lead to
pool # 6, another Anthony comma-
looking thang. We all keep our eyes
peeled and our ears alert for the man
and noisy neighbors.
10:07 AM. It's been almost nine years
since I've been here last, and the lines
I remembered doing don't come back
too fast. But I do the box both ways,
something Rueler doesn't! Preston and
Rhino both grind frontside while
Oswald attempts the stairs. It's all in
the carve, baby.
10:10 AM. A neighbor peeks over the
wall dividing his house from the one we
were in and the astonished look on his
face says it all. I tell Toby and Oz to
hurry up and get their shit
shit together.
ther
10:18 AM. Usually I'm the last one to
leave the scene but today I'm keeping
my skater acheivement goals to a
minimum due to the time factor. We
leave pool #6 for pool #7 and after
another r short
commute
we all pull up
to the next place.
10:23 AM. Back at the Wigwam Motel
the saying is "Do it in a teepee." The
only reason I even wanted to skate this
pool is because my Uncle Frank and
Aunt Libby, two of my favorite relatives,
had their honeymoon there.
Rhino grinds the Encino kidney.
10:24 AM. I see a car pull in right before
us and observe a tall white tattooed IE
local, who also happens to be the man-
ager of the place, exit on the passenger
side of the car.
guy,
10:26 AM. A couple of days before Oz
and Toby drained the pool for free so the
tattooed guy said come back on
Saturday which was today; so the care-
taker knew what was on our minds but
not the Indian who turned out to be
the owner of the establishment. So the
caretaker biker type confers with the
owner, and they're waving us on like,
yeah it's cool. So as we all head to the
pool, which by the way is a Blue Haven,
the Indian guy suddenly realizes that
we intend to skate.
we intend to skate.
10:27 AM. He immediately starts jab-
bering in
in half broken English and wav-
ing his arms, obviously wanting us to
stop. Toby and Rueler are already in the
pool skating #7, I have my camera at
the ready, and the Indian guy is kinda
half-assed blocking the rest of our
entries into the gated pool area. We bail
back to the cars and contemplate the
upper hand that Toby and Ruel have
pulled off on the rest of the crew. Their
team: 7. Our team: 6.
10:30 AM. Cruising down Route 66
again, we travel in a westerly direction
to yet another hotspot in the San
Bernardino area. I lead the boys north to
a pool I found right by an old one I knew
about. As we do a drive-by we all notice
a burly tattooed guy working on the
roof. Since we are on a mission, Ozzie is
sk the guy. He
given the order to go ask the guy.
comes back with a smile on his face.
10:38 AM. A quick sweep at jacuzzi wall
square. Pool #8 is a bent square affair
that has really quick trannies with a
kinked face wall, and the only feature
worth riding is the jacuzzi wall itself,
which gets grinded by Ruel and Toby
frontside, rock 'n' rolled by me, and fakie
rocked by Preston. I will probably never
ride it again.
10:45 AM. A fast pace to Pepper pool,
which turns out to be pool # 9. This
pool has seen the likes of everybody
at one point. The owners used to let
me skate, but now the city owns the
Preston goes to fakie on the
jacuzzi wall square.
house and it is a pure barge. I would
not recommend going there anymore,
as the cops and neighbors are watch-
ing the place. We stay for what is
more than likely the last session ever.
Thirty minutes were in order.
11:38 AM. Alan split early, showing
his frustration to leave for the next
so good that ya
can't leave. Plus I had to make the
shallow end stairs and a couple of airs
before I left.
one. But Pepper is so
11:40 AM. Another drive, another des-
tination, Pool #10 was a big Anthony
with do-able stairs and death box. Killer
lines are had by all.
11:55 AM. We split again, obeying the
15-minute rule to the next one. Pool #10
by 12 noon is where I wanted to be
by 12 noon is
according to my scheduling.
12:01 PM. Anaconda is yet another
HUD home with a Blue Haven pool.
Number 11 an amoeba with a
kinked hell-face wall that I used to
ride with 540 in '94. It's pretty shit-
ty but a pool nonetheless. As usual
we grind it for ten minutes or so, and
off into la-la land again.
