Janet Church (Atkins) from Anaheim, CA was documented by her little brother, Dave Church (RIP), who was also an active skateboarder, carving the Fish Bowl in 1977, which is such a stylish and iconic photo. Janet was sponsored by Hobie at the time, rocking her Vans shoes and Hang-Ten socks, and I would love to learn more about her.
Photo: Dave Church
The Fish Bowl in Anaheim was a pool off a small house on Lincoln Avenue and considered a tough pool to skate since it was so tight. There was a feature in the blog, Blue Tile Obsession on September 16, 2013, to memorialize the beloved Fish Bowl after it was torn out, with memories shared and even an art exhibit.
When skaters first started going there in 1976-1977, Eric Groff (aka ARAB) remembered that: “the old lady that lived there would charge us fifty cents to skate. Duane [Peters] reminded me that it was fifty cents per hour and then I remembered she had an old cooking timer she would set for one hour and leave it in the kitchen window. When our time was up, it was either pay another fifty cents or split… In the early days you would get free tap water in a little Dixie cup, but then when she realized she could make money on the water she would charge us ten cents for iced tap water in an eight ounce Dixie cup.” Sounds like a mercenary old lady – can’t blame her considering she likely had to put up with some skateboarding antics and neighbour complaints! Haha.
Eric provided a photo of the Fish Bowl decals in the pool – hence, the name. And, Rich Hamila posted a photo on Facebook of the pool in the 1980s, still getting lots of love.
So glad that Janet was there, representing the women at such an incredible spot.
Womxn Skateboard History 