Who pioneered modern skateboarding? The actual four-wheeled object was invented in the 1950s, but what’s even more fascinating is how skate culture blossomed and has endured
You’re from Venice, LA, and you’re associated with this neighbourhood in the public imagination. How would you describe Venice, then and now, to someone who has never been there? It’s changed a lot since theDogtowndays.
It was an extremely cool place in the ’70s because there was very little money and interest in the place. It was fairly rundown, which allowed us a lot of freedom of movement, freedom of expression and freedom from people bothering us. Today it’s overpopulated with multimillion-dollar glass homes and is so overly hip that it’s unhip! [laughs]
It may be difficult for younger generations to imagine how skaters were considered as outsiders in the early ’70s. Was this feeling present in the early days?
We weren’t even worthy of being considered outsiders! We were all non-conformists trying to figure out a way to express ourselves and develop ourselves in the face of doing something like skateboarding that wasn’t even considered at all. We weren’t “outsiders” as skateboarding wasn’t considered anything but pure trouble, problematic and vandalistic.
Your film highlights the strong link between surfing and skating. From a cultural standpoint, what do you think are the similarities and differences between the two?
They’re both similar in their physical expression and how you move on the board, and both at that time were renegade sports – sports that precluded parental involvement. Both activities were done in locations where there were no adults: out in the breaking surf and in back alleys, empty playgrounds and dilapidated backyards.
You were a skateboard champion yourself and then diversified. Was it easy to transition from being a skater to being an entrepreneur with Powell Peralta?
It was easy for me only because I was so deeply interested in doing it. I was incredibly hungry to be a part of the founding of a progressive skateboard company, and I found it even more rewarding than my own professional skateboard career because there were so many things to do and the opportunity allowed me to develop so many talents within myself that I never knew were there. It was nothing short of a magic opportunity that had a tremendous impact on my life.
Skateboarding could have been just another sport, but it turned into a cultural phenomenon. How did that culture develop, and how important were people like writer-photographers Craig Stecyk and Glen Friedman in making it happen?
Right from the beginning it established itself as a culture with its own terms, with its own look, temperament and rules, if you will. Stecyk and Friedman were important in that they were both on the inside and both really skilled photographers documenting so much of what was happening in real time.
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Opening image: Stacy Peralta, photo by Tony Friedkin. “Dogtown and Z-Boys” (2001), photo Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock.