PIT

Bulldog and Andy laughed as Rick Stine, Marlon and I kept up a running dialogue during breakfast. “You see, the California pool scene is probably way different than it is on the east coast.” I muttered. Marlon interjected, “Yeah…  California has pools that you can actually ride!” Andy quipped, “Didn’t Farmer say that a pool is good if you can get over the light?” “Yeah…” I answered. “Yeah, he did say that.” The Gospel according to Farmer. Heavy source. Deity. Make no mistake…  If Farmer said it, it must be so. We sipped our coffee and talked about legends, heroes, bros and zeros. We ate our breakfast and moved into our day. Pools awaited us. They always do. Rick and I had found two or three new pools for Bulldog and Andy’s visit. One was an old Anthony kidney. It looked like a pit, but it was something new to roll around in. We drove by and spoke with the owners. Interestingly, he and his wife didn’t think the pool was rideable. We laughed. I heard someone tell the wife, “If we can get over the light, the pool is good.” I smiled. Lesson learned.

We each took a couple of tries in the thing. The left wall pinched hard and flattened out. The right wall wrapped tight and it sort-of funneled you and the waterfall ate your speed. The shallow would’ve worked but it was a struggle to even get back up to… Pain pit. The facewall had a few steep feet of vert which was topped by some buck-toothed Anthony. I had much better things to do with my time and thought of the other pools on the days list. Rick Stine had the goofy-foot advantage and zipped onto tiles… a few dollar bills dropped from pockets and everyone urged him to grind this beast so we could leave with honor. As long as someone put trucks on… We were good. Fourteen dollars and a nudge and up he went. The best part of that pool is that we never have to go there again. I don’t mind riding a pit once in awhile. I think it helps. But in this case, I was happy someone took us off the hook and took one for the team. Thanks Rick. I heard someone recently talk about pool skating and they said, “If you aren’t breaking the law, you aren’t doing it right.” I personally think that person is confused. If you aren’t having fun, you aren’t doing it right. Thus endeth the lesson. Thank you MRZ. Skate- Ozzie