Urethane Revolution: The Birth of Skate
John O’Malley
Publisher: History Press
Publication Date: 2019
Hard Cover or Perfect Bound: 191 pages
Judging by the cover and the title, I thought I had a vague idea of what this book might be like, and I had heard good things about it. Maybe you’d expect a lot of “you had to be there,” and some “we were cooler than you,” and for sure there is some of that in here, but you’re not quite getting beat over the head with it. John O’Malley was there. He was half of the team that brought you Carlsbad skatepark, widely recognized as the world’s first. He’s a heck of a writer too. He paints a vivid picture, but it’s closer to post-expressionism than it is to realism. I’m not trying to say it’s not true, it’s more that he writes a lot about the times, the places, and the feelings. It’s not in a chronological order, and it’s all over the place. Yet somehow you come away with a real sense of exactly how this whole scene coalesced, allowing for what we have now, for better or worse. He’s got a unique voice, and his style makes you think you’re in the room talking to him. It’s an entertaining read that only occasionally gets bogged down in nitpicking or historical beefs. There is one short chapter titled “Popsicle idolatry” that seems particularly out of touch, or at least makes me think that John hasn’t seen or ridden any of the skateparks built in Oregon or Washington the millennium. This is my opinion even though I have no desire to ride a street plaza these days. But that’s just one shore chapter, agree or disagree. Heavily outweighing that is his description of the La Costa downhill scene, something I thought I’d barely have any interest in, but turned out to be my my favorite part of the book, an possibly one of the most influential things that ever happened to skateboarding. Yeah, it is. Read it and fid out why.
