The Pool That Changed the History of Skateboarding | Finland’s ‘Villa Mairea’
Finland has always had a strong history with skateboarding. There’s the Finnish legend Arto Saari, tourism that uses skateboarding to promote an ancient town, they even allowed skateboarding all over their airport. It’s a little known fact though that the stereotypical Southern California skateable pool was actually designed by a Finnish architect named Alvar Aalto back in the 1930’s.
His pool designs were not only the first kidney shaped bowls, but also the first to have deep and shallow ends and mellow transitions between both. Surely he never could have envisioned that 40 years later his design would be perfect for skateboarding. It was the California drought of 1975 that showed the world what was possible in these Finnish-designed backyard swimming pools.
From De Zeen: “It might be the swimming pool that changed the history of skateboarding,” said Helsingin Sanomat. “Until then, swimming pools were traditional rectangles, but the pool at Villa Mairea doesn’t have any angles in the pool.”
Transworld SKATEboarding even managed to sneak into this original pool and illegally skate a quick session. The Villa Mairea is a massive mansion located in the town of Noormarkku, Norway and many skaters have tried – and failed – to skate the pool in the past.
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