It All Began For Me Back In 1975 After I Saw The first Skateboarder Magazine With The Co
ver of Greg Weaver Skating Some Pool In Southern California. From That Day On I Knew That Was My Calling And I Had Better Find One Quick. It Didn’t Take Very Long. My Best Friend At The Time And Ditch Skating Pioneer Vincent Kline (Yes Of Cyborg Fame!) Told Me Of Some Big Session To Go Down At Some Ditch On The North Shore. Me And Vince And A Few Others Skated Ditches And Hills Exclusively At The Time. He Mentioned That They Also Had Found A Pool But It Was Rectangle Shaped. I Thought How The Hell Can You Skate In A Pool That Doesn’t Bowl? But I Made Sure I Was In On This Session Anyway. I Associated With Other Skaters That Hung 
Around A Surf Shop Called “Town & Country Surfboards” In Pearl City With My Brother Chris, Roy Jamieson, Jasper Warren, Michael Martin And Fielding Benson. It Was A Tiny Little Shop About The Size Of A Large Walk In Closet In Front Of An Old Plantation Storefront On Kam Hwy. They Had Maybe 10 Surfboards, Some T-Shirts And A Small Assortment Of Urethane Wheels With Names Like “Da Kine”, “Stokers” And “Power Paws”.These Were Of The Loose Bearing Variety Meaning That If You Didn’t Tighten The Inner Bolts On You Axle Enough Your Bearings Would Explode Out Of Your Wheel And Go Everywhere & Your Fun Was Over. There Were Some Fiberglass Skateboards As Well, Some Were Plastic Or Aluminum Or Whatever. We Never Could Afford Those So We Made Our Own. My Other Brother Bobby Used To Work At A Shop Down The Road 
About A Mile Called “The Surfboard Shaping Company” Run By A Guy Named Harold Iggy. This Guy Was Really Cutting Edge For His Time And Was Always At The Forefront Of What Was New. Him And My Brother Used To Make These Fiberglas/Wood Hybrid Skateboards Just For Fun Out Of The Leftover Fiberglass And Resin From The Surfboards. They Used This New Kind Of Fiberglass Called “Colorflow” That They Had An Exclusive On.
Like I Said He Was Way Ahead Of His Time. (Kinda Like The Jeff Ho Of Hawaii) Anyway My Brother Would Hook Me Up With These Cool Looking And Really Functional (For Their Time) Skateboards.
The Pool Was Situated Right On The Water At A Surf Spot Called “Kammieland” It Had Decent Transitions But I Had No Idea On How To Get Up The Wall In This Thing So I Kickturned Under The Light. It Was Kinda Fun But It Wasn’t What I Was Looking For. This Also Was The Day I Met Jay Adams. Jay Used To Come Out Here In The Winter Time To Surf And Somehow He Got Hooked Up With Us I Think Through A Photographer Or Maybe It Was Rory Russell..Not Really Sure. Jay Had Never Skated A Square Pool Either And We Were Getting About The Same Height. Which Is Kind Of Strange If You Think About It Now...Anyway That Was My First “Pool”. I Went Back A Few Years Later After I Had A Little More Knowledge And Went Over The Light And Got Backside Grinds.....Kale Sandridge Got A Shot In Thrasher Many Years Later Going Over The Death Box!
My Next Hand Of Fate Would Be About 2 Months Later. Vince Came Up To Me When I Was Skating “Holes” A Ditch In The Mid
dle Of Pearlridge Center That We Used To Frequent And Told Me He Had Some Info On A Kidney In Waimalu. Some Kid Named Dennis Luis (Who Used To Skate Ditches Too) Had A Pool In His Backyard And His Parents Would Let You Skate For A Quarter. What A Deal That Was.. So Off We Were. It Was Never The Same After That! I Went To That Pool Everyday For The Next 2 Years And Honed In On My Pool Skating. That Pool Was My First Girlfriend! I Learned Everything From 
“Her” (All Pools Are She!) And Met All The Main (Hawaii) “Players Of Pools” In That Backyard. I Even Skated It With The Likes Of Tony Alva And Wentzle Ruml And Got A Few Pictures In “Skateboarder Magazine”Most Notably The “Contents” Page. I Also Kept My Ears Open For Any Info Of Other Pools On The Island..We Found A Few Notable Pools Over The Years. There Was “Lewers Pool” Located In The Middle Of Waikiki, Pearlridge Pool, And A Tiny Little Pool At Kawela Bay On The North Shore. I Was Also A Military Brat So I Could Get On Military Bases And Skate Pools Such As Bloch Arena, Beemans Center, Schofield Officers Club, And Barbers Point. I Also Had This Friend Named Tom Montague Who Knew Of A Few Pools In Foster Village. This Is Also When I Met Darren Ho And Art & Doug Dickey.
