Dogtown & Z-boys // Lords of Dogtown

            Well, these are two distinctly different movies, and  they are both excellent and both 2’s in their own right, they deal with essentially the exact same material. Skateboarding. What is it, where did it come from? Who did it the best and what was the culture of the first skaters? Former pro skater, surfer, and film maker Stacey Peralta (Portrayed by John Robinson, Elephant) takes us through it in an amazing and epic journey filled with dangers and hopes.

            Skateboarding was big in the 60’s but fell way off along with hoolahoops. Skateboards had clay wheels. When Polyeurathaine was invented, people made wheels out of it and skateboarding returned to California. To many it was a sideshow, but a group of skateboarders from the Zephyr Surf and Skate Shop in Venice (aka Dogtown) came to be known as the Z-boys.

            Three of the Z-boys rose to prominence or at least had the potential. Stacey Peralta became one of the greatest and most well known skaters in the world, and went on to form the Bones Brigade tour, discovering and promoting Tony Hawk. Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk, Stop-Loss) took a much more personal and flashy approach to skating, and created his own series of boards. Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch, Speedracer), the youngest and most creative of the Z-boys became a sponsored and successful skater, but soon joined a gang and fell off the earth to be a criminal. He is currently in jail.

            The story of Z-boys in Dogtown is one of arrogant underdogs. They didn’t want to skate like a sideshow, they were surfers, they wanted to skate like they were riding the wave of their life. They used their hand and performed ankle breaking turns. At a skate expo, they took every award with their unorthodox innovation. Soon they started draining pools to go skating, and through long summers of experiments, invented freestyle vert skating.

            There was always tension, always drama, and always the cusp of greatness that all the skaters flirted with. It was a phenomenal birth of a eye-dazzling sport that has really taken the world by storm, and it really started with a bunch of punk Z-boys draining pools and playing grab ass. 2 for each, and anyone that ever picked up a board should really appreciate these films that explore the nuances behind the movement.