Top 5 Pools with Brandon Turner, Van Homan, and Randy Brown.

Jeff Z.

• September 02 2008
• 3,595 views
• 5 comments

Brandon pays tribute to Pala with a turndown out of the love seat. Photo: Zielinski

Van Homan
1. Asbury Park, New Jersey: I’m sure this will be #1 on a lot of guys lists. The pool was by far the best pool ever. The shape was unique and the trannys were perfect. It was one of the rare pools that you could air with ease. I don’t mean just air it a little bit above coping—you could really blast this thing. I can only imagine the things that would go down if the Asbury pool was still here today. I wish it was still around.

2. Reading, Pennsylvania: Technically, the Reading bowl wasn’t really a pool, but it was built in the 70s and had all the characteristics of a real pool. I spent many hours bailing this one out before the session could go down. Every wall in the bowl was a little different and once you learned the sweet spots you could blast and flow with no worries.

“I can honestly say I never rode a pool that I didn’t like.”

3. Palmyra, New Jersey: A while back a few kids told me about this pool. It was in their friend’s backyard and it was totally cool to ride it. It was nice to have a pool where you didn’t have to worry about getting kicked out. You could play music, BBQ, and ride the pool all day long with no hassle. The pool it self is an interesting one for sure, kidney shaped, tight tranny at the bottom and then mellowing out, and it never went to vert—which is rare for a pool. You can see Darryl Tocco doing a few lines at this pool in his Two by Four video part.

4. Salton Sea, California: The famous kidney shaped pool located on the abandoned shoreline of the Salton Sea has been visited by many riders and skaters of the past decade or so. It’ a really fun pool, but for me it’s more the experience then anything that attracts me to this pool. The Salton Sea was meant to be the next Palm Springs, but feel short when the water became too salty for its fish to survive and the area was taken over by a terrible smell. It’ just exciting to be in the middle of nowhere riding a pool and exploring an area that was once so full of life but now a ruins.

5. Lake Forest, California: A long hike up the side of a hill/mountain was a small price to pay for a pool complete with a great view, a curved love seat, and a tight tranny. I have to admit I was having a hard time picking a fifth. Pools are a lot like street riding in that there are so many different set ups and each one is great for its own reasons. I can honestly say I never rode a pool that I didn’t like.

Van Homan enjoys the Salton Sea experience. Photo: Mulligan

Brandon Turner
1. Pala Round: Pala was truly a one of kind pool. What are the chances of any pool lasting as long as Pala did? Then if you take in to account on how good the pool was—it’s amazing. Those two things make it a one of a kind. I remember arriving at Pala before sunrise with some friends to dig it out. Of course after we dug it out we rode it and were totally blown away on how good it was. We returned early the next morning only to find it half filled in again. So we repeated this game of dig it out and then ride and then it was filled in again for quite some time. Some time passed since I went back and eventually when I did I was shocked to find it empty and with some people skating it. After talking to them about our laborious excursions with the pool they laughed and told us it was ok to ride the pool now. This was about six years ago. Someone had spoken with the owner of the land and got the ok to do our thing in the pool as long as we kept it clean. There was a very large caretaker/security guy dubbed “sweet tits” who cruised around in his pickup and waved at us and sometimes would come over and watch what we were doing. This same guy used to kick us out, call the sheriff, and wrote down our license plate number which led us to parking about a mile away and riding to the pool with shovels and buckets before the “ok days.” Since we got the ok it was always a go to spot. I rode there almost everyday for a long time. Having a pool last so long was great because it really gave you time to figure things out about it. Little things you wouldn’t figure out if you only had one session and were tuned in to all suspicious noises for someone catching you. It was nice to have a pool you could let your guard down on. It’s a total bummer that it’s gone, but it had a good run and I am very thankful for all the sessions I had there.

“No tricks and no airs, just speed and turning, this simplicity impacted the way I rode from there on.”

