9/21/02

Brian,

We skated that empty pool last night! It's so fun! It's neat that a pool of that caliber is right here in the cities! So what tricks did you do in it? Did you do any grinds or airs?

Have you considered a hardflip.com mini-article about the pool? I think it should be covered, but in a way that won't get it blown out and then busted.

Brett and Wayne were there to show us the lines. Wayne took a couple of quick clips of us doing our first "over the light" carves. I'm planning on going back Wednesday evening. Call or write the next time you go.

-Bill

About a month and a half ago I received an email saying simply 'Empty kidney bowl. Call me'. I didn't think about it too much because Minnesota pools are made of vinyl and are usually square plus the guy who emailed me was Brett Mattson (Mortal) who was recently in the hospital with severe head trauma so I thought maybe he was having some kinda hallucinations. But then I started hearing this buzz around town about it. Some even said that they skated it. And I started thinking - holy shit. There's actually a skateable empty swimming pool in Minnesota and I'm sitting home jacking off.

Todd Koch

I've been holding off on posting information or pictures of the spot because it's still skateable and if a shitload of people go there then it's donefore. But what's funny is that even the people that know where it is don't skate it much with the exception of a few guys (Brett, Todd, Wayne, etc). And the reason is because pools are really hard to skate. I've been skating for 18 years and I've never skated anything like this in my life. The transition is different on every inch of the pool. It's unforgiving if you fall (which I found out right away), and it takes quite a while to get used to it. When I went there I met up with Brett and his friend Todd and they were ripping it. It was obvious that they had been skating it a lot. Partially from the lines they had but also because they were all full of scabs and blood and shit. Being a vert skater I figured I could at least do some lip tricks or inverts or something but I was way wrong. My wheels never left the surface of the pool but it was fun as hell.

I heard that Nesser did a pivot to fakie in it. Then it changed to just a pivot. I also heard Wayne dropped in. Many have launched themselves over the light in the deep end such as Action Jackson , Ted Dahmen, Bill Morgan, and many more. These tricks may sound easy but trust me they're not. This event has given many of us plenty to talk about and I'd like to thank Brett and Todd for finding it. Todd had some thoughts that he wanted to pass along...

However imperfect the transitions may be at the pool in St. Paul, the act of carving around in the lines of a kidney bowl in the late summer evenings of Minnesota are as close to perfect as it gets. when you are given the opportunity to skate a real pool you cannot resist. everyone seems to know about it now but no one ever shows up. There are lots of bmx tracks and plenty of carve lines from Mortal B and I but when we show up to skate it is always blissfully quiet.

Having eyed this pool for the five years I've lived here and the ten plus years B has scoped it out, the time had finally come when no trespassing signs appeared in the windows of the motel. Twenty four-hours later and a full day of bailing out the putrid sludge from the bottom of the bowl we were carving around the nine-foot left-hand kidney, happy as pigs in shit, which is incidentally what we had become while cleaning it out. Strewn across our faces along with splashes of brown hepatitis laden pond scum were the biggest smiles to be found in the upper mid-west.

Both of us have skated numerous pools on the coasts and if this pool is as good as it gets here then it's good enough for us. We had a running dialogue with the man who claims to own the property but it seems he is starting to lock it down. By the time you read this it will most likely be gone. As is a rare opportunity to enjoy the best of what sidewalk surfing has become.

Todd Koch

Brett could shoot up into the shallow end during his run,wall ride into a grind on the steps, and roll back into the pool.

What the fuck is that? That, my friends, is my hip. Pads are for pussies.

PHOTOS AND INTRO BY BRIAN PERRY
VIDEO BY BILL MORGAN