THE HISTORY OF DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYSIMPACT: The aerial and sliding skate moves that the Z-Boys invented were the basis for the aerial skateboarding and surfing still popular today. Considered the most influential skateboard team in history, the Z-BOY movement continues to this day as an expression of performance, innovation and style. The life and times of the Z-Boys have been documented in numerous movies, books and magazine articles, most notably the Sundance Film Festival winning documentary
Dogtown and Z-Boys and the book
Dogtown: the Legend of the Z-Boys by Glen Friedman and Craig Stecyk. The 2005 film
Lords of Dogtown, starring
Heath Ledger,
Emile Hirsch,
Victor Rasuk and
John Robinson a fictionalized version of the Z-Boy story written by Stacy Peralta and directed by
Catherine Hardwicke was released by Sony Films.
HISTORY:In 1971
Jeff Ho,
Skip Engblom and
Craig Stecyk opened the shop, "
Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions", on the corner of Bay and Main Street in Santa Monica, CA. The first Z-Boy was a fourteen-year-old named
Nathan Pratt. He was hired by Skip Engblom to work at the shop after school every day and over the next six years became an apprentice surfboard maker under Jeff Ho and the founding member of the team which would become the Z-BOYS. Allen Sarlo,
Jay Adams,
Tony Alva, Chris Cahill and
Stacy Peralta joined the surf team in 1974. They were a rough and tumble group of teenagers from the “wrong side of the tracks” who made the surf shop their home away from home. The Z-Boy crew surfed at Bay Street in
Santa Monica and were notorious for dominating the surf at the dilapidated
Pacific Ocean Park amusement park, an area nicknamed by locals as "Dogtown".
Far from the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today, surfing in the 1970s was a renegade sport that was frowned upon by mainstream society. Considered drop-outs and losers, the surf community became a sub-culture all its own with distinct rules and pecking orders. Pratt, Adams, Sarlo and the other young surfers also were avid skateboarders. They would ride the streets and school banks of West Los Angeles imitating their favorite surfers and inventing moves of their own on banks of concrete. They developed a driving, low-slung style that was completely different from the common upright style of trick skateboarding. As they skated with each other, they pushed each other to excel and create new tricks.
In 1975 the young surf team members asked Ho and Engblom to start a skate team separate from the surf team. Cahill, Pratt, Adams, Sarlo, Peralta and Alva were the founding members. Soon after, the team grew with the addition of local skaters Bob Biniak, Paul Constantineau, Jim Muir,
Peggy Oki, Shogo Kubo and Wentzle Ruml. Engblom would coach them and insisted on high performance and good style. Bicknell Hill at Santa Monica beach was the main practice area for the team.
The Z-BOYS debuted at the Del Mar Nationals in March 1975, the first major skateboard contest since the original skateboard haydays of the mid 1960’s. On the first morning of the contest they noticed an impressive local skater named Dennis Harney and added him to the team on the spot. The first Z-BOY to compete was also the youngest, Jay Adams. Adams was backed up by eleven more Z-BOY performances. At the end of the competition, half of the finalists were members of the Z-BOY crew. The results were: Women's Oki 1st, Jr Freestyle Adams 3rd, Alva 4th, Jr. Slalom Harney 2nd, Pratt 4th. The older skateboard establishment was not ready for the aggressive surf style and free spirited approach that the Z-Boys exhibited and could not comprehend that they had just witnessed a revolution. About the Z-BOYS' 1975 debut,
Russ Howell said, "As a competitor at that event, I didn't give much attention to them because they were young and didn't offer much at the time."
[1]. Little did Howell know that within twelve months the 1960s style that he was the master of would be gone from the public eye. The popularity of the Z-Boy style with vertical and airborne moves would sweep around the world.
From Del Mar the Z-BOYS went on to expand their moves on the banks of the many schools in the hills of the
West Los Angeles area, most notably Bellagio, Paul Revere, Mar Vista, Brentwood and Kenter -- an area was previously ruled by the Hobie Team skaters before it was named Dogtown and became the home of the Z-BOYS. The 1970s drought in the Los Angeles area left many swimming pools drained. The Z-BOY crew took their surf style of skating to the empty pools, skating the sides to the pool's coping. One day during a skating session in a pool nicknamed "the Dogbowl" in Santa Monica, Tony Alva took his board airborne, sailing above the coping itself, and then twisted to land back in the pool. Aerial skateboarding had been invented.
The Z-BOYS trespassed into backyards to ride empty pools and partied with rock stars. They pushed limits and invented new moves every day. Prominent among them was local photo journalist
Craig Stecyk, who wrote and photographed a series of innovative articles for
Skateboarder Magazine that became known as the Dogtown articles which immortalized the Z-BOY lifestyle. The body of photography by Craig Stecyk is still frequently referenced.
