Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Title: Dogtown and Z-Boys
Director: Stacy Peralta
Genre: Documentary
Highs: Great archive footage of early skateboarding
Lows: None
RhynoBot Grade: A

This is a great documentary about the origins of the modern skateboarding phenomenon that really got started in the late 70's right here in our own So. Cal. backyard of south Santa Monica and Venice Beach - aka Dogtown. The first half of the film was a great history lesson regarding West Los Angeles. The film covered everything from the hay-day of the theme park, the Santa Monica area had so many theme/amusement parks on the water at one point that it was referred to as Coney Island West, to surfing, and backyard swimming pools. Also, I never realized how much the surfer community was ingrained into West LA culture. Looking at Santa Monica and Venice Beach today you wouldn't think that such a tight knit surfer community existed at our local beaches.

Well this is basically where it all starts. The local surf punks that dominated the "Dogtown" area of West LA beaches were looking for an outlet, something to do, during the day since the surf was only good in the morning until about 10:00 am. They started making skateboards out of old clay wheel skates and planks of solid oak since they were trying to stay away from the rampant commercialism surrounding the skateboard world. They created boards that resembled surf boards and searched throughout all of West LA for locations that had terrain that looked like waves. They settled on four different locations and spent all day in the summers riding ocean waves in the morning and asphalt waves in the afternoon. This particular style of surf skating had never been done before and permanently changed the face of skateboarding.

The original group of surf punks turned skater punks pulled a team together called the Zephyr Skateboard Team and they became known as the Z-Boys. The Z-Boys started competing in competitions locally then gradually nationally. They took the skating world by storm with their creative, aggressive style of skating. They became known throughout the country and started to get international attention. Never being one's to sit back content with what they created they constantly reinvented themselves, moving off of blacktops and into empty swimming pools where today's aerial skateboarding maneuvers were conceived and perfected.

It's funny to think that without these 12 punk kids, ranging in age from 12 to 18 all from poor broken homes, there would be no X-Games, no Tony Hawk, no skateboarding as we know it. This film has some fantastic footage, a wonderful video log of their activities, along with great interviews with the now aged Z-Boys. This film represents an unprecedented look at the birth of a counter-culture that unfolds right before your eyes. It's quite remarkable that someone had the sense to document activities with video while events unfolded.

It's a great movie, you should see it.