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Modern skateboarding originated in the Santa Monica and Venice Beach regions of California in the summer of 1975. Stacy Peralta was part of Zephyr Team of skaters who were sponsored by a surfboard shop owner who was perpetually high. He went on to create a documentary called “Dogtown and Z-Boys” in 2001 about the Zephyr skaters who earned fame and money for revolutionizing the sport by performing acrobatic stunts on skateboards which were previously considered fancy scooters.
“Dogtown and Z-Boys” is, as a documentary, was exceptionally well made. It captures the essence and evolution of skateboarding remarkably, but what intrigued me the most was how and why the first skateboarder made the most unbelievably fascinating invention, aerials. I mean, an aerial literally enables a skateboarder to fly, jump over 15 feet and perform stunts mid-air.
It’s doesn’t help that this movie is completely unnecessary given that it has been covered by a far superior doc. It’s a mystery how Peralta was able to track down so much old skateboarding footage, but he certainly managed to set the scene for those kids during that time. Even though The Director of Lords of Dogtown, Catherine Hardwicke, understands the time period and tries her best with her actors, we know they aren’t the originals. No one in the fictional film performs the jaw dropping stunts captured in the documentary.
The plot remains unchanged. Children reside in what was at that time one of the last beachfront ghettos, south of the costly Malibu section. Surfers dominated the beach, but during the afternoons when waves calmed down, some of the surfers, or their little cousins, played around on skateboards. The shop owner, Skip Engblom, has a pivotal moment when he invents polyurethane wheels, “They grip.” With extra grip, the Z-Boys attempt to skate along the edges of the large open drainage ditch that runs through the region. Then a lightbulb goes off. Due to a drought, a number of the areas swimming pools had water removed. The kids began to “borrow” pools when the proprietors were absent so that they could skate on the circular sides.
Emile Hirsch plays Jay Adams, while Victor Rasuk takes on the role of Tony Alva. John Robinson portrays Stacy Peralta, who, being a blonde, gets plenty of attention from the new skateboarding magazines. They all look like tawdry copies of the real people, and of course, they have to be. Ledger plays Skip, the father figure who guides and enables them. He supports the Zephyr Team, hooks them up with priceless T-shirts, and eventually, in a drunken stupor, starts making surfboards in some random person’s back room. But he was the spark.
In this documentary, we are introduced to Z-Girls and Z-Boys. Instead, all we are offered is Nikki Reed impersonating Tony’s sister Kathy. Her mother, played by Rebecca De Mornay, is Jay’s mother whom, like every mother in Southern Californian films, has to be a model. I admit, Nikki looked good but, all the surfing and skateboarding performances were great in moderation. Having watched Dogtown and Z-Boys along with the more unsettling “Riding Giants” surf documentary, the actual sports are always going to be better. Skippers greatest surfing performances take place with the most life-threatening waves just beneath the Pacific Island Pier, together with the boulders. During those summers when the pier ends up burning down, Skip, in some agony, states “They wanted it gone,” to indicate that the pier needed to be destroyed.
Skateboarding defies its own definition as a sport. It requires all attributes such as class, talent, and courage. Here, we are given a glimpse of where these amazing qualities first developed. The more philosophical question considers how long you can retain the identity of a skateboarder before it all blurs into a forgotten life experience.
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