One Weekend Me And Tom Decided To Try And Drain This Pool Down The Street From His House. It Was A Sick Square With Bank To Vert Transitions. We Figured Out The Backwash Feature On The Pump And It Started To Drain. The Next Day We Were Amped. When We Arrived 
There Was A Hose Going Into the Pool And It Was Filling Back Up. What A Sinking Feeling So I Turned Off The Hose And Turned On The Backwash Again. All Of A Sudden The “Poolman” Comes Around The Corner An
d Says Hey! Me And Tom Ran And Barely Get Away. What I Didn’t Know Was That Tom Used To Deliver Newspapers To The Neighbor And That The Poolman Got His Name And Address From This Guy. When We Got To Toms House The Cops Were Waiting For Us. Busted On My First Drain What The Fuck? I Was Supposed To Go For My First Mainland Trip That Summer To Skate With Jay, Tony And All The Z-Boyz (That Was The Summer Of The “Dogbowl”) But My Brother Chris Got To Go Instead..I Knew From That Day On To Never Be Caught Again (So Far So Good, Cross My Fingers!)
Many Pools Here And On The Mainland Went Ridden For The Next 5 Years Or So But The Focus For Most Were Skateparks. I Went To The Mainland For A Few Summers & Skated All The Really Good Parks (Oasis, Spring Valley, Marina Del Rey, Skatopia, Lakewood And On And On.)Thats When I Met Salba, Hackett, Pineapple & Martinez. Then Came “Punk Rock”. I Started Hanging Around A More Crazier Crowd And Started Skating Less. When All The Parks Closed Ramps Became The New Craze And I Skated Whatever Ramp I Could Find. I Also Skated A Few “Closed Down“ Parks Like “Skate City Whittier” Or “Colton Skate Ranch” After I Moved To Los Angeles For A Few Years. I Also Started Skating The Few Pools I Could Find Usually On My Messenger Route All Over L.A.. I Had The Place Wired And Knew Of Some Gems (The “Alien Bowl” That Was In The Bones Brigade Video Was One) These Were Mostly In Beverly Hills Orange County Or In The Valley. This Is When I Ran Into Dave Hackett Again Skating This Killer Right Hander Off Of Laurel Canyon Blvd..
. I Moved Back To Hawaii In Late “86” And Started Attending The University Of Hawaii. I Lived In Town. So I Started Looking Around In The Neighborhood Of Kahala
With All My Experience I Gained Looking For Pools In Cali. I Also Acquired A Pool Pump Around This Time And Found A Few Vacant Homes That Needed Some Help And T.L.C. We Were Draining This Egg One Night And I Was Checking On It To Make Sure The Pump Was Going And I Seen This Mazda Parked Out Front And Thought Who The Fuck Is That? It Turned Out To Be G-Dog And He Was Poaching In On My Shit Like A Vulture! The Worst Part Though Was Grant Rode For “Vision”. We Heckled Him Hard For That Shit..I Knew Grant From His Backyard Ramp That Was Made Famous In Thrasher Magazine. So We Got To Talking. He Knew Where A Few Were So We Traded Some Pools. We Also Went Around To Some New Areas To See If We Could Find More. Thats How We Found The “Dot “ In Portlock. Which To Me Will Always Be On My Top Ten Best Pool List. It Was At This Moment That “G&G Pool Service” Was Born! Its Just That Part Of The Deal Was That Grant Had To Quit Vision! I Met Kale Sandridge About At This Time. We All Know How Good This Kid Became (Salba Had Him On His 10 Best List!) There Was Also A Guy Named Kirk Who Was In Our Gang Too. We Called Ourselves “The Kahala Bloods” Just Kidding...Ha Ha. Anyway We Skated Some Sick Pools That Summer Such As “The Boomerang”,”The Jungle Bowl”,“Maria’s”,The Dot,”Kaiser Bowl,” “The Starfish” And “Popeyes” The List Goes On And On..
