All language subtitles for Made.In.Venice.2016.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[ overlapping chatter ]

[ wheels rolling ]

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[ music playing ]

- * Hey

- There's so much passion
in this place.

There's so much beauty.

There's so much pain.

It's dark. It's light.

You know,
there's a lot of places

that people don't fight
for what they believe in.

People around here
don't stand for that.

[ music playing ]

- This is my neighborhood.

This is my fucking
little castle right here.

Every time I come here,
I know everybody that's here.

Everyone says, "What's up?"
Everyone's friends.

- We showed up to this,
you know,

where it's still--

where the debris meets the sea.

- Venice Beach
has always been about

a community of artists

and kind of like
a big melting pot.

- There's nowhere else
like this.

This town is so alive
24 hours a day.

- We don't slack off.
We don't make excuses.

You could have
all the tricks in the world,

but if you don't do 'em
with style, it's just boring.

We don't do boring.
This is Venice.

- Skateboarding is looked at
as a toy for your kid. No.

This is something
we live and we breathe,

and we're gonna do
something dangerous with it.

[ music playing ]

- [ whooping ]

- You know Abbot Kinney?
That guy that started Venice?

He wanted to do
this wonderland like Venice,

this Venice, Italy,
type of look with the canals.

NARRATOR: Abbot called it
his Venice of America,

a place for people to come down,
enjoy the beach,

the boardwalk, and see a show.

Most of the places he built
are gone now,

but the stories about
Abbot Kinney still live on,

because the Venice skaters
are a lot like Abbot.

They're following their dreams,
doing something new,

even if it is
a little dangerous.

- Without the permits or the--

or I'd say, the "okay"
from the city of Los Angeles,

he just started building it,

and this community
started up here.

At one point, I heard

and read that the city
came actually down here

with bulldozers to tear down

some of the piers and stuff
they were building.

All the community people got
in front of those bulldozers

and said, "No, you're not,"
and stopped 'em.

- When Abbot Kinney did it,
it was rich.

Depression hit, it went ghetto.

The war came, the fifties.
It was rich again.

The sixties came around,
it was poor again.

Seventies, it was poor.

- Even though Venice
was a ghetto at the time,

it felt like more
of a family community,

because everybody was poor.

There was no, like,
class division.

It was, like, you had
your poor white family,

you had your poor black family,

you had
your poor Mexican family,

and everybody knew each other,

and everybody knew
each other's kids.

- We all lived together,
you know,

Crips, Bloods,
ESE's, skateboarders.

We were all considered family
to each other.

- And--And our group,
it was integrated.

We didn't care, you know.

It's like we hung out with
everyone, didn't matter, so--

And it was the skateboarding
that brought us together.

- Story goes
there was a few of the guys

sitting out there,
and they were commenting

how the town
has really gone to crap.

And one of the old Z-Boys
commented,

"Yeah, this town
ain't fit for a dog."

And then,
as they were saying that,

one of those guys go,
"Yeah, this is a Dogtown!"

- You could
probably make an argument

that some place
in this general vicinity,

skateboarding
as an activity originated

and was largely defined.

- Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice,

this is the area
where skateboarding started.

All the best skaters
come out of here,

and people might have been
doing things other places,

but they definitely
weren't getting the coverage,

and they weren't as gnarly
as people were down here.

NARRATOR: In 1972,
Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho

opened the Zephyr Surf Shop
in Santa Monica.

The Zephyr Skateboard team,

also known as the Z-Boys,
was born.

- It's like there was
a chain of command, you know,

Skip Engblom, Nathan Pratt,
Jeff Ho, Stecyk, you know,

those dudes were like
the fathers of the neighborhood.

And then Jay Adams, Alva,
all those homies,

they were like
the sons of Dogtown.

Then, we from the eighties,

like, one time Jay told me--
he goes,

"You guys are like
the bad stepsons,"

'cause we were raising hell
on this beach.

- * Grind on

* 'Cause that feels great

* Grind it on

[ band playing ]

* Street shotgun

* Street shotgun

* Straight street...

[ overlapping chatter, yelling ]

[ band continues ]

- The realistic boundaries
of what the mythical Dogtown is

basically straddles
both Venice and Santa Monica.

