Lance Mountains' pool.
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- Lance Mountain FS Air- ladder
Yeah, I know, I know. Blue Tile Obsession is all about the ‘backyard’ pools. I never meant to cover ‘made-for-skating’ pools. However, since it is MY blog & Lance is rad…we are going to visit his place regardless. I tried to get out to Lances pool a few times. Salba would phone me and say he was going over if I wanted to ride. I always had something pressing & couldn’t go that particular day.
I recently saw Lance at the ‘Skateboarding Hall of Fame’ induction. I grabbed his number & hooked up a session. Lance is a busy guy. When I showed up to his house, he was walking around the street -out front- in shorts & socks; a cell phone glued to his ear. Author & Skatelab ripper, Steve Badillo was sitting in the driveway as well. I knew Steve from the ‘Dogtown/Zboys’ documentary shooting with TA & Stacey back in 99-2000, so it was great to see him again! We caught up on old times and then did a bit of minor leaf-removal to get the pool readied.
Lances pool is super sick! Its a peanut-shaped pool with great coping & pink tiles. He has removable obstacles to place in the pool which increase the difficulties as the session develops. The deathbox is even covered over with tiles which Lance removes for added grinding fun. He has a deep end, side ladder which you will see in the photographs. It is really difficult to get over as its a mind screw…playing with your head. I coasted about 30 BS airs over the damn thing & cleared it a few times but couldn’t make myself ‘man up’ and put it down. Oh well, next time. Lance has NO problem with his pool. Lance served up big FS airs, Judo airs, Egg plants and every obstacle was conquered double-quick.
The pool is fast, fast, fast! The shallow-to-deep ratio is super perfect. When you carve the shallow & pump the waterfall, you hit the facewall going Mach 5! Lance, Steve & I rode for a few hours. I had such a blast. Lance told us that he had the pool built for his last video part. He said that he worked on 540s for something like a month….trying to put one down in the pool. He said that MRZ would show up & photograph his attempts daily, asking him, “Lance, why do you do this to yourself?!”. Lance just shrugged and answered, “Because I have to.”
Steve cruised out after a few hours as he had a publishing deadline to meet. Steve Badillo has published some great skating books. ‘Skateboarder’s Start Up’ and others. Check them out. Lance and I spoke about skateboarding history & the early contests from 79, 80, and 81. He told me of a session at his pool with Grosso, Duane, Brad Bowman, Chris Strople and Darrel Miller. All these legends were there together. Pool pals; down for life! That must have been something to witness- I am sure! It was interesting to look through his scrapbook & photo albums with him. His pool is rad & I had a stellar time skating and hanging with such an influential skateboarding pioneer. By the way- I posted a photograph of Lance in a “real” backyard pool for all you hardcore pool pals. I think we are safe now! Skate-Ozzie
Thanks to Lance Mountain & Steve Badillo for the photographs.
