The art of backyard pool skating has been a cornerstone of skateboarding since, well, pretty much the beginning. It's tough. It's raw. It's gritty. And although die-hard pool skaters might be few and far between these days, there are still plenty of them out there. One of my favs? John Worthington.
John is one of those skateboarders who has the ability to make the gnarliest spots look manageable. He has a deep understanding for what it takes to get rad in this tricky terrain, and in the latest Spot to Spot installment, we see his expertise on full display. Take a look:
In the episode, Jworth links up with filmer Josh Peacock—another dude who is no stranger to backyard pools and the missions that come with them—and a stacked crew, including: Taylor Nye, Lilly Erickson, Phoenix Sinnerton, Pedro Quintas, Dillon Doinklon, Tristan Rennie, and Tommy Calvert.
Hear me out—I know the episode is focused on John, but Lilly Erickson's kickflip indy in the deep end of that first pool was pretty unreal. I'm often reminded how gnarly skateboarding is these days, but tricks like that really provide a proper stamp of approval. That was rad to see.
Like all skateboarders, folks who rip pools (and really gnarly transition, just in general) really have to think about finding their flow, carving out unique lines and using what's available. Sometimes the options are endless, other times it's tough to make it work. But again, that's something Jworth has clearly figured out.
John's bag of tricks and general approach is really cool to see as well. It's super original, if you ask me. He's doing tricks that I really don't often see. He spares so piece of the pool he's skating and like Tristan Rennie and Peacock mention, it's pretty wild how he's able to piece together some of these lines with such difficult tricks.
What else can I say? He's a skateboarder's skateboarder, that's for sure. Keep ripping, John!