And half the guys

on the original Zephyr team
were from Venice,

and half of 'em
were from Santa Monica.

- And we became, you know,
the first group

of super skaters,
you know, in the world.

And Tony and Jay
and everybody showed that

you know, we can invent
a new way of skateboarding

and can do something of our own.

[ music playing ]

- Jay Adams, Tony Alva, all them
grew up watching surfers,

and they thought they were
surfing on the sidewalk,

so when they went in the pool,

they were surfing--whoo--
grinding, and carving.

- You know, we used to sit
at the bottom of the hill

watching Jay Adams
and all those dudes

and Tony Alva bombing the hills
down my street, you know?

Little did we know, you know,
what legend we were watching.

- Dogtown, when I grew up
in the seventies,

was one of the most influential
areas in the whole world.

And to see
what those guys were doing,

of radical skateboarding,
it influenced us,

like that is skateboarding.

We want to ride pools.
We want to go rip.

We want to have that lifestyle
of surfing and skating,

just living it up, you know,

just being a teenager,
and just loving your life.

- Kids who were born
straight from a Dogtown boy

is an automatic Dogtown boy.

If I roll by you, and I go,

"Hey, what's up, homie?
You're a Dogtown boy,"

that's a frickin' honor, man.

You know, it's the equivalent
of being, like,

some senator or something dumb.
Around here, it is.

And if you're considered
a Dogtown boy,

you know, you made it.

- * Representin', representin',
representin' *

* Representin' to bang

* Representin'...

- I've seen gangbangers
start to skateboard

and give up gangbanging
for skateboarding.

- When your house
is falling apart

and your mom and dad, you know,
are arguing all the time

the only place
I would feel as comfortable,

in the water or going
to a skateboard bank.

- I believe it was, like,
in between 1970 and '71.

Uh, my brothers
and my cousins...

they weren't
the nicest people sometimes,

and I guess they were
out there doing their thing.

And, uh, I guess
one of 'em stole a car,

and, uh, in that back seat
was a skateboard.

So when they got back
to the house,

they were like,
"Hey, you want this?"

And I was like, "Yeah, sure."

So I started skating with it,

and, uh, I was really stoked.
I really liked it.

I was like, "Wow, this is fun."

- Me and Jesse,
we grew up together in Venice,

and our older brothers
were in the same gang,

and in order for us
to stay away from that scene,

we started skateboarding
and hung around the beach.

- From elementary school, that's
all you were brought up around

was Dogtown and skating
and surfing,

and "Back your neighborhood up."

That's just the way it was.

- We both come
from dysfunctional families.

Jesse, I would say,
had it a little tougher than me.

My mother passed away
when I was 12,

and I never had my dad around,

so I was on my own
with no parents at 12 already.

Jesse had to deal with
his father and his mother still,

and there was issues with, uh,
his siblings and whatever.

- I got two blood brothers
from the same mother and father,

Monty and Albert.
Albert passed away.

I got another brother, Monty.

He's on vacation
for about another three months,

but he'll be back.

- First time
I met Jesse Martinez,

I thought he was
just some little gangbanger,

because I grew up hanging out
with his older brother.

He was one of the shot-callers
of the neighborhood.

- One thing I have learned
from growing up

in a gang environment
my whole entire life,

you know, you grow up
in a house full of gang members

and you live in
a ganged-out neighborhood,

there's a dang good chance

you're going to become
a gang member.

I'm one of the fortunate.
You know, I was asked.

I was asked to be in the gang
when I was younger,

and I said no,
and somebody said,

"Then go skate, white boy.
Leave." And I did. Psshw.

[ music playing ]

NARRATOR: In the summer of 1978,
a businessman named Dennis Ogden

built a skatepark
in Marina Del Rey, California.

The Marina
became a training ground

for the next generation
of world-class skateboarders,

such as Pat Ngoho, Eric Dressen,
and Christian Hosoi.

- When Marina Skatepark opened,

I was probably, like,
10 years old.

I remember me and
my buddy Christian went there.

You know, we got exposed
to a lot of heavyweight guys,

all the former Z-Boys,
Dogtown team.

- Growing up in Venice Beach,

skating down to the beach
at 9, 10 years old.

Then to see Marina Del Rey
Skatepark built in 1978

and go "Wow, look at this
in our own backyard."

