Pool Skating Will Never Die

“It seems like pool skating is one of those things that remains pretty untouched by corporate reach—you can’t buy it, you can’t sell it. It’s genuine.”

Tino Razo’s photo book, Party in the Back, from Anthology Editions, is a love letter to pool skating. One of the last bastions of DIY culture in skateboarding, the trend began in the 60s but really blew up in the 70s, with enterprising kids equipped with buckets, pumps, and little regard for private property. While much of skateboarding has evolved at a breakneck pace, the simple pleasure of finding and skating a pool has remained relatively unchanged over the decades. While flipping through Razo’s anthology, shot over two years from 2013 to 2015 in the hazy golden Southern California region, a lot of things come to mind: making art from the deteriorating American dream, fighting for uncurated anti-corporate experiences, climate change, and a type of worry-free existence it feels like we might never again know, to name a few… read more >