Skateboard Kings is a 1978 BBC documentary about the
Dogtown skateboarding scene in late 70's Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Featuring a lot of footage of the skaters' daily life as well as an exploration of the business side of skateboarding, the documentary is a time capsule of late 70's Southern California. For more about Dogtown go to
z-boys.com.
[previously on MetaFilter]
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 29, 2007 -
10 comments
End of an Empire Sadly (for me, anyway) the Empire Rollerdrome, last roller rink in New York City, closed its doors for good this weekend after nearly 70 years in business. Although it had a checkered history of
sex, drugs, and hip hop, the Empire was in recent years a much-loved family and community center in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. DJ Julio (who kept the crowd
rolling at the Roxy for decades until they too closed earlier this year) maintains a fabulous archive of material about all of
NYC's bygone rinks. If you want to see what you've been missing, check out the
Central Park Dance Skaters.
posted by sonofslim
on Apr 25, 2007 -
18 comments
The US Figure Skating championships are this week, but though the ice skaters in Spokane and elsewhere get all the press,
another group of skaters toil in near-obscurity.
Roller figure skaters (also called
artistic roller skaters) skate on
quad (
or sometimes inline) skates, do
all the moves that ice skaters do (and even more -- notice the "heel" and "broken ankle" spins in
this program, spins that are not possible on ice), and compete,
as they have for decades, in local,
national, and
international events. In 1978, skating was at a peak of popularity and
Time magazine wrote
"skaters are hoping to be included in the 1988 Olympics"; nearly 30 years later, roller figure skating still hasn't reached the Olympics, some roller skaters like Tara Lipinski have switched to ice to get famous, and the number of clubs and participants in the US have declined precipitously, but dedicated roller figure skaters still spend many hours practicing
school figures (on circles painted on the floor), dance, and free skating,
for the love of their sport. Want to see more?
Skating videos from RollerSportsTV.
posted by litlnemo
on Jan 23, 2007 -
33 comments
In the 1980's, Mark "Gator" Rogowski was on par with Tony Hawk at the top of the nascent world of professional skateboarding. Contrasting the path Hawk took in the 90's (video games, ESPN tie-ins), things did not go so well for Gator. After surviving a hideous accident in 1989, Mark turned to Jesus, and then shortly thereafter he brutally
raped & murdered a female friend of his ex-girlfriend's. The
documentary of his rise & amazing fall appears today in limited release.
posted by jonson
on Aug 15, 2003 -
43 comments
Finally, a Reason to Watch Court TV? An Olympics skating vote rigging Russian mafia fraud trial--what fun! Hope this happens, and I hope in happens in New York's Federal Southern District, because, well, what fun to bring down a stupid sport (And remove it from television); discredit the French, Russians... I want seats to this one! Or Perhaps E! will provide the coverage?
posted by ParisParamus
on Aug 2, 2002 -
14 comments
"What do you expect from a bunch of underprivileged, delinquent teenagers? Certainly not genius, but that's what was happening." Welcome to the
Z-Boy revival. A new
documentary about Dogtown opens this weekend that tells the story about how some
punks from Santa Monica turned skating hardcore and along the way transformed youth culture and spawned a $3 billion dollar industry. A 1999 Spin article
"The Lords of Dogtown" kicked off the current revival.
posted by euphorb
on Apr 26, 2002 -
4 comments
Russians going home? Apparently, Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said
there was a 24-hour window to address the situation, and that if Russia left Salt Lake City it probably would not compete in Athens in the next Summer Games.
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Feb 21, 2002 -
34 comments
U.S. CONSIDERS MILITARY ACTION TO REMOVE SKATING JUDGES. I don't mean to pimp Borowitz again so soon... but damn. Best line from this:
While the decision to use military force against the figure skating judges was Mr. Bush’s, sources say there was a split within the Administration as to the appropriateness of using U.S. troops and air power to change the results of an Olympic skating contest.... These sources indicate that Secretary of State Colin Powell favored using economic and diplomatic measures while Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz advocated detaining and torturing the figure skating judges until they reversed their earlier decision.
posted by mattpusateri
on Feb 13, 2002 -
3 comments
What were the skating judges watching? What a robbery! The Canadian pair, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were just fantastic, and deserved the gold. It is hard to imagine what the judges were thinking, because they had it all - technical merit, drama, passion, and excellence. And after the decision, dignity.
posted by wpeyton
on Feb 11, 2002 -
68 comments
This has nothing to do with the web.. But in case you're like me and the time you spend away from your computer usually consists of
drinking beer and/or playing on your neato
video game system.
You NEED Tony Hawk. the graphics on the DC version kick playstation's ass and its the perfect game to waste hours of time and lots of beers and to destroy your friend's ego.
posted by sikk
on Jun 6, 2000 -
11 comments
