At Tempool Inc. we like to find alternative applications (for swimming pool finishes) and put our products to the test in unique ways.  Our latest product experiment re-visits our crew’s roots in skateboarding.

Many of the guys on our team grew up skateboarding and several of them are still avid weekend warriors.  When we first heard the news that our friend Tim was going to be building a new bowl in his backyard, my wheels began turning.  Right away, I thought of testing one of our products to serve as an alternative to concrete pool coping.  In a skateboard bowl, the coping is one of the most important and heavily abused features.  The skater utilizes the coping to swiftly grind and slide his/her board and trucks.  With concrete (standard) pool coping, the concrete quickly chips away and requires heavy doses of clear coat spray to provide the slickness needed to properly grind.  For Tim’s project we wanted to try something that was naturally smooth and slick enough to grind, but also have the durability to hold up against long term use.

After years of working with the Hydrazzo line of polished finishes, it dawned on me that Hydrazzo might indeed be the perfect material to serve as skate coping.  Hydrazzo is known for its use in luxury swimming pools and produces an enduring beauty and luster.  It is also the smoothest product on the market, because it is polished after the exposure process.  The idea behind trying this product outside of the water (We plastered a swim/skate pool with Hydrazzo for a friend in South Carolina), was the thought that this product is smooth and tough enough to give the bowl coping better grinding ability while lasting longer.  Once the time came to pour the coping, we created molds and began the Hydrazzo application process.  We poured the finish, troweled it, removed the mold and the rest is history.

It has been 6+ months now since the Hydrazzo coping has settled and the results have been spectacular.  According to Tim, the advantages of this new alternative coping are endless.  Some of Tim’s favorite benefits of his polished coping are:

1. Smooth: The Hydrazzo finish is naturally smooth and slick enough to grind (without needing gallons of clear coat spray)
2. Durability:  after more than 6 months of intense skateboarding, the Hydrazzo polish coping has not chipped or chunked out at the same rate as standard concrete coping.  The initial testing has shown that the Hydrazzo can last much longer with a greater frequency of grinding.
3. The Grind:  in pool and bowl skateboarding the objective is to power through long and smooth grinds.  This type of coping allows for a smoother grind than standard pool coping, yet still gives you that raw grind sound and feel that pool skating offers.
4. Flexibility:  although Hydrazzo is a tough and hard product, it seems to flex with the shape of the bowl and deck without cracking in the way that pool coping would.
5. Monolithic Pour:  the Hydrazzo coping is poured/set in one piece vs. being laid out in 4 foot separate sections the way that  standard concrete coping is set.  This allows for better shape/mold to the bowl.  Think of it as being a custom/tailored fit.

Check out the video below to view Tim’s bowl and the alternative application, Hydrazzo coping in action.  Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about the benefits of using Hydrazzo for your coping in your bowl or skate pool.