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Continuing our series of exclusive stories and original material by Jeff "JT" Tatum, we've got the story and background of the famous "Kona Pool" that inspired a similar pool at the now fabled Del Mar Skate Ranch... 
One night in 1975, we were on the way home from the Escondido reservoir and my friend Wayne says, “ Hey dudes, I know where a kill pool is!” When we pulled up, it was pitch dark so Wayne shined his headlights in the bowl and we jumped in. I was on a 45” water ski. After a few runs, I knew my life had been changed: I was obsessed.
We called this pool the “Esco Bowl" at first, since it was in Escondido. For the next year, I rode that pool every chance I got. The bowl was a left-hand kidney about 9” feet deep, with lots of vert. It would be gnarly to ride, even now. It sat on top of a small hill and had a cement slab next to it that was from the house that burned down. The whole yard was surrounded by a stand of witness trees. When rain did make it un-ride able, it wouldn’t take long for the locals to bail it out.
Unfortunately, the local dirtheads that didn’t skate would frequently trash it by throwing rocks, bricks, trash, wood and anything else they could find in it. They would also graffiti it up and break the coping, leaving these trespasses as their trademarks. When I first started riding the Esco Bowl, I wore Levi’s and Vans, only. Skate pads were not invented yet. Then, after a few good slams, I started putting together my own gear by taping on basketball pads and ripping off my mom’s gardening gloves!
One day, my newfound sk8 bro Art Mingeuad and I were sitting in the shallow end, taking a break from the 100 degree heat and enjoying some smoky spirits that sprouted like soul -sent soldiers from the fertile dirt of a island in Hawaii called “Kona”.
After getting “Konanized”, I found a yellow crayon and wrote “Kona” in big yellow block letters over the bowl's broken light. The next day, I came with a few felt pens and added a large green, seven-point Kona spirit leaf under the yellow letters. I would maintain the letters and leaf regularly and the bowl soon took on the name “Kona Bowl”. Over the next year and a half, I went from blasting over the light, then to tile and finally blasting into the air.
Over an eleven month period, I only missed riding Kona nine days due to rain. Most rainy days, we would wait for it to dry up and then skate. The Kona bowl was my vert learning ground. By the time condos took Kona over. I had mastered vert tailtaps, coping, arch carves, over the deathbox, air, hip hits, and working a line around a bowl.
Soon after the death of the Kona Bowl, the famous “Del Mar Skate Ranch” was built. The park included a pool designed after the original Kona Bowl and given its name to honor the deceased outlaw pool. This bowl was a left -hand kidney, but a far cry from the original Kona. It had a mellower trannie and wasn’t as deep, but was still way fun with a rideable shallow end (unlike the real Kona Bowl).
The “Del Mar Kona” quickly became my new home, where I mastered front side air and backside ollies. I rode Del Mar with constant memories of the good old days when I would hitch hike from Leucadia to Escondido on Del Dios Highway to ride the original Kona. I rode Kona with friends like Art “Rat” Mingeaud and Esco’ locals like Marty Smith and Gunner Hougo and his crew, Dave Paul, Jim Sigerson, Paul Lockwood and a few others. Quite a few skaters from the O.C. and L.A. would show up at Kona and we would welcome them with open arms.  Kona gave me some of the best times of my life and consumed a lot of the time, I could have used the time getting into trouble but I learned to ride that bowl like no one else and I rode it on a longboard. Kona will go down in history as the most famous sk8 bowl in the Down South area. I can’t quite remember the years kona was there… I think it was from 1975 to around 1977 or ’78. Some with more brain cells left may remember – if you’re out there let us know.
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