2. CK or Clinton Keith: This pool was another right hand kidney like Pala, but with worse tranny. The pool was still amazing and had a fun love seat. Clinton Keith was my very first pool. I remember the first time I rode it being so overwhelmed with just riding the narrow deep thing. This pool got me hooked on riding pools and realizing how fun flying around and just riding the rollercoaster was. No tricks and no airs, just speed and turning, this simplicity impacted the way I rode from there on. I have ridden this pool with a lot of people and no one ever rode it like John Greer. He destroyed CK beyond understanding. Watching him ride there made me realize what was possible in pools

3. Monster: I’m sure if you ask [Ryan] Fudger this will be his number one pool. This pool was amazing. I didn’t have the privilege of riding this pool more than a couple sessions, but it was super good the couple times I did ride it. I have never ridden a pool like Monster. The lines in that pool were very different. The loveseat was in the middle of the pool and you could hit it either way. The deep end bowl was big and round you could just go around that a few times if you wanted. It also had stairs that were carvable, so all these things add up to a great pool and a great time.

4. Safety Dolphin: A while ago Ryan Fudger, Mike Grosse, and myself took a trip out to Phoenix to meet up with KC [Badger] and [Ryan] Sher who was out there at the time. KC took us to this pool. I think it got its name from the tiled dolphins on the floor of the shallow end where if you stand on top of you are completely out of the way or “safe” from any line in the pool. I have only ridden this pool this one time and the reason it makes it on this list isn’t because it’s the best pool ever, it was just a really fun time. Don’t get me wrong, the pool is still a really, really good pool—probably a 4 out of 5. I have never ridden a pool that was as viscid as this one. No matter how fast you went or how on-edge you were in the flat you wouldn’t slide out. The whole time we were riding this pool and getting used to it, Sher was bitching about how he hated round pools and that pools are stupid and on and on and on. Reluctantly, he finally took a run and another and another. You could start to see he was actually enjoying it and having fun. By the time we left he put us all to shame and just killed the pool. We all dubbed him his gnar dog nickname of “Scratch” (which was just a spin on his old Arizona nickname “Screech”) after that we proceeded to call him that the remainder of the trip

5. Mira Mesa: This was a huge Olympic sized rectangular shaped pool. It was fun because it lasted quite a while. I actually think it might still be there, but it’s more of a swamp with reeds and crocs living there. Mira Mesa was 12’ deep at the back wall, which you could hit totally balls out as fast as you could and lay down the longest carve you could and the side walls were good for handling all the speed from the back wall. A lot of people knew about this pool, but somehow I never ran in to anyone when I showed up. It was always a good time. It was next to an apartment complex where people could watch you from their balconies, but no one ever seemed to care. You could ride there as long as you wanted to, which led to figuring out things and lines in a square pool.

Brandon enjoys Pala during the “OK days.” Photo: Zielinski

Randy Brown
1. Asbury Park, New Jersey: Best so called “pool” ever, the thing was made to ride. It was perfect in every way possible. The last time I rode it I was 16 and I’ve yet to find anything to come close to it.

2. Salton Sea, California: I’ve only recently been to this pool, but it is easily one of the best, from the wild landscape and sunsets to the crazy story behind the whole town, it’s a bad-ass setup.

3. Jackson, New Jersey: This pool was grippy as hell, it had a perfect pocket and some weird little handrails for getting into the deep end that were fun to ride. No looking over your shoulder, either—the place was dialed

4. Pala, California: On my first trip to Cali we got there the day that the famous Pala pool got filled in. Lucky enough for us there was a square one 100ft. away with a big cow face painted on it. The pool had steep pockets and a really fun love seat

5. Glassboro, New Jersey: This was the first pool I ever rode and it only got better (Asbury being my second). [There was] barely any tranny at all so you had to pull up manual into the walls—it was rugged. Either way the feeling of rolling up on a graffiti-covered pool that was rideable and down the street in a friend’s backyard makes the top five alone

Randy Brown, bad-ass setup. Photo: Mulligan