Not Wet Willy’s, but these are some Champaign Illinois waterslide action pics from Fall of 1986 near as I can tell. Awesome hairstyle dude… Oh wait, that’s me. Can’t figure out the post title? Skip to the end.
Fall of 1986 and I should be in school but I’m riding around the wee hours of the night looking for pools to ride. There aren’t a lot of pools in Central Illinois, so you make do with what you find. This waterslide was part of a public pool complex in Champaign, Illinois. The pool was one of those oversized square things with a banked deep end and no tranny. After exhausting it’s potential for fun we turned to the adjacent waterslide, a fiberglass snake that was narrow and pretty much impossible to ride without checking your speed. Worth going once or twice, right? Yep.
I don’t know if this slide is still around. If it is it would be nice to hear from some of you Illinois skaters. Why are these pictures toned brown and orange? They are old black and white negatives that were either poorly exposed or poorly fixed, or both. The only way to get a decent image was to scan them in color negative mode which yields this brown tone. I suppose I could turn them to grayscale again after the fact, but I like the look.
TOP: Mike Poor, future Arborist realizes he’s not going to make that turn so he goes again skeleton style. MIDDLE: Getting ready to barge and later making a break for it in a car with a skateboarding Snoopy air freshener. BOTTOM: Brad Krohn, future Veterinarian who won’t let you forget it.
What about this post title? Do these lyrics sound familiar?
I got my mat, I’m gonna take a dive
I might get wet, but I’ll still be alive
It only cost 3 bones to prove my masculinity
But when I’m riding I’m free.
I’m on the waterslide. (Woh-Oh)
I’m on the waterslide (Let’s go)
I’m on The Waterslide Watch me go
I suggest you listen to Punk Rock legends know as the Dickies. The song is Waterslide off of their first release, The Incredible Shrinking Dickies. Am I still clever if I have to explain everything? Probably not.
6 comments
kabababrubarta
Cool! kabababrubarta
falconneil
I have my methods! Research, baby.
Kilwag (k.ed)
I was trying to judge by when I dropped out of school. Fall semester of my junior year would have made it late 86, but I guess the board doesn’t lie, It must have been a different session. How the heck can you remember what year that deck came out?
falconneil
no way that’s 1986. In 86 you and me were skating the curb in front of the TSG house til the early hours and doing drunken walljams. We were inseperable. It was later on that I stopped skating with you every day, and I wasn’t in on this skate escapade. It’s probably 1988 or 89. And for more evidence see Brad’s board. The Skull Justin Lovely coffee pot deck didn’t come out until 1988.
Kilwag (k.ed)
He was in the French Foreign Legion
mc
Is Krohn wearing barettes like a little girl? Oh, wait it’s a t-shirt on his head.