GREAT DESERT POOL DUEL – Palmdale, California

Normally I hate skate contests. In California, most skate contests are held in skate parks. While the terrain in California skate parks may be ok, skate parks seem to only exist to keep skateboarders concentrated in one area as to make it easier city officials to keep an eye on skateboarders. Add to the mix too many people, pad nannies, fences, and the like, I prefer to keep as far away from contests as possible.

Except for this contest.

Billy Runaway set up a contest in Palmdale, CA called the GREAT DESERT POOL DUEL. This contest was invite only and featured a real backyard pool over ten feet deep and a bunch of underground and not so underground rippers. Add to the mix free beer from Black Star and with Lance Mountain and Dave Hackett as guest judges, this contest was worth getting up at 5 am to drive four 1/2 hours to get there. So the bottom line was: backyard pool and beer and no city officials. This is what skateboard contests should look like. – Jamie Camp

Al Brunelle. FS Ollie.
Jeff Wright.
Steven Reeves - crail
Ryan Johnson. FS ollie in the deep. He did a backside ollie over the huge set of shallow stairs to win best trick over the stairs
Tristan Rennie - 13 year old with first place
Jake Reuter. Lein to tail.
Kevin Kowalski. FS invert.
Ben Raybourn. Invert revert.
Al Brunelle - just before doing a sweeper disaster hangup to head slam. He was taken to the hospital, hear he is doing ok now. He was ripping all day.
Palmdale local. Backflip off the roof to the ground. It's a make.
Peacock filming the Illusion. Nice mesh cap!

When all was said and done the results looked like this:

    Tristan Rennie – $400
    Kevin Kowalski – $300
    Ben Raybourn – $200
    Jake Reuter – $100

Best trick of the day contest:

DEFECT MAG best trick over shallow stairs: Ryan Johnson backside ollie – $200
Black Star Beer best trick over stairs/death: Kevin Kowalski backside smith – $200
Black Leather Racing best line of the day: Kevin Kowalski – $200

Sponsors for this event were: Confusion Mag, Bones Wheels, Black Leather Racing, Black Star Beer, DEFECT Magazine, Independent Trucks, DEKLINE Footwear, Lifeblood Skateboards, Gross Graphics, and Lowcard Mag.

As word, photos, and video of this inaugural event get out, I am sure next year will be bigger and better. Thanks to Billy Runaway and all of the Palmdale pool project for putting on a fun event!

Words & Photos: Jamie Camp
(www.poolskating.blogspot.com)

Video “courtesy” of RadBalls (radballs.wordpress.com)

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