Fame and fortune followed with three of the top four places on the Skateboard Magazine Readers' Poll occupied by a Z-BOY.
[citation needed] Jay Adams, Nathan Pratt, Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta and Bob Biniak had feature interviews in Skateboarder Magazine. Allen Sarlo, Nathan Pratt and Jay Adams also became top ranked surfers. However, as members of the Z-BOYS developed into superstars it was hard to keep the team together. Big money was being thrown at the teenagers and team members started splitting off to other companies. Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Bob Biniak left to skate for Logan Earth Ski, Stacy Peralta and Paul Constantineau joined G&S, Wentzle Ruml went to Rector, Jim Muir started Dogtown Skates, Peggy Oki went to college at UCSB. Jeff Ho tried to put together a sponsorship deal that would keep the rest of the team together under the Zephyr name, but could not get a deal done. He and Skip Engblom ended their partnership in early 1976 when Engblom moved to Hawaii, and by the end of 1976 the Zephyr shop had closed. Nathan Pratt took over the Zephyr space, opened his own surf/skate company Horizons West in 1977 and attended
UCLA. Chris Cahill went to work shaping kneeboards for Horizons West and Allen Sarlo went on the pro surf tour.
*** Check out the youtube vids on the black ocean profile page on the left-hand side for more info on the movies about the Z-Boys. Also check out the article below on "The Lord of Dogtown" that Tas (singer/guitarist of Black Ocean) set up for Tony Alva at Fetch Magazine back in 2001 before the film "Dogtown & Z-Boys" was released. The article was later used in the corporate boardroom of Vans by Alva for his successful presentation to them to receive a new contract. Tas (going by Tasos back then), was selling hand made autographed Alva boards out of his Street Records office in the USA before Alva Skateboards blew up once again after the film was a huge success world-wide. At this time Tas was the ILSA (International Longboard Skateboard Association) President and he organized two World Championships. Tas wishing to pay tribute to his childhood idol had Tony Alva honored as "The Godfather of Skateboarding" at his 2002 Championships in South Carolina with an epic presentation at the legendary Hangar Bowl. Concrete Wave Magazine covered the stories.
An Interview with Tony Alva
by Saliba and Tasos (2001 Fetch Mag) It's about nine o'clock in the morning on the West Coast and behind a desk, surrounded by skate decks, sits Tony Alva on the phone. He's more than willing to help with an interview, but the waves outside are breaking without him, so it's got to be brief. The once "Mad Dog" of Dogtown - Santa Monica, California - is now a bit older and wiser, but with an unfettered soul that consistently seeks the ultimate ride. His life and the lives of his skateboarding compadres has recently been made into a documentary film, "Dogtown and Z-Boys: A Film About the Birth of Now" that recently won the audience and directing awards in their division at the Sundance Film Festival. Through this film, directed by Powell-Peralta co-founder Stacy Peralta, Alva and many other old-school skaters hope to educate people on the roots of the ride and the impetus that started a way of life.
It was the Dogtown punks that first brought an unnoticed attitude and aggression to the sport of bare-footed surfers and little kids. In a flash they turned from street punks into overnight celebrities with Rock Star lifestyles - all the while never apologizing or slowing down for anything.
Growing up in the rough and tumble beach community of Santa Monica, Alva and his friend Jay Adams would often be put on "Rat Patrol" when they were little kids. They would arm themselves with anything around them: rocks, bottles or whatever to get rid of anyone on the beach that wasn't a local of the Pacific Ocean Park pier. Once they earned their chance to surf with the older guys, they became fixtures of the scene and the Zephyr Surf Shop. Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom's shop sponsored two surf teams, a division of young guys in their twenties and a younger kids' division. Alva, Adams, Shogo Kubo, Stacy Peralta and others made up the twelve-member team in the summer of 1975.
"The concept for the skateboarding team came from an extension of the Zephyr competition team and it was a surf team that incorporated the junior division. The junior surfers were all really good skaters. It was like Jay Adams, myself, Wentzle Ruml, Jim Muir, Bob Biniak, Shogo and all those guys, because we were the younger division of the surf team that eventually started to combine that surf style into skateboarding. Eventually, we went out and started entering all these contests and that's where we pretty much blew the doors open. It was a completely different approach to skateboarding that nobody had ever seen and the film accents that influence we basically had on skateboarding."
In an era when handstands, nosewheelies, tic-tacs and 360s were the extent of freestyle tricks; the Zephyr team took the style tips they'd learned from the surf mags and turned it into a distinctive new level of riding. Through natural progression, they took that same surfing approach and began to seek out banks and pools to ride as concrete barrels.
