Uncool Pools: Media Conspiracy

Do you remember the pool that Mark and I caught a lot of flack for riding repeatedly? I had to laugh when I saw a full page shot of Al Partanen in the latest Concussion – #39: The Photo Issue. Apparently Davoud and photog BK didn’t get the memo about that place not being cool. I wonder if Al is pissed? The Skateboarding media conspiracy is out to fool everyone. Just think of how many potential “uncool spots” you’ve been tricked into thinking people actually enjoyed. I included a few shots from one of the sessions we had there after the jump.

This pool was in Happy Valley, Oregon, which I believe is unincorporated. Someone had a nice old ranch house next to some farm property. At some point they put up a simple cinder block addition to house the pool. It was spring when we were riding it, but the weather was unseasonably dry. Still, it was covered and that allowed us a few sessions when it was raining outside.

There were a handful of old x-rays laying around. I can’t remember if they were found on some adjacent property or not. The house was on a slab of land slated for some eminent domain type construction.

Someone was overheard saying this pool was “alright if you wanted to spend all day trying to get over the light” but some people were obviously able to do more.

Of course, you could still work on the light if you wanted… I forgot this kid’s name.

This is Mark Conahan about to fronstide air.

I’m not sure he wants to be named or not, but this is the guy that actually found this pool and invited us, and is therefore uncool by association. He named it the Q-Bert pool after the pattern on the coping.

Weird view.

Downside: I only skated this thing three times. It was adjacent to a huge field and there was a lot of bio debris floating around. The first time I went we were there for an hour plus, and I felt fine, but on the way home I started to feel crappy. By that night I was having major allergy problems. I didn’t associate it with the pool until we returned the second time. Midway through the session I started having symptoms again, and ended up sitting it out as I got more and more wrecked. The third time I went I took allergy pills in advance to head it off, but after about 15 minutes I was more wheezy than George Jefferson’s wife. MC drew a comic about the allergens, and another about the social stigma.

I’ve got some more pictures that I’ll post later. There’s also the SOTW, as well as some up on EPM. We were here.