Thrasher Magazine

On Saturday January 18, 2025, the infamous Vans Combi Pool in Orange, CA was opened for one last bash. End of an era? The icing on the cake? Yes and yes. Thank you, Steve Van Doren

Photos by Burnett, Jefferson and Rooney

Last trip to the mall

Damn straight

Lester signs the Good Book

Ruby preps Greyson for battle. Gonna be a long day

Crum wrangles Texans and affiliate riff-raff in the snack area

Babes, everywhere … It was a pool party, after all

Borden warms it up with a David Andrecht to fakie. He grew up at this park

Nicky Guerrero, stepping out one last time

Bennett’s style brought comfort to all

Those dangerous Ueda Boys. They’ll be back

Bucky shakes off the dust, switchstance

Shrinking violets Bryce Wettstein and Willy Santos

Omar stomps with a local’s wisdom

Moto Shibata’s lien plants are worth the price of admission

Jeromy Green, off axis as per usual

Very few have as much bowl smarts at Tristan Rennie

Sleepy turtle, on hand

Tom Schaar’s practice runs sent shivers through the entire building. He was the man to beat

Up in the cheap seats: Arcadia Strong

Kevin got a few John Hancocks for the Library

While Priya and Patch came up on a toddler!

‘They get bigger’ ––Matt B

Masters kicking off. This is not the be confused with Legends, though Sandro Dias is definitely both

Frontside blunt slide from its vertical inventor

Rune Glifberg, Lucky Star

Nicole, Buffy, Fabi and Ruby: hardly wallflowers

At the suggestion of the press, Darren Navarrette took his “spineless” maneuver to the square

Salba approved!

Try this one and count yer teeth!

Horsefly! Right, Charms??

And then the Dane closed the curtains with his patented switch flip to fakie. Wowee wow wow

Gearing up for what they call getting down

Oliver Grosso took a glory ride, stepping lively on a sweeper

Tuck knee, always

McGill’s praise makes it all worth it

Tasteful portraits, take #1

Women, up next!

Joeygirl, to tail!

The women were probably the most exciting part of the day in a lot of ways. The talent level is explosive! Case in point: Lilly Erickson’s tucked-up stale

Speaking of tucked, doesn’t get more proper than Klara Kermoade’s FSA

Don’t see too many Saran Wraps to tail outside of Florida. Japan’s Hinano Kusaki DGAF!

No stress, Minna Stess with the sick KF indy! How could you ever forget a name like that?

The Gnar Hoefer, Grace Marhoefer with another tweaked egg

Lady Meek, mighty hurricane through the corner

Ruby Lilley, channeling some dark matter on a sky-scraping BSA

Lilly never missed a KF indy, btw

Of course, like Tom, everyone knew Arisa Trew was the girl to beat. Frontside Cab stale among other forbidden maneuvers

You mean like switch McTwists? Exactly

And put a bow on it with a 540 on the hip. Crickey!

Another fave was definitely Bryce Wettstein, a skater unlike any we’ve ever seen. Cabs sick AF too, she won over a lot of new fans

Even the undead were hyped on the womens’ amazing performance

Tight bros from way back: Teebs and Willy

Tasteful portraits, take #2

Rye and Buddy yuck it up while Pink and Ruby keep shade on those bright futures

Thought the Burndog didn’t pose for selfies while signing autographs with surf/skate royalty???

Don’t worry. Even if they bury this thing, these guys will dig it back out … and add more vert to it!

Tasteful portraits, take #3

The Crenshaw Skate Crew pulled up. Forgot their pads, tho

Old friends Lee Dawg and Rhino. Insert toothbrush joke here

And now a special word from SVD …

Including some recorded messages from Grosso and Mountain. Got us all choked up

Ain’t skating great?

And now … THE LEGENDS!

Can’t use that word around here without mentioning Screaming Lord Salba!

McGill takes flight

T Mag in the square!

Big Ben made it

Rollin’ like a freight train!

Eric Nash’s house is safe, the corner in the square not so much!

Yess!!

Cab, with the Cab. No cap!

And as you’ve probably heard, with the crowd behind him, Hosoi skied into the top slot ––his first Pool Party win. Bless up!

Varibots: very stoked!

'90s heads, too!

And then THE FINALS!!!!!!

Luigi Cini ––can’t-miss kf melons

You could set your watch to Cory Juneau’s frontside flips. You guys wear watches, right?

H-Street’s JD Sanchez, flying high for Tony Mag

And the good ol’ kickflip 540 variation. Good night!

This is the best photo in this thing: Greyson Fletcher, eight feet out, straight legged and insane! Nice one, Atiba (and Greyson!)

Hampus Winberg, say it back

This backside ollie from Kiko Francisco was not only overhead, it was also slightly alley-oop

Tate Carew, carewsing through the corner

And then there was King Tom. Unstoppable!

You saw this on the phone, but Greyson’s kickflips off the hip really captured the spirit of the day

Didn’t even recognize David Loy when he went in for the hug

Yer goddamn right

Awards time! Rune won the first one, and he won the last

Big love, Glifberg

Oh shit

A big night for Hosoi

And an actual mic drop

With Shaka departure

Arisa aced the women’s division and it was all smiles

Future so bright!

Logos out. Ruby knows

Kiko threw on the Cosby sweater for an enthusiastic third

Then Cory, then Tom, of course

A humble champ

Put Kiko back on!

And then Bryce rapped into the night. Then sang some nice acapella. And then more rapping

Available for weddings, bar mitzvahs or any special event. Just talk to her manager Mr. Santos. Thank you, Vans, for 25 years of laughs, thrills and pool-skating excitement. What a time to be alive