So How Did We Get The Name “Royal Hawaiian Pool Service”? After Hearing All This Mumbo Jumbo Leading Up To This (I Call It B.R.H.P.S.!) And That Was Twenty Years Ago! We Were At The Jungle Bowl
When A Group Of People C
ame Into The Yard Looking Like Rockstars. Nobody Rolls Up Like That In Hawaii Except Christian Hosoi . It Turned Out To Be Hackett, Johnny Ray Bartel And The Jimmy’z Crew. Pretty Close Considering “Christ” Rode For Them. Vince Kline Was Modeling For Them And Told Them About Us And Our Thirst For Dry Plaster In Hawaii (See The Connection That Goes On Here. It Comes Around Full Circle.Thanx Vinny!). So Somehow They Got Directions Or Maybe My Roommate Mike Kotch (R.I.P.!) Brought Them.. So We Seshed Our Hearts Out Then We Walked Four Doors Down To “The Boomerang” And Took Over The Neighborhood. This Was The Beginning Of The Revolution! (Yeah Sure Buddy! Ha Ha.). No But This Was When G.G. Started Getting Hated In The Neighborhood Though..Jimmy’z Stickers Ended Up All Over The Pools And Dayglo Spandex Was Worn And Pictures Were Taken. Even The Police Were Looking For A Certain ”Jimmy Z”! Hackett Got Me Hooked Up With Them, Alva And Skip Englom From “Santa Monica Airlines”. Skipper Said “Lets Make A Guess Model”. He Had Natas Kaupas As His Pro Guy At The Time. Me And G-Dog Were Just Ho’s. So He Gave Us A Ho Model! Later We Changed It To “Bro” Model! Ha Ha Just Kidding Again. Anyway He Came Up With The Name And Got Jim Phillips Son To Make Us Some Graphics. Back Then S.M.A. Was A Part Of Santa Cruz So He Could Contract Out Thier Artists. Santa Cruz Was Sending Me Boxes. This Is How I Knew Of Jason Jesee. He Was Th
e Star In That Santa Cruz Video.
.I Couldn’t Ride The Natas Model Because It Was Too Short So He Made Us A Few Prototypes (Minus The Graphics Because It Wasn’t Done In Time). Otherwise I Mostly Rode Alva Boards That Dave Duncan Or T.A. Would Send Me. Grant Was Riding For Dogtown At The Time.It Wasn’t Until G-Dog Talked To Keith Meeks Almost A Year Later That We Scored The Cool Artwork...And Made Some Very Limited T-Shirts In Our Silkscreen Class. That’s Pretty Much The Beginings Of R.H.P.S. The Rest Is Still Being Written As We Go. We’re Going To Be Celebrating Our 20Th Anniversary This Year.
Enter The Merchadise Era.. Me And Grant Always Wanted To Make Decks And Shirts But We Never Had The Vehicle (Or Capital) In Which To Do It, That Is Until Jason Jesee Entered The Picture. Grant had Been Associating With Jason And Buying Old Cars Off Him In Santa Cruz. I Had Skated With Him A Few Times Most Notably At The El Cortez Pool In San Diego During A Trade Show. He Had Just Gone Through A Huge 
Drama Situation (Complete With Rattle Snakes!) With His Old Company “Consolidated” And Had Started A New Company Called “Automodown” Out of Watsonville Just South Of S.C. Somehow He And Grant Got On The Subject Of Making Some Boards. Next Thing You Know We Had The “Pink Steel Model” Complete With ‘Chris Strople Rail Cuts” 
The Original Deal Was To Put Polkadots All Over it But That Became Cost Prohibited. We Carried On Regardless.. Grant Also Had This Friend In The Screen Printing Business That He Had Used In A Prior Line Of Shirts Called ”Loco” He Doesn’t Like To Talk Much About That Though.Anyway This Guy Printed Us Up Our First Real Shirts With The Original Logo. So Now We Had Decks And Shirts. Meanwhile Jason Had This Distribution Deal Set Up In Japan With This Guy Tsuyoshi And He Was Selling Our Decks To Him.The Decks Were Selling Really Good Over There And Tsuyoshi Wanted To Meet Us. So Tsuyoshi Came To Oahu And Hung Out With Us. Tsuyoshi Was Also One Of The Main Players Of “Thrasher Magazine Japan” Our Freindship Led To More Fruitful Ventures As Automodown Was Having Some Minor Problems Of The Cash Kind..This Is When We Started Distributing Our Own Products Mainly To Japan. This Helped Bring More Variety And Different Ideas To The Forefront. This Also Brought Me And Grant To Japan To Check Out The Culture And The Way Of Life Of The Japanese People. And Also To Skate Some Cool Shit And Drink All Their Sake And Whiskey Ha Ha! So Now We Have All Kinds Of Stuff Shirts, Hoodies,, Hats, Shotglasses Decks And Mugs. What’s Next? I Dont Know.. I Never Thought I Would Get This Far. We’ll see Though.. One Thing For Sure Is That I Will Keep Riding Backyard Pools Whether There Is A Company Or Not And In That Respect I Haven’t Sold Out Yet.....G.O.
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Cheers, Go Find Your Own.
2007 G&G