Check out this clip of Jan and Dean lip-syncing Sidewalk Surfin’ on American Bandstand. August 22, 1964. Dick Clark talks with audience a little bit about skateboarding (a young man’s game?) and half the “band” actually does sidewalk surf on the stage. There’s even a little bit of dorking around during the lip sync session. See what passes for a “trick” in 1964. All in all, a very interesting clip showing skateboarding and skatesploitation in mid-60’s popular culture.
This 2012 George Faulkner production is less a true documentary and more a collection of random Seylynn footage through the years, heavily weighted towards the 80’s, but inclusive of the 70’s and 90’s. Also includes some interviews with the park’s designer, rare photos during construction, and shot of the time the riverbank eroded and the whole thing almost slid into the water, and what appears to be an original soundtrack.
An addition to the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre in the form of a wave-shaped miniramp with airbags on the high end is supposed to help Australian Surfers learn aerial maneuvers in the ocean. While the jury out on how much of this training actually carries over to actual waves, it sure looks like fun. They should make everyone ride actual surfboards with skateboard trucks mounted on them, or possibly even Streetboardz. It worked for Simon Woodstock! More details at Surfing Australia.
ABC News and just about everyone else has reported that the Tokyo Olympic Committee has recommended adding skateboarding to the 2020 Olympics. This is by no means a done deal, the host country gets to recommend one or more sports, and Japan recommended 5, 6 actually if count Baseball separate from Softball, which you should. Baseball being the mens’ competition and softball for women. The other three are sport climbing, karate, and surfing. The International Olympic Committee will decide which if any to include in August of 2016. The chances seem pretty good however. Surfing conditions can’t be guaranteed unless they build an amazing inland wave facility, and how would the surfing community respond to that? Now that Street League has ironed out a decent spectator friendly competition format, (If you’re into that, not that there’s anything wrong with it…) we might just see skateboarding in the Olympics, whether you want to or not. Who is behind the push to get skateboarding in the Olympics? There’s a shady organization called the World Skateboarding Federation for one. Their web site appears to be down, so I can’t comment on the board members or their mission as I’m writing this post. All I have to go on right now is “WSF is actively working with many national federations and government agencies around the world to provide leadership and guidance to ensure a very positive experience for all skateboarders and their fans at the games.” Hmmm…. Remember when marijuana use temporarily lost a snowboarder his gold medal? THC is now officially on the banned list. Get with the times Anti Doping Agency. The High Times.
You might question if the ‘Zoner’ complete deck on the right is really a copy of the Santa Cruz ‘Optical Illusion’ deck from 1985. Anyway, the Zoner seems to use the same pink and blue and looks from the same period according to the pig shape and wheelwells. I found this deck on ebay a while ago, the deck on the left appeared in eBay watch from February 2012. Details of the ‘Zoner’ after the jump.
Red Bull has an interesting documentary on the Montreal, Quebec skate scene with the ulterior motive of furthering the case of getting good public skateparks built. Dire Skate is a 22 minute film made by Dan Mathieu of Exposé skateboard magazine. It delves into some history of the scene, including Big O, an atrocious city-funded skatepark built by a generic construction company, as well as efforts to legalize a famous Love Park style spot. Definitely worth watching.
My wife thinks I have a mild form of mental illness because I have hours and hours of skateboarding footage recorded from TV shows, movies and commercials. What’s the point when nobody else will ever see it? That’s not entirely true… Some of the footage was donated to a respected documentary. How else can I justify the time spent cataloging and digitizing? I present to you the first episode of Skate and Annoy’s Found in a Box VHS Skate Theater. If you’ve got a half an our to waste watching a mishmash of skateboarding in and around popular culture, then go ahead and watch it. As usual, the format needs polishing, but it’s only going to get better. Check it out.
