Men s Health Illustration
IN THE EARLY ‘70s, skateboarders were the renegades, the badasses of the sporting world, with their innovative moves, creative vernacular, and even their unusual practice spots. Because designated skate parks hadn’t been invented yet, skateboarding gangs would appropriate abandoned or neglected backyard swimming pools. They’d drain the water, leaving a nice, smooth cement bowl for practicing tricks and freestyle moves. “Riding the pool” meant carving paths across the bottom of the cement pool.
Tony Alva, a kid from a Venice, California neighborhood called Dogtown, was being noticed for his revolutionary stunts and became the first to literally go “off the wall.”