The Nude Bowl.

[caption id=“attachment_3162” align=“aligncenter” width=“450” caption=“Doug Kinkade- Nude Bowl ruler…”]

I visited Andy Macdonald in San Diego, back in 1993. I flew in for an ASR tradeshow from Woodward skate camp in Pennsylvania. Andy happily informed me that we would be driving out by Joshua Tree that very night. It seems that it was Dave Reuls birthday & there was going to be a party. I nodded my assent & off we went. The dirt road up to the slab, was rutted & broken. Cactus & sage brush covered everything. Trash billowed out beside the car & discarded beer cans were ubiquitous. We crawled up the dirt track, careful not to bottom out.

We arrived at the concrete slab. It was right below the hotel remains & it was overflowing with trucks, cars & people. Everywhere that I looked, there were people sitting on sleeping bags, smoking, drinking & laughing. It was unreal. We got our gear out & headed up a short path to where we could see lights. A generator growled somewhere in the distance close by. We stepped up onto the deck. A huge kidney pool was spread out before us with– at least–thirty skaters milling about the decks & shallow end.

Graffiti was splashed & scrawled upon-virtually-every surface, in every color.  Most of it was unintelligible, but one that caught my eye & has remained with me over the years, was located on the hip just inside the coping. It said, “Friendships never die at the nude.” The old nudist hotel building was a pale shadow if its former self. It rose gaunt & skeletal above the pool & squatted obscenely in the waning light. I could smell weed burning & happy faces greeted my roving eyes.

This was  Mecca! I watched Dave Reul- hair dyed blue-push into the pool and FS 50-50 the entire face wall. I watched Andy FS blunt, then follow it up with a FS rock near the hip. I saw people I can barely remember doing insane things I will never forget. I hadn’t seen anything like it…anywhere. A cute girl walked up to me & offered me a beer. I waved her away & started skating.

Twister pulled a sick FS grind, Rhino crailed the side wall, and Jonathan ‘Bacon’ Hobbs made a sick FS air…which was greeted by howls from those watching. It was sick! We skated for hours & hours. People came & went, moves were pulled, girls were discovered, friendships & love were made. The deep night faded into half light. Dawn glowed in the distance. I watched the sun come up over the ‘Nude’ bowl that morning & I will remember it my whole life.

The ‘Nude’ is gone now. Someone was stabbed at a party out there in the late 90s. It wasn’t a skater that performed such a heinous act. It was a scumbag wanna-be punk. His stupidity lost us one of the great gathering places for skateboarders everywhere. Remember the ‘Nude’ bowl. Thanks Andy Mac, JGrant Brittain & Doug Kinkade for the images. Skate-Ozzie