12:16 PM. We arrive at the Chicken B brick pool
# 12, which has the characteristics of an Anthony.
The pool is shaped like the letter B and where the
whole left wall should have coping instead it is
replaced with a brick-like decking. Really strange
and challenging to say the least.
12:18 PM. I tell everyone that they first have to grind
the face wall both ways before they can ride the rest of
the pool. They all shoot me dirty looks.
12:30 PM. The loveseat at the B is the hardest needle
The loves
and thread job I've ever come across; the box and
loveseat double double line is by far the hardest combo
to be done anywhere. It's a total bitch where frustra-
tion can get the best of anybody so I was very happy
to pull it within four tries.
12:38 PM. From here we go to Big Blue pool #13, a real
deepish palette-looking cement pond. A pure five-
minute barger, because across the street an old man
is scoping us hard with his arms crossed against his
chest standing on t
nding on the sidewalk. If looks could kill
we'd all be dead.
12:43 PM. Big Blue's over ten feet deep and kinda hell,
but fun, and I tell everybody to grind and get out fast.
12:46 PM. More driving to the next spot requires a lit-
tle map check. Sometimes driving through mazes of
neighborhoods can be dizzying and confusing. Once I
Toby finds a frontside line at the big comma.
get my bearings back we find the next one on the
list, pool #14.
12:51 PM. Pool #14 is a complete bust and the
neighbor across the street is a total kook. As we
exit our vehicles a lady magically appears on
her porch to announce she's calling the cops.
We stay for seven minutes and I grind over the
box x within three runs. Everybody else loves this
one 'cause it's a big Blue Haven. All the troops
grind and we split once again back to the con-
crete jungle.
12:58 PM. Right around the corner is one of my fave
pools of all time. It has all the obstacles you could ever
want in a pool: deep end stairs, a death box not even
three feet away, a slide to grind under and/or air
air over,
and the coolest-looking shallow end stairs ever built.
There's a tile right before you walk into the pool that
has the family name on it that says Koontz. Completely
paranoid, we all jump over the back wall into the yard.
1:15 PM. Pool #15. All the boys ride and get frontside
ride and get frontsid
grinds out of the way while Rueler and I go to work
on line city over the box frontside, then back over the
stairs backside, then back to the shallow end stairs to
the slide line. We don't want to leave, but backyard
pools never last forever and plus I didn't want to get
my ass
s kicked or go to jail again for trespassing. Over
and out.
1:20 PM. All the guys have been hinting at food but
anybody who's ever ridden with me knows that I will
go all day
go y without nourishment if necessary. But I am
also hungry so we stop at 7-11 to get refreshments.
Ruel and Toby walk across the street to order pizza and
are squawking how they rode one more pool than us
so far. That rubs me the wrong way.
1:30 PM. I decide that it is taking too long, so the
remaining troops leave without Rueler and Toby. I tell
them to meet us at Palmetto.
1:33 PM. On the way there I figure we'd check out
another quick hit. The #16 pool has decent tranny
and is smooth as a baby's bottom but it has a huget
loveseat that takes up most of the face wall. We all ride
for eight minutes except for Dave and Mr Burger, who
are lagging hard as usual.
1:40 PM. On the way to Palmetto, a mere 12 houses
away, we all gleam with glee 'cause now we have the
upper hand on Ruel and Toby. The score is now us: 16
and them: 15.
1:42 PM. We pull into the alleyway by Palmetto pool
#17 and get out and walk through the chainlink fence
that I cut open again last time. There were maggots in
the pool last time we drained it, a couple days prior, and
I know that nobody has cleaned them yet.
1:47 PM. Randy, a Fontana local, is the only one skat-
ing. When I ask him about the maggots he says, "I did-
n't want to touch 'em so I'm just running over 'em." After
inspecting the scum line, Oz and I sweep the remaining
maggots up. I do not particularly like getting maggot
juice on my board or my hands from running over them.
2:21 PM. Getting impatient, I start riding, trying the
tient start
double double line over the box. Finally Ruel and Toby
show up right as I'm saying let's go. The pizza is hot,
the shade good, the drinks refreshing. A good session,
to say the least, has all the guys ready for more. Gotta
make up some time.
Rueler on the Chicken B brick wall.
the right if you're standing in the shallow end
looking into the deep. Kinda gnar but fun.
