Dogtown Skateboarding
What happened with skateboarding in Venice, California, during the 1970's?
With us, we took it from the water, from the beach on to the streets and then we started to incorporate a lot of moves in our skateboarding that we did in the water surfing. So, we eventually got to the point where we revolutionized skateboarding because it was so freestyle, it was so generic when it came to what contests were like as well as what they were showing in the magazines. We kind of just broke that mold, we shattered that mold and then just rebuilt skateboarding like a baby Frankenstein, we just started stitching it all together to where it came to the point where it was like a little monster and we were mommy's little monster. We were all these crazy little kids, had a lot of energy, were from dysfunctional families, we were multi ethnic, and we just started going to all these contests. We just pretty much took over and started winning all the big contests one after another, boom boom boom, until eventually it got to the world championships in Carlsbad, that was sponsored by Hang Ten. That was one of the first skate parks and they had a big pro contest there and basically all the way down to the end of the contest it was Stacy Peralta and I were neck and neck. There was a couple other older skaters that we looked up to and respected, but we knew when it got to four or five events, like a decathlon kind of thing, we knew that by the time it got to the third, fourth, or fifth event, "Were going to beat these guys, it's either you or me bro, kind of looking at each other." I just looked at Stacy and I was like, "No it's me." That was like a huge thing, I mean even in The Lords Of Dogtown, there's a scene in the movie to where it's at a contest where I look over and I go, "No it's me." It's that same dialogue but it was true because you just had to have the confidence, you had to have the overall points to be able to win that championship. I think that's what happened; I was very confident, I had the technique, I knew that my strength lied in certain events, so in the other events I just tried to get in to the top five or the top three, and just be within that pecking order. In the different events I knew I specialized in, like freestyle, bullriding, even slalom, I had to be in the top two. I was able to pull that off and then it was a huge achievement for me at a very young age, and after that I realized I don't need to skate for other sponsors, I'll be my own sponsor. That's when I started my own skateboard company in 1977, I was 19 years old.
What type of style did skateboarders have in the 1970's?
We were surf skaters to the max. I still am and we still are and will always be. It's like all we did was emulate what we were doing in the water on land. Whether it be a bank, a street, a hill, an empty swimming pool, a skate park, we were surfing, and that's all we did. The the only reason that we skateboarded was because being surfers first and foremost, that was the goal. The goal was to go out and surf the concrete.
Was your crew responsible for starting the new style of skateboarding in the 1970's?
There was a lot of jealousy and a lot of people were envious of what we were doing. I think they knew we were good, but they didn't want to give us credit for it. But, you know with skateboarding, it was broken. Not only was it redundant, it was boring, it was just repetitive. We broke it. We broke the mold, and when we put it back together, we put it back together as an aberration of what skateboarding was. What we did, we took a completely new attitude. We revolutionized skateboarding by attacking it with a little bit more aggression, a low slung style, a low pivotal style. Everybody was standing straight up and just doing balancing moves. We're going to get down on the ground and just swirl around like a little tornado. We did stuff that they'd never seen before.
How did skateboarding expand during the 1970's?
What type of image did skateboarders have during the 1970's?
Well the z-boys image came from surfers and from our mentors like Jeff Hoe and Skip Anglo and Craig Stesick and this guy named Miki Dura that was a big hero to us from the Malibu area. Guys like Bunker Spreckles. The image came from the kind of guys that were on the edge of surfers, rock-stars and just kind of like decadent playboys.
What types of skateboards were made during the 1970's?
In the 1970s we always rode wood boards, but then in between some of the wood board era stuff we liked a lot of the old Hobie boards that were fiberglass extruded. So we did come out with a board for awhile that was a Z flex board. It was kind of like a rocker pressed out of fiberglass, almost our version of the banana board, like the early 60s Hobie skateboards. But then we went back to wood. Wood is the best thing for skateboards. It always has been. Once we learned how to laminate wood and make it lighter and stronger and press concaves into it to where your feet settle down on the board really well and give you a lot more control, that was it. It just stayed with wood and it's been that way for the last 30 years.
Where were the best skateboarders coming from during the Dogtown era?
In the late 60s and 70s, the best skateboarders I thought were guys that I looked up to that were overall skateboarders. Guys like Danny Bearer, Togger Johnson, the Hilton brothers; Steve and Davey Hilton. There was a couple other skateboarders that like young guys that I grew up around that were really good like a guy named Ross Powell. A lot were from San Diego. Some were from, like Santa Cruz, Orange County area. Some were from LA. Some were from Santa Barbara. Tom Simms was from Santa Barbara. A lot of people thought he was a leader of sorts in his area.
