pool

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 so 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.

Rampenlicht Project – Berlin

The first phase of the project begins with the construction of the focal piece: a triangular skateboard ramp, which will be extracted from its ‘natural’ environment and modified to serve a different purpose than originally intended. It will be a symbol of harmony within the collective, and at the same time a symbol of disharmony within today’s society. It is representative of the main topic of the exhibition and will therefore be the central point of the happenings.Around this piece of carpentry, the collective will create an atmosphere that opposes a dystopian, exaggerated reality with a surreal dreamlike utopia. Various forms of contemporary art, such as painting, videography, photography, sculpture, installation, etc., will be used to reach this goal.

West Covina Pool – southern California

Mike had this one going for a while and was one hell of a host. You can only imagine the look on the landlords face when she came by to show a potential renter a room and saw the pool drained! Lots of Action went down at this gem in West Covina. Rhino from Thrasher came by with crew including Grant Taylor and the scored a cover for the 30th anniversary issue. The night before Mike got the boot this session went down. Johnny Abernathy, Ben Butler, Erik Peters, and Robbie from pedro.

Mr. Wilson Bowl – Kassel – Germany

Ever since I started skateboarding, it was not only about standing on a piece of plywood, but also about using all kinds of readily available material to shape your surroundings in order to be able to skate them – that’s what skateboarding to me is all about. The more skateparks that are being built, the harder it gets to deliver this message to the kids. It makes a huge different if you skate something that you built with your own hands. A homemade ramp can be all shitty and bumpy but it doesn’t matter because you designed and constructed it yourself.

Campo Cuatro Casas: Baja, Mexico

The first time I heard about this magic place called “Cuatro Casas” was in 2009. I met my good friend Jose Noro in San Francisco for a one month road trip with the classic recipe of not having any fixed plans other than to skate, meet old and new friends and to generally see and experience as much as we can. – Lars Greiwe

The Maya Pool (DIY Backyard Pool)

I think it’s a dream of every skater to have his own ramp at home. Sure, I have my own ramp at home. Sure, it’s a crazy big ramp, half bowl half mini ramp, etc. But sure its not a pool….

Porte de la Muette: Paris Concrete Bowl

How can a Bowl be transformed from a certified piece of shit into a deep and sweet reason to visit Paris? Skater wise naturally you’d say that it is alway good to ride those smooth sidewalks they get here and to jam (sometime literally!) into the traffic of the big avenues. But after sometime you can be bored of some of the humans living in Paris… ego trip on any levels can be really disturbing for a good ride. And you suddenly realize that there is nearly no tranny in town, this fact finally leads you to leave town in search of a good pool to fill your addiction to adrenalin.

OWL BOWL opening – Cologne, Germany

October 1st was a momentous day in Cologne with the opening of the first concrete bowl in Germany’s fourth largest city. Built by IOU Ramps and the local skaters of Cologne, the OWL BOWL is located at the NorthBrigade Skatepark, which has been open since the 1980s. Skaters from around Germany showed up for the opening party which was graced with sunny skies, which at this time of the year is a treat, as there was just as much chance the rain would shut down the event.

DIY Willits – California

This is a home made pool with obstacles around the deck, somewhere in the wooded mountains of Willets, CA. The pool is real good – an amoeba with a death-box in the deep, shallow stairs, and pool coping all the way around… except over the shallow stairs where there is river rock mortared in for coping (up the ante!). This pool is not the easiest pool to skate. I have skated backyarders that are easier, but it is great nonetheless.

Grid Search – by Ozzie Ausband

4:00 am. Darkness hid the world away. I rose and looked out of the window. A streetlight glittered coldly across the street. Shadows. The night and darkness held a thousand horrors. I made coffee & thought that someone was probably bleeding in a gutter somewhere. I thought of those that have it all & those forgotten. It’s a crazy world. Society. Respectability….