Lords of Dogtown – The Pioneers of Skateboarding

What do Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, Rob Dyrdek, and Ryan Sheckler have in common? They are all skateboarders with their own shows on MTV. Now I will give credit where credit is due. Thanks to them, skateboarding has sky rocketed in popularity. The Olympics of extreme sports, the X-Games air every year on ESPN just like the World Series or Super Bowl would. Contrary to what the “MTV Generation” believes, skateboarding wasn’t invented every Thursday night at 9 on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory.


Sure on MTV you can see Bam throw himself from a moving car or Rob run around town with his bodyguards, does that have to do with skateboarding? I’m not sure. See my point yet? If MTV is going to exploit something for money and ratings, please at least respect its roots, and not just through a couple clowns on TV with a board and four wheels.


Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams. Ever hear of them? Of course you haven’t! That’s because you watch MTV too much. You want to learn the real history of skateboarding you need to watch Lords of Dogtown. I came across this movie playing on Starz the other night and really enjoyed it.


Lords of Dogtown is a biographical film directed by Catherine Hardwicke. The film brings to life the story of three Venice Beach, surfers Tony Alva, (played by Victor Rasuk), Stacy Peralta (played by John Robinson), and Jay Adams (played by Emile Hirsch) in the 1970’s, “before MTV”, as they unknowingly become the pioneers of skateboarding.


Skip Engblom (played by the late Heath Ledger) owns Zephyr Skate Shop in Venice Beach where he sells his own signature surfboards and skateboards. Skip gets a tip about some new polyurethane wheels that came out that he might be able to put on his boards. Intrigued, Skip decides to order a couple sets. Shop regular and local surfer, Sid (played by Michael Angarano) is asked to go round up some local kids to try out the new wheels.
Tony, Jay, and Stacy are among the twenty or so kids that Sid gathered for Skip to test the wheels. Amazed at what the kids can do with the new wheels, Skip comes up with the idea to put together a skate team. He called the team Z-Boys. The team proves to be a huge success, with Stacy, Jay, and Tony winning a majority of the local contest.

Even though the Z-Boys were having fun skating, surfing was still their first love. With Venice Beach in a drought and no rain for the pier to produce waves, Stacy, Jay, and Tony had to find another way to keep themselves entertained. No rain also means swimming pools couldn’t be filled for the summer. Remember when Rob Dyrdek skateboarded in his pool? Well this is where he got the idea. Using this opportunity, the boys started sneaking into peoples' swimming pools to skate in. Because of how much skating in the pool felt like surfing, they called it a concrete wave.

After winning many major contests across the country, Stacy, Jay, and Tony start getting attention from major skating companies, The Z-Boys become famous. They started appearing in various skateboard magazines and getting a lot of TV offers. Skip threw a party at his skate shop to celebrate all the success the Z-boys were having. A skateboard company owner named Topper Burks (played by Johnny Knoxville) shows up at the party. Topper only comes to the party with intentions of taking the boys away from Skip.

Topper manages to convince Tony that Skip is only in it for himself, and that he his holding him back. Topper promises Tony that he will make him famous worldwide. Tony takes him up on his offer and leaves Skip and his team behind. Seeing how much money Tony is making, Jay leaves the team too looking to cash in and help his mom pay rent on their apartment. Stacy is the last to leave the team, getting offers to skate full time and appear on the original Charlie’s Angels show.

The three boys become richer and more famous by the minute. Their lives have changed and now they are skating for money and not the love of it. Hey MTV sound familiar? The one time best friends have become enemies of some sort competing against each other in different event across the country. Before long everything starts to get out of control. In the most major skateboard championship of the year, Tony starts a fight with another skater in the middle of the show and gets knocked out almost ending his career. Jay leaves the skate team he was endorsing because they started selling cheap materials. Stacy won the whole competition leaving Tony and Jay jealous and upset at him.

With all that was going on in their lives they forgot where they came from. Back in Venice, the pier where the Z-boy first started, burned down and their friend Sid is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Skip shut down the shop and went back to what he loved, sanding and creating surfboards. Even though Stacy, Tony, and Jay have all gone their separate ways, they get together and decide to return home and visit Sid while they still have time. Sid’s farther after all these years still keeps the pool empty for the boys to skate in. Stacy, Tony, and Jay skate the pool and decide to bring Sid in the pool on his wheel chair, bringing back all the memories they had before they started the Z-boys.

Tony Alva went on to be a very successful pro skater and still to this day is known to sneak into people’s back yards to skate their pools. Stacy Peralta started his own skateboard company called Powell Peralta. His skate team debuted a 14-year-old named Tony Hawk. That name sounds familiar, I’m sure. As for Jay Adams, he skated for Stacy’s team for a couple years then decided to lay low after he realized that he had accomplished the only thing he set out to do from the beginning. That was to just have fun. Sid later died of his brain tumor. To this day his father’s pool is kept empty. Every year the three return to skate the pool. It is known as the Dog Bowl. Some call it the birthplace of skateboarding.


You can follow the sport and other extreme sports on ESPN, ESPN2, and watch the Lords of Dogtown on Starz, all in stunning high-definition of Dish Newtork. Dish Network offers the most HD programming and the most extreme offers in the Satellite TV industry. Check out You Tube for some really great skateboarding videos, if you’re stuck with dialup check out what WildBlue Satellite Internet can do to get you flying on the web.