Water shortages in the 1970s caused homeowners in Southern California to drain their pools, launching a skateboard invasion that would eventually be chronicled in the documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys." Flash forward to today, and skateboarders are traveling from as far away as Germany to take advantage of all those empty pools in foreclosed homes in California, Arizona and Florida, reports the New York Times. Wow. Welcome, tourists! More via the Times:
"Some skateboarders use realty tracking sites like realquest.com and realtor.com to find foreclosed houses with pools, while others trawl through satellite images from Google Earth. On the Web site skateandannoy.com, where skaters trade tips about how to find and drain abandoned pools, one poster wrote about the current economic malaise. “God bless Greenspan,” the post read, “patron saint of pool skatin'." ; In some cases, the skateboarders come armed with their own water-pumping equipment to empty the pools, and tell the Times that in light of all that worry about potential West Nile (the skeeters are attracted to the water in the pool), they're actually performing a public service (the cops seem to agree, since they're not being ticketed when caught). Additionally, the skateboarders say they have a code of ethics, and they "never mess with or enter the houses." [Via Flickr user Foxxyz]
· Skaters Jump In as Foreclosures Drain the Pool [NY Times]
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