One day, Tony Alva and I were driving in Orange County. We were going someplace I no longer remember, but it was probably skateboard related. We were sitting at a red light on Brookhurst and he calmly points to his right and states, “That’s where the Fruit Bowl was.” I was quickly rendered inept as I followed his gaze. No longer watching the lights and traffic, I peered around as he pointed to some condos in the nearby distance. TA continued, ” My dad once lived over in those condos. They were built on the site of the Fruit Bowl…”. A car horn brought me back from his reverie and I stabbed the gas pedal to get through the green light that had changed. Traffic was moving.

Doug Schneider

David Hackett - side stairs

Doug Schneider

Chris Saglin

I asked TA how the pool received its name, Fruit Bowl. “It was at a rundown mental hospital”, he grinned. Recently, I spoke with David Hackett about his first time visiting the pool and he told me that he caught a ride there,  as he was too young to drive. He was really stoned that visit, but remembered that there were at least fifty people there. ” It was a heavy scene. Waldo Autry was king there. He ruled the place. He did ‘forever figure -eight′ carves and frontside and backside carves over the stairs that were on both sides of the pool.” David Hackett said that TA and Jay came to the Fruit Bowl. Both rode really well, pulling edgers and Jay tried hand plants on the wooden tombstone extension.

Jay Adams Image: Welman

“If you didn’t have pool skills and couldn’t rip, you sat in the shallow end. You watched. It was a gnarly scene there.” David told me to talk with Steve Olson as he had ridden there early on. I phoned Steve Olson and he added a bit of history as well. “I was one of the first people to drain the Fruit Bowl. Guys that I knew, rode their bikes in it. One guy named Willy and some others. It was insane! The pool was not a bust and lasted like six months until it became a party spot and the police finally shut it down.”

TA

Wally Inouye