What does all this have to do with skate-
boarding? Everything and nothing at all. If
you know how to look between the cracks of
life, you too can find inspiring things to do
with your free time, like find stuff to skate on
and in. Look around the massive wave of
construction near the 5 and 91 freeways.
Ripped-out houses dot the freeway land-
scape as the state and local politicians
want easier access to the moneymaking
enterprises like Knott's Berry Farm,
Disneyland, the Convention Center, and
big hotels that host corporate meetings
and big money deals. Easier accessibility
makes for more revenue as people come
to Cali by the car- and truck-load.
You can't hide the ghettos of Anaheim
and Santa Ana from the public eye, and
the hidden agenda of criminals' actions
towards innocent victims is most often
just a matter of being in the wrong place
at the wrong time. Back in '64, these
towns were upper-middle class white
neighborhoods. As the wealthy moved
out of their starter homes and the lower
class moved in-while simultaneously
non-directly depleting property val-
ues-these once nice Beaver Cleaver
neighborhoods turned into a no man's
land of graffiti and gang wars, where no
average Joe would even contemplate
going, lost or not. Mom wouldn't want to
get lost there, but Toby Burger did. He
got lost on purpose; it's in these kind of
'hoods that my fellow concrete comman-
do loves to drive around for hours at a
time looking for repos, for-sale houses, or
better yet, a HUD home. It was here where
Toby recently discovered what has become
lore in the underground skateboard genre
known as "pool riding."
As with most empty pools that pool riders
find today, Toby, age 22, related that the
house and existing property were in prime
condition when he first acquired them during
trade show weekend. Now she had been
defiled and defaced, which was a shame, for
she was an excellent example of a
Blue Haven beauty, a mid '50s
knockout Jayne Mansfield if
she were a pool. She has a killer
posterior deep-end bowl mak-
ing for the caressing carve lines,
a pocket and hip ripe for grind-
ing, and a shallow end that
allowed easy access back to the
bowl. The Toby bowl now. looks
like a Bosnia warzone or South
Central after the riots-an utter
hell pit. But to a skateboarder,
the road to ruin is just another
paint canvas on which to create
positive out of negative, some-
thing skaters are famous for.
Illegal or not, skateboarding will.
never buckle and die as long as
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Tranny dog Rune Clifberg
crails his way to the top. Tyco plays with a slash over the
box in the deep end. Joe Love takes the hard way to the
shallow end.
the landscapes keep changing and rearranging;
like Darwin's magnificent survival of the fittest,
skateboarding adapts to the surrounding habitats
and environments.
Eric "Arab" Groff was the first skater to fanta-
size about the huge Blue Haven left-hand kid-
ney that the mobile-home park sported. His
friend, an old surf buddy from back in the day,
had lived there through his childhood, and he
and Arab would surf across the street by the
HB pier, then go skate the banks underneath
the pier, then go back to the Driftwood for a
swim and warm jacuzzi. This was in '75. Ten
years later, while skating another OC gem,
Arab told Kelly Bellmar and Chuck Hults
about the place; they, incidentally, stumbled
upon the Driftwood while playing golf sand-
wiched between the Hilton proper and the
mobile-home park. So, for almost 30 years,
some of OC's finest underground pool riders
have been waiting for the right moment. The
Driftwood became a reality one day when
Rueler and Jim Early called my house to let me
know that one of the wonders of the skate-
board world was ready to be had-and could
they use my pumps to drain her? Of course I
said yes and we kept it a secret for almost one
week before the poolshark feeding frenzy took
over. Once again, skateboarding was in the histo-
ry books with photos and video capturing the
precious moments of time for other generations
to watch, sit, and learn from the guys who made
it all happen.
Don't let me scare you into thinking that liv-
ing behind the Orange Curtain is not great,
because it is. Just ask the kids who are walking
to school every morning in Santa Ana with the
fear of being shot, where as of April 1 a new
volunteer community police force will try to
deal with the ever-growing gang and drug
problems that plague the city streets. There
are loads of industries, businesses, and
money changing hands every day, so jump
on the bandwagon and make your dreams
come true. If you do come across an empty
pool in some shitty neighborhood, give me a
call. I'd like that!
94 THRASHER