Dogtown & Z-Boys what a great documentary! Did you ever ride skate board? When did you start? Where did you ride? I spent my teen years in San Francisco & first rode on steel wheels. Bought my 1st real board w/ clay wheels & nicely finished wood in 1968 which I immediately slapped a STP sticker on. Did you ride? Do tell
That is a great documentary! I was into it briefly at around 12-13, but I was always way more into surfing and never seemed to grasp the whole "when you can't surf you skate" thing. It's fun, though, and I still pull out an old stick once in a while. We have several nice, new skate parks around here. I'm surprised I've never broken anything!
i'm from the same era, steel wheels, as you. we had big long hills like san fran. used to ride every day. i made quite a few boards myself. i use to get the trucks from the skating rink. clay wheels.
Skated for about 3 years starting when I was 11. Got pretty good at it too. Only ever bought Black Label boards; I just liked them I guess...
Tried dropping in a half-pipe when i was in HS. As far as I'm concerned falling onto a sheet of water hurts a lot less. (surfing>skating)
I skated from 10 to about 18 yrs old. Great times but had some friends that got me into trouble back then. We had a 1/4 pipe at end of the driveway but never seemed to be able to get any air. I could do lip tricks like crazy but something freaked me out about commiting to it.
I started skating back in 1984 or so and never really quit. I'm 35 years old now and live in the skateboard capital of the world, Portland Oregon. There area so many cool concrete parks here. They look like the stuff I would draw on a Pee-Chee folders when I was in grade school. In the late 90's I became good freinds with Rich Johnson of John Doe and Thrasher Magazine. I got to meet and skate with a bunch of guys who I grew up idolizing as a kid. Best times of my life.
Never got into it myself , and will admit when I was racing with a guy (Allan "Ollie" Gelfand) I would chuckle a bit when he talked about his "championship skating days" , really was incredible how much he did travel in those days when there wasn't really much media about it back in the day. He had sponsored trips to Europe with Tony Hawk & other's . Seem's he has gotten much more recognition for his prime time in the last 10-15 years than he did back in the late 70's & early 80's. Alot of that got started when one of the skate mags did an article about "the has-been's and where are they now?"
Other than "toy" boards in the late 70s, got back into it in the early 80s. Traded some KISS stuff for my first real board, a G&S Woodie with Bennett trucks. My cousin gave me his old Alva wheels and my first was complete! I used to "wheel and deal" with friends and a local pawn shop so kept changing boards. Next was a G&S FibreFlex until I custom built my first brand new board, a Powell "Rodriquez" Skull & Sword with Tracker trucks and Sims Street Wheels. Eventually sold that to a friend and got a new Alva "Hosoi" Fish with Indy trucks and two-tone Kryptonics- didn't like that deck and traded for a Sims "Lester Kasai" (kept the trucks and wheels). Probably my favorite board... won a contest and came in second in another on that one (still have the deck). Later ended up with a Powell "Guerrero" Flaming Dagger with Gullwing trucks and OJII wheels. Also, made my own custom freestyle deck with Tracker trucks and Powell Freestyle wheels (still have this one too). These were the last as I left for college and simply fell out of riding. However... my fiance lives about a mile from a city owned skatepark here in Charlotte and just a few months ago, I ordered a custom built "old school" setup - original Caballero reissue deck, Indy trucks, and Powell Rat Bones wheels. What a feeling, hitting the vert in a concrete bowl after all these years! Hey, I figure it kept me in great shape back in the day so why not now?! Of course, if I have a broken arm for the wedding, she's gonna kill me!!
Im not much of a skateboarder but I do collect them. I'm from the Early to mid '80's era. I have over 100 skateboards. Mostly Reissues but probably 20+ originals.
Sadly, I helped a friend move in the mid '90s using the Guerrero as a furniture dolly (I know, I know... blasphemy!). Tired at the end of the day, I think it ended up in someone elses trunk and I didn't even think about until much later... regretfully, long gone.