[ music playing ]

- We were looking to do
a skatepark in this area,

because it was
such a hotbed of skating,

just like Venice
still is these days.

And in those days,
it was, uh, Dogtown skaters,

and the Zephyr team

were the most, uh,
well known skaters in the world.

- A lot of those guys were--
were great mentors, you know.

On the outside, they looked
radical and intimidating,

but really,
they were super cool.

They were my big brothers.
They raised me.

- Initially,
when we first opened,

it was just packed,
uh, every day,

and near the end,
in the last, uh, year or so,

it seemed like there
was more like 50 skaters.

- Nobody wants to pay
to go skateboard at a place,

and that's one thing
that kind of ruined it.

When you skateboard every day

and you skate,
well, that's your life,

you know,
it gets to be quite an expense.

- When the Marina Skatepark
closed down,

the insurance
on the skateparks went under,

so that's why all the parks
started closing.

- Once they closed
all those parks down,

there was really nowhere to go.

- So, the only way to--to skate
some kind of transition

was to build your own ramps.

- Venice is such a cool scene,

especially back then
in the eighties.

It wasn't such a tourist trap
as it is now.

[ music playing ]

It was this eclectic mix
of different types of people,

different culture, you know,

skateboarding, roller skating,

just all these--
these crazy worlds

all coming together.

- The eighties really defined

the do-it-yourself,
individual, punk-rock attitude

that was fueled by the music,

that was fueled
by the culture, the lifestyle.

And at the same time,
respected by the traditions

of the guys
who did it before us.

- When we were in high school,

Jesse would come to Venice High,
be barefooted,

and just skate his ass off
on the Venice High banks.

And I was like, "Jesse,
what are you doing?" You know?

Jesse would be like,
"I'm gonna be a pro skater."

And I was like, "There's
no fucking money in that."

And he was like, "I don't care.
I'm gonna be a pro skater."

- Back in the early eighties,

I was in Simi Valley
visiting my grandma,

met these biker guys
who had a ramp.

And so I go,
"Wow, bitchin' ramp."

I really liked it,
and I had fun on it.

I go, "Can I buy it from you
or trade it from you?"

And he goes, "No."

Well, back then,
I was kinda shady,

so I got up at 3:00
in the morning, got his ramp,

put it on my skateboard,
rolled it home.

Called my buddy from Venice,
said, "Come and get me."

He came and got me
with his truck,

and we threw the ramp
on the ground out there,

and it all began.

- I was skating a lot
with Christian Hosoi.

And we were skating
a lot of vert,

you know,
wherever we could find, pools,

um, skating the skateparks.
And then one day, he's like,

"Dude, we gotta
go down to the beach.

They have a jump ramp."

It was cool,
because you'd go there.

There'd be a thousand people
watching you.

So one little jump ramp,
and we'd be all hittin' it,

literally
thousands of people there,

and it was just--
it was cool.

[ music playing ]

- I was going
down the street one day,

and Jay Adams passed me,
and he stopped,

and he goes, "Hey, you.
You want to go skate?"

And I was like, "Of course."
It was frickin' Jay Adams.

So he took me skating that day.
I was fully inspired.

- You know, I was going
down to, like, Playa Del Rey.

We had a couple backyard ramps
down there at the beach,

and I took Jesse with me.

And Jesse was just
100% skateboarder at the time,

just so into it and totally--
just aggro on skating.

[ camera whirring ]

- I'm no pro. I just skate.

I don't know
how I get the money.

Couple days later,
Jay Adams saw me down here,

and he goes,
"Hey, you want to ride--

You want to skate
for Santa Monica Airlines?"

And I was like, "Whoa, really?"
So I said, "Yeah."

And that was a complete
turning point for my whole life.

- In the eighties,
professional skateboarding

all of a sudden
became really a viable job.

- Between 19 and 21,
I turned pro.

I was old.

- I first met Jesse right here
on this beach with Jay Adams.

He was doin'--
He was ridin' the walls

and doin' hand plants

before--I mean, before
anyone I had ever seen do that.

- Jesse, Natas, Christian Hosoi

and a whole 'nother handful
of guys from Frisco to Diego

started street skating.

