Z Boyz..
Born in California, pool skating got its first real wave back
in the drought of ‘76 when many backyard pools were left empty.
Shredders like Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta pushed the bounds of skating
through pool sessions along with the rest of the Z-Boys. It was in the pools
where Alva pulled off some of the first ever recorded front and backside airs
along with slash grinds and the first real lips tricks. This was the start of a true revolution for skateboarding.
Skating the steep walls of these pools also gave birth to Vert Skating along
with many new and more intense tricks.
The Z-Boys were notorious for going all out in order to get a good pool to
ride and were consistently hassled by the police and the city for their
efforts.
An empty pool is a
terrible thing to waste
Like a miner looking for gold, skaters have been doing
whatever they can to find that glorious site of a concrete pool void of all
liquid. To this day pool skating and skaters have remained ever vigilant in
reclaiming concrete pools, constantly clearing debris of all kinds, dealing
with the cities and police in the name of a killer session.
Some skaters have been lucky enough to get “permission pools” where they can
shred hassle free.
One of these was the Pala round pool, one of the most famous pools of San
Diego. Pala became well known through many magazines and videos and gave lots
of kids their first taste of pool skating. Pala had an awesome design for
skating including a sunken love seat and challenging coping. The pool also had
an open fence, no home owners, no pad rules, no fees, no locals, no neighbours
and was open 7 days a week. With all this Pala was truly a skateboarding
heaven and was the scene of many skate parties, live band concerts and
late night sessions.
You can still find lots of great pools today, Places like Burger Bowl in
Huntington Beach or Holiday Bowl both host an army of skateboarding fiends.
May back yard pool skating live on forever...
