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| Scorcher! |
| ozzie ausband |
cleanup
Greg Hunt
Riverside Ed
AVE- light/box
Riverside Ed at Jose'. light/loveseat
Kevin- FS box
AVE- light/loveseat
Me- Mute
Blue Haven -stamina- tester
The Village Idiot
BLKPRJKT- "Long in the tooth."
Anthony Acosta- content to sit in the AC after the pool excursion
Riverside & its surrounding areas can burn your brain in its shell during the summer months. It –regularly–reaches 100 + degrees & it’ll sap the life right out of you during a skate session. Anthony Van Engelen (AVE) & Greg Hunt had wanted to come out & ride a few ‘permission’ pools. AVE had a few things he wanted to film. I checked around & tried to figure out something that would be ‘aesthetically’ pleasing & rad to ride. I wanted a pool with mellow transitions & a cupped shallow end.
I phoned Riverside Ed. He was always sitting on a few good pools. Over the past few years, he has found some of the best pools out there & always has a few on ‘lock’. He told me that he could ‘accommodate’ us & had a few ‘permissions’ going. He phoned me back a few days later. “I have three ready.” I passed the word that it was a ‘go’ for Sunday morning. My cohorts, MRZ & Christian Cooper, met me at the appointed place & Christian bought us some breakfast.
The sky was overcast slightly, but we knew that it wouldn’t last.The sun & heat were coming. The rest of the crew appeared. Anthony Acosta, Cody, Hunt & AVE, along with Riverside Ed & his pool pal ‘Kevin’ all were ready. It was good that we were going to ‘permission pools’, with a crew this large. We hit the first pool. Its an epic old ‘Comma’ shaped pool from a better time in the 1950s. A huge wooden porch roof, towers over the deep end providing shade & a respite from the heat. We would need it. On the hip, an enormous ‘California King Palm’ stood like a sentinel over the plaster pool below.
AVE & Christian jumped right into the mess and began sweeping & bucketing the small amount of filth. I liked seeing that! “Stepping up.” We immediately started carving lines & picking out the speed flow of the pool. It is more of a ‘goofy foot’ pool but everyone got in there. We pushed ourselves hard for almost two hours. AVE threw down ‘light box’ , I struggled with the ‘pretzel line’ bs box & everyone else carved & floated throughout this ‘gem’ from the past.
After thoroughly draining ourselves from the heat & exertion, we headed to the next pool. We stopped to pick up some beverages at a small market/ liquor store. We all had a laugh at the pictures posted on the windows by the checkout cashier. They were fuzzy security camera images of guys running out of the store with cases of ‘Tecate’ & ‘Bud Light’. The Korean folks behind the counter didn’t seem to share in our enthusiasm or hubris. They were the unfortunate victims of the ‘beer bandits’.
We all followed each other to our next pool. It was a ‘caravan’. We pulled up & parked. In the yard, there seemed to be an unending supply of small dogs. At quick glance, they were yapping & making a fuss. Once Jose–the owner– let us inside, they calmed down. Jose has lived there for almost a decade. He has the pool as a ‘swimmer’ periodically. The story that Ed & Kevin told us, is that in the 1970s & 1980s, people skated this pool. Ed & Kevin both remember this pool as being the one where they each did the deathbox for the first time. That’s quite the milestone for pool riders. I remember my first deathbox.
We all met the family, & swept the pool out. By now it was feeling like a million degrees. The heat was baking us! The pool was an older right hand kidney. It had a loveseat on the left wall close to the light. The deathbox was on the right side. Ed pushed in & quickly sealed the deal with a BS light loveseat carve that left everyone yelling! Damn! AVE felt out the pool a bit, then he threw down FS 5-0 grinds over the light loveseat. Kevin FS grinded the box & I fooled around a little as well. Christian , Acosta , Cody & Ray, all got in the pool & cruised around…happy to be rolling in a backyard pool.
AVE & his crew headed back to LA & Acosta joined us for one more little ‘Blue Haven’. We swept out this ‘Blue Haven’ arrow shaped pool while crickets overran our position like the Russian soldiers engulfing Berlin in WWII. The crickets were ‘tripping’…and they came out of the leaves & drain in waves. We attempted to ‘shoo’ them out but–finally–gave up. Everyone carved this pool & a few grinds were put down but –by this time– we were all sapped. We ended the day at an ‘air conditioned’ taco shop. We re-hydrated & while Christian & I discussed tricks & video parts, Ray & Anthony Acosta talked photography & ‘tech’ talk. After saying our ‘goodbyes’, we then headed out into our different directions & back to our lives. It was an epic day of pool riding and –rest assured–that I will be doing the same thing next weekend. Thank you to Riverside Ed for making it happen. Thank you to MRZ for the images. Skate-Ozzie
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| 07.15.2010 06:21 |
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