- Street skating is basically
just grab your board,

go out and do
what you can where you can.

It was a natural progression.
It just grew out of,

you know, "I want to do
something different.

I can do this, but I can
do that. Now add this to that."

[ music playing ]

- It wasn't, like,
stop in one place

and try
and do one trick 25 times.

It was just go out
and hit everything

along your way on the street.

Grind a curb, hit a wall,
you know, do a parking block,

you know, kickflip,
something, keep going.

- Street skating was,
like, starting to, you know,

come up and started to boom.

You know, Jesse was,
like, at the forefront.

- He's the first guy I ever saw
just, like, jam up walls and--

and he's, like,
upside down on one hand,

flipping the board around
on his feet and the--

Let go of the board,
and then his feet

are just flipping
the board around, and...

All this stuff,
and I'm like,

"Is that where
skateboarding is going?"

[ record needle scratches ]

- Wally Holiday,
he was, like, one of the few

skatepark designers
back there with concrete.

He was sitting there, and he's
struggling on transitions,

and, "How are they ever--"
He's sitting--

Then all of a sudden
this kid comes out of nowhere,

It's Jesse. Just, like,
goes straight up the wall,

kickflips, and comes down
and skates off.

And Wally was like,
"What do we need parks for?"

You know,
it was like, "What is this?"

- I looked at magazines. I--

There wasn't
a "How to Street Skate" issue.

So I just skated,
and took my moves

off what they were doing
and took it to the streets.

- He was always
doing something new,

always challenging himself,

and never satisfied
with his abilities.

He always wanted
to improve his abilities

and do something more.

- The eighties, skateboarding

was all about Venice.
You know,

we were in the magazines.
We were the scene.

- Later in the eighties,
oh, '85, '84,

everybody started
becoming these,

you know,
good amateur skateboarders.

And, you know,
before you know it,

'85, '86 ran around,

and everybody
was full-blown skate--

you know,
pro legend skaters now.

- Jesse was exceptional.

He had dominated the amateur
status for two years.

When Jessie became
the hot commodity,

Stacy came
and picked up Jessie and said,

"I am gonna give you a model..."

"but I invested
in all these other riders,"

and he had Bones Brigade
and all that.

And he put Jesse
on Powell-Peralta.

He said, "You don't get
a model for two years.

"We'll start designing
your stuff,

but I am not gonna put it out."

He knew that if Jesse
skated against those guys

that he'd been
promoting his company with...

[ camera whirs ]

he would have won,
beat all those guys in street,

so he kinda held him back.

- You could be the baddest
skateboarder in the world,

but if you
don't ride for a team

that's gonna get you out there
and touring, shaking hands--

Powell just put my ass out there
for weeks and months at a time,

touring all over
the United States.

There isn't a state or town
I pretty much ain't been to.

- Jesse was the hardest-working
skateboarder in the eighties.

Jesse went on tour
for six months.

Oh, he would tell me stories

where his ankles
would be so swollen,

he had to stick
both of his ankles

in a bucket of ice
just to do a demo.

- I was a demo machine.

I lived and died for demos.

I loved it, and I got paid.

And, uh, Stacy, without him,
I'd be, uh--

I'd be half the--the so-called
skateboarder I am today.

NARRATOR: The Venice Pavilion
was built in 1961

to be a community rec center.

It fell into disrepair,
closed in '84,

but it was all the skaters had
to keep skateboarding alive.

- Our area, Marina Skatepark,

that we all grew up around,
was gone.

- The older guys like Jay Adams
and those guys

were already skaters
and well-known skateboarders.

They would build ramps and stuff
down at the Pavilion.

NARRATOR: Instead of the pools
and copings

of the Marina Skatepark,

now the skaters
used handmade ramps

and the walls of the Pavilion
for street skating.

- Everybody would go
inside the Pavilion,

'cause the cops
couldn't find you in there.

You could go
behind these heavy big fire pits

and sit in there
and sort of smoke some weed

and hang out,
do whatever you wanted.

- I used to go down there
and measure the walls,

and actually build ramps to fit
the wall exactly perfect.

We would skate it
on the weekends,

and then come Monday
to skate or something,

and the cops would be cutting up
our ramps with chain saws.

and then we'd have to go
steal some wood, build it.

