Sick Boys
It’s impossible for me to read read or type the words “Sick Boys” without instantly thinking of the Social Distortion tune. I’ve never actually seen the skate video titled “Sick Boys” but it was released in 1988, two years before the Social D. song was released, so who knows. The video Sick Boys was shot on Super 8mm film and released on VHS, and 20 years later it’s being rereleased on DVD. Watching the sequences of Natas will immediately bring to mind his Santa Cruz appearances, mostly because it’s at some of the same spots and the film quality is similar. There’s also that weird genre of Norcal acid rock music that you only hear in early Santa Cruz videos. It also features Tommy Guerrero, Mickey Reyes, Bryce Kanights, Mike Archimedes, Julien Stranger, Jim Thiebaud, Ron Allen, and Steve Caballero as well as shots of Christian Hosoi, Tony Magnusson, Eric Dressen, Danny Sargent, as well as other less famous names. It’s sounds like the skate video equivalent of unearthing King Tut’s tomb. That’s something I’d want to check into, or at the very least have sent to me for review. Opps. Did I say that out loud? It appears to be mostly street with a dash of vert. Every time I watch street skating form the late 80’s I’m reminded of how much fun it is.
You can watch the trailers after the jump plus a bonus video of Social Distortion playing Sick Boys live on a trailer at Cal State in 1990. And of course, check out the Sick Boys web site.
Sick Boys Trailer 1
Sick Boys Trailer 2
Sick Boy – Social Distortion, live in 1990.
If I remember right, Sick boys was almost 90 minutes long and was rad cause it had so many riders, many that weren’t in videos very often. I wore that VHS tape out, along with many other skate videos
Street Skating in the 80’s; even I looked good doing it.
One of my all time favorite videos, even though vert was the cool thing in the 80’s some of us didn’t have access to the ramps and street skated before it was “cool” or accepted. This video encouraged us and opened the doors to what could be done. It was rad to see other people skating around a city. I still have a vhs copy, can’t wait to get this on DVD.
Careful fellas! It looks like, eek ! Street (real) skating ! RUN RUN RUN . Oh , wait . It qualifies as cool , I checked , it’s totally core. Close one .
I remember seeing this video listed in mail-order skateshops in Thrasher 20 years ago, and up until now I’d only been able to see bits and pieces of it. Well, I just scored my copy for Christmas. What a great vid. The narration is a bit much after about a half hour – much to the annoyance of my wife – but overall the vid captured a lot of the energy from that time period. I obviously wasn’t there skating with those guys then, but it definitely captured the kind of energy that attracted me to skating back at that time. The booklet is also great. Not too much to it in terms of size, but a nice layout with quotes and some great pics of everybody.
Also, the extras on the DVD are great. I was interested to hear guys like Tommy G and Natas talk about Sick Boys as an indictment of the current-day industry. Natas talks about how it was just fun and it wasn’t geared towards building a video resume, like modern days vids. Tommy G is more harsh, talking about how skating was outcast activity back then and how now it is mainstream, and how it has lost a lot. He gives respect to the abilities and innovation of modern day skating, but it is very obvious that he’s pissed about skating losing a lot of the grit that attracted him to it so many years ago.
It was also interesting to see that Mickey Reyes was almost embarrassed by it all. Though I was disappointed to hear him say that he wished that the video would just remain buried forever, I guess it made the video more interesting. This was quite a contrast to what Jim Theibaud had to say, who was much more enthusiastic. Its clear from his interview that he was stoked to be in the video back then and appreciative of the fact that it helped him advance to pro status. He’s also got the best quote of the lot: “Its always going to us versus them….”
The vid itself is a reminder of how advanced and innovative Natas, TG, and Stranger were back then. Watching those sequences, I couldn’t help but think of the many “yeahs” that would be heard if such feats were executed at my local park, i.e. Natas’ 180 to switch crooked grind (20 YEARS AGO!), Stranger’s half cab fence-footplant, TG’s ollie to stale off the launch ramp. Its also refreshing to hear guys like Natas talk about it in such a humble fashion.
I’m really stoked that Mack and BC decided to re-release this. I really enjoyed seeing this and am going to
why the fuck can’t I turn off the annoying narration, anybody got this on VHS still, I will trade you? and Natas is doing ollie hurricanes, not fucking 180 to switch crooked