Dogtown and Z boys is a film made in 2001 about a group of surfers and skaters in Santa Monica, California. These young skaters, known as the Zephyr skaters or Z- boys came from a surfing background and changed the way skateboarding was viewed across the world. Coming from surfing gave these kids the ability to break through previous skating barriers and do moves never seen before. They literally used surfing moves and put them on the ground.
The documentary is fascinating. Made by Stacy Peralta, one of the original and most successful Z- boys and told by the skaters themselves, the film is a flashback to the seventies when skateboarding really took of and these guys and one girl become the equivalent of rockstars. They were innovative and skilled with style being of the utmost importance to the success of each skater.
What is so interesting about this documentary is that it shows the Zephyr skaters at the time that it was all happening. The film is a series of clips from the seventies, which shows the skaters in action with their mentors, interspersed with interviews from 2001 including many of the players speaking about their journey then and now. The film is narrated by Sean Penn. The content of the story is so appealing and interesting and the visualization of the film is fantastic, creating an atmosphere so alive and emotive that it reaches out to the audience and is enough to make you wish you had lived in this grimy area of Santa Monica in the seventies in order to witness and with a bit of luck be involved in this burgeoning movement in some way.
They speak about style a great deal and it's interesting to see how important this was to the success of an individual skater. Skill was obviously incredibly important with Tony Alva and Jay Adams being the most skillful of the bunch, but what these guys possessed in so much added abundance and which really set them apart was their style. Alva is compared to Mick Jagger with a swagger and a confidence that made him a god among the skaters and he was the first number one skater voted by the public, all by the age of 19.
The Zephyr skaters were aggressive and free spirited. The crowds loved them while many of the more traditional skaters did not. The Z - boys were epitome of cool and what was needed at that time. They skated as they lived. Many came from broken homes and didn't have much money, their swagger and aggression was so popular because it was real, this was their life. They transformed skating and in return were offered sponsorship, money, parties and all that comes with that, both the good and the bad.
They began to conquer the skating world with the resurgence of skating competitions and skating magazines, both of which were last seen for a brief moment in the sixties before quickly dying out. The Del Mar National was the first of the skating competitions and the Z- boys killed it. They skated low and with an aggression that was a far cry from the up right moves of the popular skaters before them. They arrived at the competition like a gang; all wearing a uniform of blue Zephyr t-shirts, Levis and dark blue Vans. They were about to take the skating world by storm.
The first skater to perform from the Zephyrs was Jay Adams. At only 13 Adams was by their own admittance the most naturally gifted of all the skaters. He had tricks and moves that nobody had ever seen before and was so skilled that he never did the same move twice.
They took over the competition with Adams and Alvo placing and Peggy Oki the only female in the Zephyr team winning first place in the women's section.Half the finalists were from the Zephyr team and it was here that the previous champions probably began to realise that a revolution was taking place and they were not necessarily included.
They influenced everything about skating, but one of their major triumphs was the discovery of skating in pools. In the mid seventies, California went through one of it's worst droughts. Many of the pools were empty and the Zephyrs saw an opportunity. They began to skate in pools pushing themselves and each other to see how far they could go and what they could achieve in this new space. They spent their days driving around looking for empty or almost empty pools that they could clear with their water pumps in order to fulfill their goals of skating in this new and challenging terrain.
They began small with goals of skating over the light in the pool and aimed higher and higher until they had three wheels over the edge of the pool and then turned around, skating back down to the other side. It was here that they pushed each other relentlessly, not knowing their limits or what could be achieved. It was also here, that Alva pushed skating to new heights and performed the first ever aerial. History was made and skateboarding was revolutionized.
Their rise continued for a time and their unique moves will be remembered and felt forever. There isn't a skater today that doesn't reflect on this special time, when watching as spectators both near and far, they saw a sport transform like never before and gain a respect that hadn't seemed conceivable before the emergence of this group.
The documentary is incredibly interesting. It shows us California in the seventies and the journey of these boys and one girl and how it changed their destinies forever. Of course some of it is sad and disappointing, as it always is when prodigies don't reach the goals that should have been inevitable for them. But they are human stories and it is remarkable to see how one group of kids managed to change a sport forever, and all out of an intense and powerful love for surfing and skateboarding that was as natural to them as breathing.
It's been said that while most American children of that time were raised on milk and Graham crackers, Jay Adams was raised on skating and surfing and thats the feeling you get from watching this film. This was their world and all they knew. It seems inevitable that they would sky rocket when such a young mix of like minded and supremely talented individuals should come together and challenge a sport with such intensity and passion that everything was turned on its head.