- We had, like, 10
different sites in the Pavilion

where we'd put these ramps up.

[ music playing ]

- We turned the beach
into a skatepark.

- It wasn't the cookie-cutter
perfect vert ramp.

You know, you had
to make do with what you had.

- We all pushed each other
to be the best that we could be.

- We were pushing the envelope
in street skating.

We were--We were being creative
with the Pavilion, with ramps

and quarter pipes
and wall rides

and jump ramp to walls

and just really
wanting to have a good time.

I think that was our whole goal

was to have a good time
with all of our friends

down here at the beach
like one big, you know, family,

and that's what
skateboarding was all about.

- There was Mexicans.
There was black kids.

There was white kids,

and, you know,
everyone just kinda got along.

[ siren blares ]

[ music stops ]

- Hey, let's put 'em
on the video. Why not?

[ music playing ]

- People that remember
that Pavilion

remember it with
kind of rose-colored glasses.

What they kind of forget about

is the fact that nobody
was cleaning the place.

It wasn't
just the skaters there.

You had drug addicts there,

you had homeless guys there,

and the place really stank.

- It was
a real bad scene down there,

but we didn't give a shit,
'cause they were--

We'd skate by--
We knew the bums,

but they looked out for us.
They were like, "Hey--"

You know, if some older drunk
came and fucked with us,

they would be like,
"Hey, don't fuck with them.

Those are the groms.
Those are locals, you know?"

I didn't even recognize
all the chaos.

I was just having fun,
and I was--

But then, we were protected
by our older brothers

and our older brothers--

or friends'
older brothers and family.

You know what I mean?

NARRATOR: Growing up
in a tough environment

makes you learn how to stand up
for what you believe in

and demand respect.

- I think that we were
just so close

to all the old Z-Boys
in the seventies,

that we couldn't help
but know where we came from

and be proud of it

and willing
to almost do anything

to protect that neighborhood
and the word "Dogtown."

- Bike companies came down,
did a contest.

- When they had the contest
and all the bikers came out,

it was too much for Jess.

He called up Stoney,

and that just started
a whole mess, dude.

- It was like
throwing a match on gas.

It turned into a huge fight.
It was bad.

- A lot of bikes
got stolen that day.

Like, 7 or 10 bikes got taken.

- We actually did more harm to
ourselves than we did to them.

We just reinforced their thou--
the way they looked at us--

thugs, you know,

hardheaded kids, troublemakers.

NARRATOR: After the BMX rumble,

the city clamped down
on skateboarders

and their activities
at the beach.

- When I got back into town,

some of the local guys
were like, "Hey, man,

they're building a ramp
over at Joff's House."

And I was like, "What? No way!"

So shot over there
as quick as I could.

- My parents had
a real big front yard,

and I was kind of in a lot
of trouble at the time, so, uh,

they figured, "Fuck,
we might as well keep him here."

- Joff Drinkwater,
when I was a little kid,

he built a ramp in his backyard,
and it was called the VSA ramp.

That's where
the VSA came from originally.

It was
the Venice Skate Association.

They all had membership cards.

You had to be down
to be able to skate.

- My friend Jimbo's the one
who started the VSA.

I mean, I remember them
saying, "VSA,"

and he spray-painted it on, uh--

My friend Joff Drinkwater
had built

a half-pipe
in front of his house.

[ music playing ]

- I'd heard about it.
I found the spot,

and I walked in there, and it
was just a heavy scene going on.

All these gnarly suicidal
punk rockers were there.

There was some--
some Crips there.

There were some ESE's there.

What other skate scene has that?
You know what I mean?

Multicultural, like, gangsters,
and then skateboarders.

And not only were
the skateboarders hard,

they were just as hard
as the gangsters.

You know what I mean?
That's what it was about.

- There was other kids that
were privileged in Mar Vista

and other kids in Westchester

and in Santa Monica
that had ramps,

but when Venice came,
we'd go to skate,

they're like, "Nah,

those kids aren't
coming in the yard."

'Cause we were rowdy.
You could tell.

We were the fucking--
We were like wild mustangs

out of the fucking corral,
right? When you let us out,

we're, "Rah!" We were loud.

Parents are like,
"No, they're not coming in."

