SUNDAY JOINT, 10-29-2017: SKATEBOARDING - GOOD CLEAN FILTHY FUN

Hey All,

My dad owned a movie projector and somehow got his hands on a 16mm copy of Skaterdater, this was probably 1969, four years after the movie came out—and won a Palme d’Or at Cannes, thank you very much. My brother and I and some friends watched Skatedater over and over, then hit the sidewalks ourselves, barefoot, clay wheels screaming, stoked out of our little gourds. (Never seen Skaterdater? Watch the whole thing here, you won’t be sorry.) Skateboarding meant as much to me at that time as surfing did, and the memories of exploring the streets and alleys of Venice, looking for the best driveways to carve off, are as vivid as afternoon summer sessions at Malibu.

All this came back to me this week, first when I posted “We Own the Sidewalks” on History of Surfing, and then while making “Good Clean Filthy Fun,” a short mid-’60s video ditty. Most of the footage in that clip features a group of young hot SoCal kids who were associated with either (or both) the Makaha or Hobie skate teams. But I also found some pix of anonymous skaters from the period, and wanted to share a couple here. The top photo was shot of Bob Weeks of Australia, the other two are uncredited.

Last week I introduced a live-chat feature called “Double-Barreled.” The idea is to get two notable surfers online at the same time, along with Encyclopedia of Surfing subscribers, and see what kind of back-and-forth ensues. Nat Young and Drew Kampion were good enough to sit at their computers for two hours on Wednesday, and while the results were kinda frantic—a lot of threads and sub-threads spooling off at the same time—I was really stoked with how it came out! Thank you to everybody who logged on, and hope to see even more of you next month; I’ve got a couple of great guests in mind, and I’m looking forward to another chaotic fun time.

Until next week . . . .

Matt