One man’s empty pool is another’s fantasy playground. The latter was certainly the case for skateboarders who during the historic 1976 drought in Los Angeles found vertical skating nirvana in the form of drained swimming pools.
In this short titled Dustbowl Disciples for The Los Angeles Coalition for Water Conservation, McGann | Zhang compares the current drought afflicting California to that ‘76 water shortage during which empty pools gave rise to the L.A. subculture of skating. McGann | Zhang served as the hybrid ad agency/production company on the film which is designed to raise awareness of today’s drought conditions and the importance of water conservation.
This innovative project brings together Tony Hawk, 10 time X Games gold medalist who is widely considered one of the most influential skaters of all time; Tony Alva, the originator of vertical skating and one of the members of the original Z boys skateboarding team, which was documented in the film Dogtown and Z-Boys; Steve Alba, the Godfather of backyard pool skating; Christian Hosoi, one of the Top 5 Most Influential Skaters of All Time; Steve Olson, a member of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame and Arto Saari, Skater of the Year, 2001 for Thrasher Magazine. It also includes a host of other extremely well known and respected skaters such as David Gonzalez, Daniel Vargas, Vanessa Torres, Jack Fardell, Jenni Helms, Josh Henderson, Nora Vasconcellos, Coan Buddy Nichols and Steve Bailey. Dustbowl Disciples aims to be a rallying cry to join together and help affect change through a variety of social efforts.
A connected site also provides tips from Heal The Bay on water conservation, and encourages people to share their stories and document their conservation efforts with the chance to win a variety of skate-related prizes including skate decks signed by all of the participating skaters as well as ones signed exclusively by Tony Hawk.
“Pools are an important historical element to skate culture and an appropriate symbol for the drought. Bringing together some of the legends that started it all along with our next generation has been a great way to raise awareness to the issues surrounding the drought,” said Hawk.
