pool

SC Pool Sculpture going down… Zagreb, Croatia

Since the conclusion of the Students center pool sculpture being built, we’ve been introduced to a whole new way of riding a skateboard, and to a new skateboarding style which, until then, we were only able to see on tape. In the same year, being skateboarders, we were facing great depression not being properly understood and listened to. We didn’t have anything. After ten years of riding street, now and then even a skatepark that was being demolished faster than it was built, we didn’t have as nearly as much room for creativity and progression as we needed to. A lot of us gave up on skateboarding.

Kidney Bowl – Mers Les Bains, France

Belgium based company Concrete Flow under the head surveillance of legendary Michel ‘Mike’ van der Ouderaa has just finished a nice kidney pool on the French atlantic coast 300 meters from the beach in a little seaside town called Mers les Bains.

Oberhausen Bowl – Germany

This bowl is ready now. It´s the first decent bowl we built since starting Yamato Living Ramps and it was a challenge for sure.

Reformas in Algorta – La Kantera Pool Service – Basque country

We created La Kantera Pool Service – Iñigo Rica, Sendoa Altonaga, Manuel Olagorta, and myself, Borja Casas. We repaired the coping of the banks, changed the stones to create new spots and we put pool coping in one corner and one ramp. The ramp’s name is Carabobo. We repaired holes and painted it and now it is really good to skate!

Szymon Stachon. Backside air in the Punisher. Photo: Pauline Miller

Fiesta Des Ursulines 2013 – Bruxelles, Belgium

Every year the Fiesta des Ursulines somehow marks the beginning of the skateboarding summer season in Brussels. However, the weather isn’t always on our side. But beer is a good alternative to missing sunlight, and we Belgians know how to make up for it. Our top animator Phil was at his best as usual, dressed as a womenly kinda joker. All-in-all the event was a great success, gathering skaters, rockers, groupies, mom’s and dad’s, kiddies, punks and hipsters. The gigs around the bowl were rad and the skaters hit it hard during the session. So fuck the weather and let’s skate!

Phil Jackson. Photo: Bryan Lathrop

The Warehouse / Alter Street – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Everybody needs a place to call their own, and it sure helps if that place has pool coping. Getting a private indoor setup together is a giant pain in the ass, but the reward of skating a place that’s exactly what you want to skate is unbeatable. All I can say is- if you’re thinking about it, just go for it; its a lot to do but you’ll figure it out.

The Lost Bowl – Virginia, USA

In September of 2010 Richmond DIY’ers lead with the concrete skills of Bernie Mcgrew took it into their own hands to finally build for the skaters of Richmond, VA a city with no skatepark. Starting with an 8 foot (2.4 meter) deep kidney swimmer bowl, the Lost Bowl now boasts a lot of other tranny around the decks of the bowl. The Lost Bowl continues to expand with the help of tons of skaters from RVA and there is no stop foreseen in the near future.

Zarosh throwing down a crail into the shallow end. Photo: J. Hay

Any Given Friday: Buena Vista Pool

Any given friday, a session like this could be going down at the Buena Vista square pool south of Santa Cruz, one of the longest running “backyard” pools in history. This pool has been skated by generations of legendary skateboarders. Most sessions these days include not only the old school pool shredders and underground legends, but also unknown new school pool riders that fearlessly roll in to the deep end and attack the “lip” as if they’ve been skating pools their entire lives, which quite probably they have. This pool is definitely harder to skate than it looks. Hopefully it will remain empty for another 30 years for following generations of pool skaters to shred without too much fear of the cops showing up and busting it, or without it being filled in with dirt like it has numerous times over the last 30 years.

Julien Benoliel. Backside smith. Photo: Damien Raveau - LeSiteduSkateboard

La Friche DIY Bowl – Marseille, France

Designed by concrete killer Julien Benoliel from Marseille, the bowl is being built for the “Julien Benoliel’s DIY bowl invitational contest” taking place April 26th. If you didn’t hear about it, well, I guess you weren’t invited.