4:10 PM. The face wall over-vert but grindable
anyhow. Rhino and the rest of the crew grind yet
another pool courtesy of HUD. Who said the gov-
ernment don't take care of ya?
4:15 PM. I find the stair line and grind both ways
while Preston shoots more documentation for the
Guinness World Record. The surface of this pool
is super smooth and fast.
and fast. It's pretty fun for a stan-
dard type issue of just carving and grinding. I
can't believe we just c did 20.
4:16 PM. Loaded up and ready for more record
breaking, we decide to keep going till we run out
of daylight. We drive in silence.
4:20 PM. After another fast trek we arrive at a
no-name left-hand kidney with red killer coping.
Hand kidn
I always hated this pool because it hurts my old
knees. The trannies are elliptical but have joltish
banky kinda walls, skateable to some, hated by
others. Preston always amazes me with a variety
of tricks like frontside rocks, which he does with
ease. Rueler, king of the 50-50, does 'em
frontside on the face wall while the rest of us just
stick to the basics. I want to leave
to leave bad.
Iv
4:24 PM. I say, "C'mon ever
everybody."
ody." Then I walk
away from pool #20.
4:27 PM. Next up
is s the
pink flamingo kidney
#21. This pool used to be
much better before can-
cer got ahold of her and
now she is just a dust
bowl which causes lung
and eye failure. I tell
everyone to grind fast so
we can go on. We all
Toby Burger fakie rocks
the Snowman.
2:26 PM. The next pool is another one we used to ride
back in the day. Ten years is a long time, but I remem-
ber this one being pretty good. The flatbottom has an
oily, muddy, muratic acid-dipped pond waiting to take
out the nearest victim, and it looks so bad that we
decide to carve around it. Toby and Ruel grind
frontside while Rhino and I go for it backside whilst
Preston films. Poor Rhino falls and his board takes a
dip into the gooey substance which looks as if it would
melt your hand off. Hurray for the Toxic Avenger.
Cross #18 off the list.
2:46 PM. A quick drive to pool #19 reveals that we
gout of time and light. Another Anthony
are running
nightmare we call Snowman #2 is fun to carve.
around in and very
I in and very challenging to grind with big
three inch coping. The box is so death that only
and
myself and Farmboy have grinded over it. It has a
small loveseat, a
, a decent shallow end, and a slide to
roll down into if ya got any balls.
2:51 PM. We all descend into the shallow end to get
some more rides. Toby fakie rocks the loveseat while
the rest of us carve around like Indy cars. We need one
more pool to make 20 and now we have to drive at least
half an hour to our next destination.
2:58 PM. We split and drive to the 10 freeway onramp
and continue west towards my house.
4:07 PM. Pool #20 is a Sunset left-hand kidney, steep-
ish in nature, with stairs on the left and a deathbox on
of
giind and split for the
grind and split for the P
4:36 PM. The sun is dip-
ping fast. Pool #22 was a
beauty not even one mile
from my house. The P.
was shaped like the letter
P, a big Anthony double-
carvable affair with the
usual three-inch gnarler.
coping and standard
three feet of vert. A love-
ly specimen indeed and
probably the best
Anthony I've ever had the pleasure of riding.
4:40 PM. 1 of the guys are extremely tired by
now, including myself, but since I found this pool
and hadn't been there in months I decide to let the
pool have it. It feels so good to figure-eight carve
in a pool not meant to be skated in.
4:44 PM. Rueler tries the stair line which entails
going over the stairs and landing on the hip. It's
really really hard and only two people, Remy
and Kale, have done it.
4:45 PM. Toby Burger grinds and attempts grind-
ing in the corner.
4:47 PM. I try the stair line thinking if I made it at
Koontz that I could do it here. I don't make it.
4:48 PM. Rueler the possessed makes the
stairs. I'm envious.
4:49 PM. The sun is almost gone and we are all
contemplating if we've ridden enough. I would
have loved to skate 25 since we had drained
that many just in case, but as it turns out 22
ain't
n't all that bad.
5:00 PM. The light has faded fast and I take one
last shot of us standing there with our backs to the
sunset pondering if anyone has ever bothered
doing this before. I hope not.
This is dedicated to Tony Alva.
85