So we had our own ramp
at that point,

so we did the same thing.
We're like, "No,

if you're not VSA,
you're not skating."

- Unfortunately
the Powell tour came around,

I guess round two,

and I got sent back out
on the road.

Came back
two or three months later,

and then, uh, it was gone.

- The early nineties,

skateboarding
died out in Venice.

There was nobody coming out
of Venice that was skating.

Everything kind of just drifted

and got distant from this area.

- The rollerbladers
showed up around 1990

and started thinking
the spot right here by the wall

was their spot all of a sudden.

- rollerbladers
were so organized,

because they had big
corporate companies behind 'em.

- From 1994 to 1998,

we were strictly
in-line skating,

street and vert.

- There was just bad blood
between the rollerbladers

and skateboarders,
who were led by Jesse...

[ laughs ]

...the Mess.

- Jesse Martinez, who I
had many altercations with.

- It's not
that we didn't like you.

We just didn't like you
where you were taking over.

- This was their territory.

- The rollerbladers
were outnumbering everybody,

and they'd brought down
a jump ramp.

Well, they decided
it was their beach,

and they weren't
going to let us skate it.

- We're hopping over the fence
and kicking 'em out.

- There was only a couple of us,
and guess who came riding in?

[ music playing ]

- You know, Jesse felt that,
you know, he had the allegiance

and had to protect,
you know, his group.

- So Jesse made a swift point
with his palm

into a professional
rollerblader's face...

[ boom ]

and cemented the point
into his cheek

that you don't come in here
with a pompous attitude.

You show respect,
you get respect.

- Nothing meant more than
backing up the neighborhood,

and then I
finally realized that,

in a way, you're not backing
the neighborhood up.

You're hurting the neighborhood.

[ tires squeal ]

- There's Ger-I.

Doesn't know
he's gonna get picked up

for fucking destroying
the fucking lawn.

Gonna get arrested
in about 10 minutes.

- He's just another example
of all the guys in Venice.

Anything you want to do,
you can do.

- We all liked him, you know,
'cause he was just so odd.

And then he started
pulling people

out of the--that were drowning

out of the water
over here in a few feet,

and then he was heroic.

- I know he's a better surfer
than he is a skater,

and more importantly, you know,

he's an ex-lifeguard,
CPR trained,

and that's a hell
of a lot more important

than being a good surfer
or skateboarder.

- Yeah, he's kinda like
an Energizer bunny.

He just keeps going, Ger-I.

- [ singing hard rock ]

- Ger-I's got a lot of energy.

- I found out
about the, um, demolition

of the Pavilion in 1988.

For about 10 years, you know,
when I'd come home,

I would tell people,
"It's gonna be torn down.

Let's get involved
and have a skatepark built."

And most people
would just tell me,

"You know,
fuck you, Ger-I Lewis.

You don't know
what you're talking about."

- Every subculture has
its kind of Mecca, if you will,

and the pit was Mecca
for skateboarding.

[ music playing ]

- The city government
was really focused

on what to do with the Pavilion,

how to repair
the parts of Ocean Front Walk

that were falling apart.

It was a nightmare,
let me tell you.

- They're taking away, like,
a landmark in skateboarding,

whether they recognize that
or not, the city, or whoever.

- This is our world,
our stomping ground,

and there's the people that want
to tear it down right there.

[ music playing ]

- Ending of a chapter
in skateboard history.

- Ger-I saw this
for a long time,

and he went down there
when it wasn't popular,

and he did it
when nobody cared about it,

which you'd have
to give him a lot of credit for.

- The RRM Group
had a questionnaire

and a type of map,
and the question was,

"What would you like to see here
if you had your druthers?"

So, bam, I wrote
"skateboard park," and I--

You've seen it where I drew--
and I drew an anarchy sign.

I kept the dream alive.

- I got a call from Ger-I-Lewis,
and he said, "Melanie,

"I have a lot of stuff
on my plate right now,

and I need some help making sure
that we get this park."

That's how it started.

- I think one thing I saw about
Ger-I is he didn't go away,

and he believed in a dream,
and he made me believe in him,

because I think
Ger-I didn't stop

when everybody else thought that
it was a good time to give up.

- You know, you don't hold back,

so he just carries on
that tradition.

