Mark Partain.

The wagging tongues of the pool-riding upper echelon spread more malice & discontent than all the jocks out there in the world combined. They gather together like pigeons from hell, to flutter & coo. They act like old ladies at a church function. Its a shame & a sad commentary on how we eat each other up just to feel better about who & what we are. No! I’m not immune to it either and I would be less-than-honest if I didn’t admit my own culpability in the smack-talking department. That said, I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt these days. Few skaters that I know of have lived a life in perfect harmony. Many, have a less than laudable past but lets not go into that.

Lets talk about my roomate-Mark Partain. Power. Style. Flow. Big, sick bag of tricks. Raises the bar in every session. Cool as a cucumber. Surfs like the OG mother fucker…which he is! Mark grew up skating the parks & pools of the 1970’s and has probably clocked more hours grinding & flying in pools than most everyone else. 

He rarely has much to say. He dismisses his detractors & the harmful gossip-mongering with a wave of his tattooed fingers. Words are like stones in his mouth. His skating ALWAYS does the talking for him. He does believe that a ‘real’ pool contest should be held as follows. Locate a huge kidney that has never been skated before. Drain it the day before the contest, and have only warm up runs of like 15 minutes then hold the contest. Best rider wins it all. I concur. Its a fine idea. Whatever the outcome, all I know is this one salient fact. Mark Partain rips. He’s one of the top 5  pool gurus ever. Incomparable in any session. He’s a true stand-out.

Marks top five places to skate ever- 1) Endless Wave. 2) Cherry Hill. 3) The Turf. 4) Lake Cunningham San Jose. 5) The entire State of Oregon.

Marks influences—Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Lonnie Toft, Christian Hosoi and everybody from Ventura & Santa Barbara.

Thank you to Mark for providing the photographs from his collection. Skate Strong-Ozzie