I love watching old footage of skateboarding on TV, and it has nothing to do with the abundance of mustaches. This is almost 20 minutes of an ABC broadcast of the Catalina Classic from 1977, uploaded by someone at NHS who has resurrected the Roadrider brand. The cast of characters in these events is no more cartoonish than you’d find at today’s events, but man the 70’s were corny. Downhill, slalom and freestyle are shown, with a bunch of names you’ll recognize if you follow skateboard history, or even had a subscription to Thrasher in the first few years. The slalom guys had it dialed in, but the downhill guys (I’m going to catch flack for this) look like they would get smoked by today’s downhill crew with all the speed wobbles in evidence. Those guys need sails. Check it out after the jump.
– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip
Want more? There’s a reprint of a 1977 Sports Illustrated article on the event titled A Thriller For The Downhillers.
17 comments
Dave H.
The whole weekend was epic!
I remember Corky Carol and the
Wahinies playing at the Casino.
S Starr
one thing to remember about the downhill guys back then, At the most, they had been riding sealed bearing wheels for what 2 years at the most, and the skates where just solid wood the year before and so on. The downhill guys now a days have had a decade of training and on equipment with better safety gear than they had back then. They get to watch videos of themselves to get better and so on. There is on comparing the 2 times
kilwag
More Dale Smith the Dancing Sausage Man over here in Magic Rolling Board.
Road Rider
Hey, I’m glad you guys are as stoked as we are over this footage. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it, total treasure find. I’m currently working on almost an hour of footage from the Capitola Classic right now too, so stay tuned!
And check out the facebook page if you’re on there, we’re getting ready to announce a big race at a very special and historic venue…www.facebook.com/roadrider1973
Bevilacqua
keep us informed … and don’t forget to feature cool pics of red road riders from back in the days !
http://sakaroule.blogspot.com/2008/12/road-rider.html
Betsy
Fascinating stuff (as per usual). When is the last time there was an analogy made between skating and auto racing? As lame as these “races” seems, in 30 years our kids will be scratching their heads over stuff like “highest ollie” and “best trick” . By the way, the history of skate contests– freestyle, barrel jumping, slalom, etc.– is a great way to chart changes in taste and industry trends.
curtis
this was a time when skating had not come into it’s own. all the old events had been in existence in other sports. even the concept of competition is something that was used to “normalize” skateboarding, make it more like car racing, and baseball. it makes me wonder if old athletes were like “skateboarders are ripping off our style”. the way many skaters now cringe when a kid on a scooter does something called a smith grind or our general disapproval of BMX’rs taking “our” invention (skateparks, ramps etc.) and running with it. racing is the purest sport ever, there always is a clear winner. most of todays contest events are judgment calls based on the concept of “freestyle” ( I don’t mean freestyle skateboarding) and the winner is a matter of taste. fun to watch, don’t ask me to be a judge though
MC
Just like figure skating!
Old Kook
Epic. I still have my ’70s porn star mustache, but I wish there was some way we could go back in history to erase all record of those shorts that we wore.
Bevilacqua
I posted it too !
Cool funky dance !
BoBo
Funky dance dude was Dale “Sausage Man” Smith.
Bobby Piercy was the man, so was John Hutson. Thanks for posting this!
curtis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK7b7kgKGSc
kilwag
I did post this, back in 09. Here’s the link. I forgot to put his name (Russ Howell) in the post originally. Thanks again to Matthijs for tracking it down. How did he do that?
kilwag
I swear I posted this video already, but I can’t find it.
curtis
I figured you must have too but nothing in the search. didn’t Scott Starr have all his videos removed from youtube or something like that a coupla years ago?
S Starr
My youtube channels have been removed 5 times since youtube started but i always come back, you just have to search, I’ve been up for over a year now but have 2 strikes so I’m sure they’ll take this one down eventually, But i’ll be back again, Surfstyley4 now and then Surfstyley5 and so on..
curtis
is that Russ Howell doing the “funky” dance at the beginning of the freestyle part? that is some quality entertainment for sure!