Joe's Pool - a flashback

Palm Springs Joe is a great dude! For over a decade, he has let pool skaters come in and ride the big Blue Haven right-hand kidney in his backyard. Over the years it has been “found” by various people. Peter King & 540 Slide were the first to ride it in the 90’s. PK said that he saw the pool from a Cessna airplane, made a mental note of cross streets and then barged it a few days later. They were chased out of the yard fairly quickly by  a young stocky angry-looking guy. That guy was Joe.

I was with Texas Dan on a Palm Springs pool mission in November of 2000. We saw a house ‘For Sale’ and pulled in. There was a crappy swimmer on that property but while checking the other fences (because that is what you do), we saw the Blue Haven. Dansas and I were tripping! We knocked on the door and Joe’s mom answered. She let us ride for fifteen minutes. I gave her my phone number and Joe ended up calling me. He was cool and we hooked up a few sessions that winter.

Joe subsequently told me that there is a school nearby and kids always hopped the wall of his yard to get into the neighborhood  because it is a culdesac type of area. Cutting through his yard prevented them from having to walk four blocks around to get into the development where they lived. The pool has been empty for decades and he recalls guys riding it in the late 1970’s and 80’s. After 2000, the pool sat. Nearly a decade went by and I drove the grid to look through the area. I saw the house and remembered. I knocked. Joe didn’t live there and his mom gave me his number. It turns out that a pool pal – Doug Kinkade–has had permission at Joe’s for a little while. I called Doug and this session was the result. Joe had the pool fixed for his family and recently sent me an image of them swimming in it. I thought it was time to go back and take another look at that session.

Thanks to Dansas, Peter King, Lance, 540 Slide, Salba, Michael Serna Jr. , Adam 12, Doug Kinkade, Aaron, Mazza, Borden and Billy. Thank you to Joe for letting us flow….  Awesome!  Thanks to Peter King and MRZ for the images. Skate- Ozzie