Pool Detective

I think I’m a pool detective. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I’m always trying to locate the old ones from the magazines. I’m obsessed…obviously. There is something magical about standing next to one of the great pools I once saw in the magazines. My Pennsylvania youth was heavily influenced by these images and these pools. The photographs of Glen E. Friedman, Craig Stecyk, William and Stan Sharp and Jim Goodrich are seared into my memory cells forever. I’ve stood beside Dog Bowl, Gonzales, Mondo’s, Buddha pool and now Magoo’s. I found Magoo’s and was crestfallen to know that the house had sat empty for the entire 2011 summer.

I went to the current owners and knocked. I showed them the old photographs. The pool is completely redone. New plaster, new coping. Same shape and transitions though. I’ve found Elephant Country as well. It is gated off and the home is owned by a movie producer. Even so, I left a nice note. I told him that I had photographs of some 1970’s skaters ripping his pool. Jerry Valdez and Kent Senatore both told me that it wouldn’t really matter, since the homeowners were away on vacation when the trespassing occurred. He’d probably be shocked to learn of their decades-old shenanigans. Needless to say, he never phoned. I found out something cool recently. I was looking through the William Sharp photographs of Magoo’s pool and saw the fish on the right side wall. They were ceramic or something… colorful. They stuck out.

I had a flashing memory. Skateboard Kings. The 1978 BBC documentary about the Dog Town skaters and others. It’s a pretty cool look into the past and the start of it all. Well, I recall watching that video recently and there is a crazy pool session and party at a house in LA. In Skateboard Kings, it was all filmed at night. The pool is lit up, there are people everywhere…  TA and Jimmy Plumer are ripping the pool and the filmer is in the deep end filming their lines. I recall as the camera pans left… those ceramic fish on the wall.

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I thought to myself…  ”Wait a minute…” I grabbed a Glen E. Friedman book and thumbed through. I quickly found what I was looking for. Billy Yeron at the BBC Pool. Billy Yeron is hanging a precise wheeler on some rough coping. The deathbox is chewed up and I’m thinking that this pool sure looks like Magoo’s pool. Same deathbox, same spout under the box, same ceramic fish… I turn back to my laptop and pull up the Steve Picciolo and Kent Senatore photographs. Perfect match. Now, I’m thinking, how did the BBC get into Magoo’s pool to film? Why is there a Billy Yeron photograph in Glen E. Friedman’s book and the photograph is listed as taken at the BBC pool? Questions. Questions. I phoned Glen E. Friedman. He patiently listened to me. “Dude, I named it the BBC pool because the morning after the Skateboard Kings film shoot, Billy Yeron and I went back early in the morning and took that photograph. He was riding for Bel Air wheels and needed a shot. I named it the BBC pool for the book as I never knew the real name of it. Simple as that.” God! Some detective I am, huh? Thanks to William Sharp and Glen E. Friedman for the photographs. Skate and do your homework. - Ozzie