"That was totally the way we approached skateboarding," says Alva. "There's no doubt about it being a natural progression. You know it's weird too, because we had a surfboard company in Santa Monica that was on the North side, kind of the rich pretty boy surf company. The opposite from the Zephyr team in that, but it was called 'Natural Progression'. That was the name of the fucking surf team and they were our rival team!"
Luckily, while skateboarding was getting popular throughout the world and the Dogtown boys were draining rich peoples' pools for kicks, there were some wise enough to document the revolution that was happening. Out of these collected films, pictures and memories, the best were put into this upcoming documentary. C.R. Stecyk III and Glen E. Friedman were the main individuals involved with the scene that saw the vision and were also the people that got them in the magazines. The documentary, to be released this next spring, captures the energetic moments through the music and attitude of the time.
"It's all classic footage and in the first thirty or forty minutes there's no skating, well there's some skating, but it's mostly all surfing. It's kind of educational for the mass because it's 'Skateboarding 101' from the Dogtown perspective. A lot of people really need to see this film because basically it's important as a part of history and also they're (younger kids) fucking clueless! They don't even know the roots of skateboarding and so when you see this it totally clues you in where the revolution of skateboarding occurred and what effects it has on skateboarding today."
Alva's popularity began to really cook when he played the thug/hooligan/rival skater "Tony Bluetile" in the movie "Skateboard" where he ends up getting beat in a contest by Leif Garrett. Around this same time, International Skateboarding Association Executive Director Sally Anne Miller refered to him as "everything that is vile in the sport". With plenty of new money and newfound friends, this punk kid was now riding high in limos scouting out new pools to rip apart while living the Hollywood high life. The same kid that was once piecing together makeshift boards for fun was now knee deep in endorsement deals and appearances, by just doing what came naturally. Whether giving a middle finger salute in ads or sporting his tousled locks, he was doing more for the sport than anyone had ever imagined possible. He was combining the hardcore elements of music and his generation and channeling it into a sport that would come to be known for it's aggression and release. Then came his own company.
"The board company didn't start until about '77 or '78, because I'd say it was the sponsors that gave me that vision, but then eventually starting up my own company definitely put me over the top as far as being able to live the lifestyle I wanted to live. I could get out there and travel, skate, surf different places." Alva Skateboards was formed and it furthered Tony's stake as being the "Mad Dog" of the industry. They're still manufactured under his guise and his "pool cues" are still as badass as ever.
If there's one thing that Alva and his bros are known for, it's pool riding. Through a network of riders on the lookout, secret spots constantly changing and such, the game of hunting out pools was and is still just as fun as the thrill of riding them. You have to be quick and daring to trespass into someone's backyard while they're away (or maybe at home) and jump into their drained pool for a session. Cops, neighbors, tenants, warrants and other forms of trouble could emerge at any given opportunity.
"Pool skating for me is the ultimate medium for spontaneous skating. I think a lot of things go in a cycle, and because pool skating and bowl riding are so spontaneous, I don't think there is anybody that rides a skateboard can ignore the fact that it is one of the most exciting and fun types of skating that you can do. The first thing you do when you go into a bowl is you just pop right in and you get that first carve and that just fucking puts you where you need to be. That's where it's at as far as I'm concerned.
"It's better than skating back and forth on a Vert ramp, because that gets pretty tedious. The best thing is to have something you can carve. It's speed and a lot of it is just doing the basics as far as just carving and hitting the lip, it's the adrenaline rush of just going fast. Once you get that speed going and you get pumping, then the next thing you know, you're going for air."
To Alva, the thought of hitting the same waxed curb or regular spot everyday would be hell. He serves as a perfect example of a mentor in the world of skating. A pioneer that's always searching for that bigger and badder spot with greater dangers and greater adventures. Even as a father, businessman and skateboarding mentor, Alva still lives his life just a fence hop away from a trespassing charge and the impending jailtime. All for the sake of the ride.
Another one of Alva's great passions has always been music. In 1980, he played with his first band "The Shroombops" that echoed the new English Punk sound of the time. He laughs looking back on his first band. "It was me and this guy Mike Ball, who used to play in Suicidal Tendencies and this guy Bobby Shroombop, so we just named the band after him. He was the drummer and I was the bass player and then we had this kid named Kerry that would just scream and throw himself on the ground and just do all kinds of crazy shit. He was like our so-called vocalist."
