WHO’S INFLUENCING WHO?
The story of how skateboarding was birthed from surfing is well known by fans of both arts as well as by the general, non-skateboarding non-surfing public. It has been celebrated in documentary and feature films alike; the latter, Lords of Dogtown, starring Heath Ledger, Johnny Knoxville and Emile Hirsch even receiving mixed reviews from a mainstream media not generally under our sway.
In short, Venice Beach, California, then poor and hard-scrabble with no yoga studios or fancy ice-cream parlours, served as an epicentre; a paradigm-shifting few blocks that sent shock waves reverberating through all our lives. A crew of surf-first kids stymied by living in Venice Beach, California, and not having any waves worth surfing turned to skateboarding in order to fill the singular hole in their various hearts.
They attempted to re-create what surf hero Larry Bertlemann was doing on their sidewalks, “Bertsliding” all knees tucked in, hands dragging the pavement exactly like Bert himself who plied his craft on the gorgeous liquid quarter pipes of Oahu, Hawai’i’s North Shore.
Before this, skateboarding had been a nerd sport with nerds doing tricks like weaving between cones and twirling on two wheels whilst wearing competition jerseys and bifocals.
