13 or 14 yrs old. it was called the Kona bowl and it was
behind an abandoned house in walnut creek. the older kids
knew about it and took me there. first wall i looped out and
hit my head. not knocked out but dazed and humbled.
backyard pools that are not built for skating are most times
hard to ride. kinks and lots of vert every part of every wall
is different...... so of course that's why they are so much fun.
the dude -royce nelson- in the photo was probably born to be a
major leaguebaseball player. he's good at most everything he does.
by day he is an inventor and all around good guy and father.
i've never seen anyone skate a backyard pool like him.
i would guess he is probably one of the best backyard pool skaters
in the world. everytime i go skate a pool with him i still feel like the'
little kid dizzy from hittin his head and completely humbled by royce's
natural talent.
-royce- crail slide over the deathbox.
maybe tried 3 times before he made.
..tsuyoshi from FELEM in the background
16 comments:
Royce is a good dude ANd amazing skater. Plus, he digs King Diamond and metal...which is a plus.
like i said, keep writing maxie. stories feed the soul.......
Kona bowl was sick! and all the other pools where pleasant hill bart is.
i've always tripped on some short clips i saw in some old video, speed wheels maybe. could i be remembering this right, back-to-back airs in a pool? and fastplants. what i wouldn't give to be able to do a proper fastplant on a vert ramp, nevermind a swimming hole. that's cool that he still rips.
Yeah...I like hearing stories of people still in thier element..i skated a Kidney off Hwy 9 up Pierce Road in '77 and the learning curve was painful as well..Nice read
D
That is a lot of vert to recover from.
I hear Tony Farmer still rips pools like nobody's biz. Anyone know why he got banned from Thrasher?
Hope I can grow up and be like him :D
max -- cool to hear updates about guys like royce, whom i've followed for years, along with farmer, the ox, etc (list is huge) and a lot of the dudes who basically get coverage in zines and obscure pool videos, but never "made it"
(according to who?) to get a big sponsor or nike contract or tv show or in transworld, or wtf ever, but are true rippers. the realest of rippers in my humble opinion. thanks for the story. royce's part in dts is one of my favs. and i'm outta new york...if you see him, let him know out on the east coast, where we're all nobodies....dudes like royce and farmer reign supreme!
Skated with Royce and Curtiss Hsang at Burnside; total rulers. They seemed to really feed off of each other. I bet Royce really misses him...
Skated with Royce and Curtiss Hsang at Burnside; total rulers. They seemed to really feed off of each other. I bet Royce really misses him...
The list of unsung heroes is a mile long for many of us. royce is a bad motherfucker. growing up in nor-nor-cal myself i had a couple dudes i really looked up to, Jason Monroe being the first one to always pop into my head- the dude was absolutely relentless and inspired more of us redding loc's than he cares to remember.
I needed to shoot and ad for Think, so I called up Tobin to get it done. He said, "cool, just roll with me to a couple of pools." I was 12. Maybe just did a couple kick turns. But I saw Royce rip that day. Max, call me.
Great photo. Also see Pete "The Ox" Colpitts in that short "april pools" clip on the Thrasher site for a sick inverted backside grind over the deathbox in the same pool.
yep... skated with pete and royce...
those two are insane.
This is sick. Thanks.
Royce- The Concrete Cowboy, Hoss, Cowboy, Destroyce rides them backyard pools like they were the most perfect skatepark pools ever made. Great dude to boot and I'll never forget after a full moon session on Mt> Tam following him down the open highway in his Marlboro man jacket doing about 35-37 mph, 2-3 AM in the morning, on 99 duro, 58 mm wheels. A legend and a god.
7 out of 10 backryard pool rippers cite Royce as a king of the art. Words don't do the guy justice.
Post a Comment