Nowadays his tastes range from classical to hip-hop to drum and bass and everything cool in between. "If I listen to Punk Rock I listen to old stuff, I don't like that new Alternative crap and all that, that shit is just like Bubblegum - wanna be Punk." He rocks to a classic soundtrack of Joy Division, The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, The Clash, The Jam, Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath. "I think Fu Manchu is like that too. I just like anything that has that good energy." The old school revivalist rockers are huge old school skaters and got together at a recent party they held. "They just played our party in Utah that we threw for Vans for the film. We were in this three-story mansion and I swear to God the whole building was just shaking. They're great and they're really cool guys too."
It makes sense that Vans Shoes sponsored the film since they were such a huge part of the original movement. The Vans lowtop deck shoes were THE skate shoes back in the day. "What we did is we beefed them up a little and gave them that two-tone, 'Off the Wall' look and that's how it incorporated into the first skateboard shoe." Vans is the originator and still one of the biggest companies of action sports footgear and now they've moved into the movie realm.
People that don't skate don't realize just how athletic you really have to be to pull off some of the more technical tricks. Alva explains how he's managed to beat himself up for this long and continues to do so on a daily basis.
"I'm 43 years old and hell no I'll never stop skating until I just physically can't do it, but I can see myself crossing over into surfing a lot more because it's a lot easier on the body. Skating beats you up man. Every now and then, you take a good slam and it's a wake up call. I've been pretty fortunate, (sitting up to tap on a deck for good luck) wait lemmy knock on one of these boards right here... I mean basically if you keep yourself in good shape, keep the muscle tone good, then you're not going to get injured as much. Learning how to fall is a big part of the whole deal too. Judo, tumbling, shit like that. I used to be on the diving team in high school. All of that kind of knowing your center and knowing which way is up when you're spinning in the air, that has a lot to do with it man. You've got to have a good center of gravity as well as be able to have a good sense of balance even when you're completely inverted."
Other pros have plenty of love and respect for what Alva has and still is doing for the sport and lifestyle of skateboarding. Knowing your roots is as important as knowing where you stand today and Alva just wants to make sure that the originators get the credit they deserve, even if some don't skate anymore.
"Occasionally, I see some of the other guys. Most of them are not skating, like Bob Biniak, because they have families and they have other responsibilities and they just kind of drifted away from the whole deal, unlike myself. I'm the one that does it still, daily, I'm the one that's out there pushing it and kind of holding down what we really believe in and where we came from. I think that's like my dharma, that's my deal. My center is basically focused around that."
Some skaters weren't as lucky to be able to continue riding. Mark "Gator" Rogowski is serving heavy time for the murder of a 20 year-old in 1991. Some just made bad personal choices with drugs. "Unfortunately, Jay (Adams) is doing some time in a federal institute right now. Christian Hosoi same deal. They just made some mistakes that they have to pay for now. There's no free 'Do Not Go To Jail' ticket."
And who helped him excel in skating throughout his career? "All other skaters. Not just the top guys and my old school bros, but all other skaters. Just everybody and anybody that rides. Of course that's going to make me excel, because at this point I just consider everybody that rides to be a brother, they're all kindred. Especially the youth, you know? That's where the future's at." This is coming from the same guy that in his youth would have vehemently defended his turf against all intruders, but now he welcomes them to the sport.
It's not surprising that most new school skaters have no idea about the importance of originators like Alva, Blaize Blouin, Tommy Guerrero or Duane Peters, because they aren't featured in the magazines or on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game. "A lot of people think that Tony Hawk was the first one to change the face of skateboarding. Well, if that's what they think then that just shows that they're young and they need to dig a little deeper and go back a little farther. Skating is only about fifty years old and it's a young sport. A lot of us older school guys are only like forty or fifty years old and its cool that we're still here doing our thing. People that know the roots and know where skateboarding came from; those are the people that are aware of that."
Keeping up with the Joneses in terms of tricks and technical crap, Alva could give a damn. For anyone that's made skateboarding a way of life, it's about riding in style. So much of what every new "Extreme" sport tries desperately to be is what Alva and the original Dogtown skaters have already given. The difference is though, those guys didn't have to try to be anything, and it has just come naturally.
"I don't have anything to prove anymore to anybody. My deal is just to go out and have fun. The only person I have anything to prove to is myself and I'm already pretty much there. Now for me its about just staying in good shape, just getting out there, staying injury free and just skating and doing my own thing.
"The day that it becomes not fun is the day that you should just hang up your fucking shoes and your fucking deck and go get a fucking Razor or something. Ride a scooter or a Harley-Davidson! To me skateboarding is definitely something that I enjoy, it's opened a lot of doors for me, as well as it's just something that keeps me focused on what's important in life. I'm just stoked to still be riding at the age of 43 years old and doing my thing."