The opportunity is rare and temporary, so some people go through a lifetime without navigating the tight transitional walls of an empty backyard pool - the holy grail of skateboarding. Those who've had a taste know how sweet and sinister a pool can be. Carving over the light in the deep end might sound simple, but the sheer vert of it proves otherwise. The weightless feeling of being high up on a pool's wall produces a sense of raw accomplishment and a genuine stoke that's unrivalled.

Vancouver's Nelson Conway begins the tale of a backyard gem he had access to for a very limited time: "My mom told me that her cousin had a big, empty mansion they were planning on destroying to build a better one. My parents moved in to look after it before the construction started, and I went over there to check it out. The backyard pool was full of water at the time, so I ran one of those long pool-skimmer things along the walls and it felt transitional. I dreamed about skating it every day for about 8 months, and then it got drained. It was going to be demolished so I asked, and they said I could skate it."

A permission pool seems like an ideal situation, right? Well, yes and no as you'll find out:

Even though the pool was eventually getting removed, wasn't there some static right away when it came to skating it?
The owner hit me up on Facebook and told me I was the only person allowed to skate. I could have one photographer, but I wasn't allowed to bring any filmers [laughs]. I really have no idea why.

Were there any other "rules"?
I had to sign a waiver, and the photographer who came with me had to sign one. I kind of argued with her a bit about how you can't really skate a pool by yourself and the guys who I'd be bringing would be experienced skaters. She wasn't having that, so I kind of just stopped talking to her.

When did the first session go down?
In early April, just me and Louis Feller went to check it out at first. My step-dad's grandchildren were over, so we put them to work cleaning the pool for us. Had some child labourers [laughs]. For the first session, me, Clayton Parsons, Nugz (Nick Moore), Dane Collison, AJ McCallister and Louis rolled up. We skated it pretty hard, and in the early photos you couldn't really see what was going on because the pool was just plain white.

How long did it take until the spray paint came out?
After the first session I thought, "What would've happened in the ‘80s with a big empty pool?" So I invited some of my graffiti buddies to come over and the entire pool got coated in one night [laughs]. It was pretty rad. I've seen some painting happen at Leeside, but I've never really watched guys when they had the time and space to do whatever they wanted.

(keeping reading for proof of the pool painted and skated)