Honoring the Lineage of Black Skateboarders with Black Skateboarders
nosesliders.substack.com
Skateboarding emerged from the surf culture of Southern California. Due to de facto segregation, many black folks didn't get the chance to kick it at the beach, much less surf. In the 60s, as an article in The Guardian notes, "Black surfers were almost as rare in LA as unicorns.”
Great to hear all these perspectives, and have them all in one place. From what I have been told, the pre-ollie schoolyard stuff definitely intersects with surf culture. And of course Natas, has a direct overlap with Dogtown. But street skating of today, and schoolyard skating of today kinda starts in Florida with the ollie–invented by Alan Gelfand–which comes to LA via Rodney Mullen along with shuvs and flips, and the street board invented by Paul Schmitt–which comes to LA and subsequently the globe via Vision and World Industries. And then Gonz, Kareem, Shiloh, Soc, Daewon, Henry, and all them start out on Rodney's company creating the brand identities that define the industry , inventing the vernacular of skateboarding with the idea of flipping and spinning the board, and filming with your homie who skates and turning it into a video that becomes an avatar for your person. Not trying to say "you're wrong," but I think the Florida history is not so publicized, and a lot of the sequence of how things intersected, and the cross-pollination with these small groups of people are not so widely known or publicized. It's no coincidence that the skaters who invented our idea of skating were riding for the company invented by the guy who invented the tricks, and using increasingly-functional boards–designed to the specifications of the tricks the skaters were coming up with–made by the guy who invented boards. And no coincidence that both those dudes are from Florida, and were homies in Florida. All that to say: the schoolyard skating of today definitely originated in East/Central LA, and it's created by people who were not part of any surf culture.
Great to hear all these perspectives, and have them all in one place. From what I have been told, the pre-ollie schoolyard stuff definitely intersects with surf culture. And of course Natas, has a direct overlap with Dogtown. But street skating of today, and schoolyard skating of today kinda starts in Florida with the ollie–invented by Alan Gelfand–which comes to LA via Rodney Mullen along with shuvs and flips, and the street board invented by Paul Schmitt–which comes to LA and subsequently the globe via Vision and World Industries. And then Gonz, Kareem, Shiloh, Soc, Daewon, Henry, and all them start out on Rodney's company creating the brand identities that define the industry , inventing the vernacular of skateboarding with the idea of flipping and spinning the board, and filming with your homie who skates and turning it into a video that becomes an avatar for your person. Not trying to say "you're wrong," but I think the Florida history is not so publicized, and a lot of the sequence of how things intersected, and the cross-pollination with these small groups of people are not so widely known or publicized. It's no coincidence that the skaters who invented our idea of skating were riding for the company invented by the guy who invented the tricks, and using increasingly-functional boards–designed to the specifications of the tricks the skaters were coming up with–made by the guy who invented boards. And no coincidence that both those dudes are from Florida, and were homies in Florida. All that to say: the schoolyard skating of today definitely originated in East/Central LA, and it's created by people who were not part of any surf culture.
Missed this when it first ran; Bravo, Sir! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Dope piece!
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