- I recall
we were actually out here,

down here at Venice Beach
looking at some of the drawings.

And about three or four
skateboarders came over

and said, "Hey, where's ours?"

I mean, they made
an immediately compelling case.

We'd already gone out to bid,
so the question became,

how do we find a way
to accommodate these guys?

- "Oh, my God, is that
gonna be the skatepark?"

Like, everybody kinda lost
a little faith at that point,

except for Ger-I and Jesse.

- So we thought we had done
really, really good work

by getting a small--
admittedly a small skatepark.

It was only at the grand opening
of the whole shebang

that a few skaters said,
"You know,

this isn't
really gonna cut it."

- That's when
I officially formed the VSA

as a viable, legitimate advocate
for skateboarding.

In 2000,
I met a dear, dear woman named--

Uh, Her name
is Heidi, Heidi Lemmon.

- I had a booth at ASR.
Uh, we're a nonprofit,

you know, to help people
get skateparks.

I was manning the booth,

and this guy
comes wandering down,

and it turned out
to be Ger-I Lewis.

And he said, "I'm trying to get
a skatepark in Venice."

And I was like, "Me, too!"

- And her organization,

Skate Parks Association USA,
was just a perfect fit.

- Thank, uh, Ger-I Lewis,
who took the VSA

and actually made it
an association.

- Heidi, myself, and Scott Brown
filed business papers,

so the city
officially recognized us

as the group
wanting a skatepark.

- And then because Ger-I
had the skate shop here

and he was a longtime Venice
skater, he knew everybody,

so when we came together
with what I was working on

politically,
and then it was like

he had a powerhouse of skaters.
He knew everybody.

- We--We met.

He had contests
and fundraisers

to, you know,
get money and everything.

And, um, kind of
rallied around that.

- Sign our petition
to have a skatepark

put at beautiful Venice Beach.

Thank you very much.

- It's good,
'cause it's good for kids.

Give them more things to do.

Better than walking around,
they can hang out in the park.

- For years and years,
people have been skating here.

We came all this way
from the East Coast,

been living here
for, like, three years,

and now they
tore everything down.

There's nothing here
but skaters left.

If we ain't got
nothing to skate,

we're just gonna start
doing other shit,

and y'all don't want that.

- So it's about time
skateboarders

got together and built a park.

I'd like to thank everybody
for showing up

and showing their support
for skateboarding in Venice.

- You know, the problem
that happened down here

between the skaters
and the bikers back then,

uh, I thought that pretty much
killed it for all--all time.

- Any development that happens
in this part of Venice

is subject not only
to all the city process,

but the Coastal Commission
also has to approve everything.

- We really thought it was
just the end of the road for us.

- There'd be a lot of meetings.

Well, we found out
one of the meetings

was being in San Diego,
so Ger-I Lewis, Tod Gessel,

uh, he got a van. He had a van

and, uh, just stacked up
everybody that--that was around

to go, you know, represent
Venice at this meeting,

to show that we
had, uh, solidarity

and more than
just two or three guys.

Here we are as a van--

a bunch of us showing up
and shocking them.

- And we had a strategy,

is we brought in
a bunch of kids, you know,

young kids, saying why
they wanted a skatepark.

Because, for one, you know,
a bunch of old guys coming in

saying we wanted a skatepark
wasn't gonna do it.

- And of course, it's a pretty
motley crew of people, right?

Got in there, and, uh,
Jesse got up and spoke,

and he's a--he's such
a powerful speaker,

and he's so Jesse.

You know, everybody in there
is so corporate, and, you know,

Jesse's just this, you know,

down-and-dirty skater
from Venice,

and he got up there,
and he talked.

- Yeah, hi.
My name's Jesse Martinez.

I'm a lifelong resident,
born and raised in Venice,

and I've been skateboarding for
31 years in that neighborhood.

And, uh, well, sometimes people
lose sight of the skateboard.

It's not just a toy.

Most of my family are
all gang members in Venice,

but just because I found
a skateboard when I was five,

it broke the cycle of--

of that gang life
that I was heading toward,

'cause I wanted to skateboard.

And now my son is
a skateboarder, too.

But it--You know,
sometimes it leads

to so much better things
than me becoming a gang member.

Instead, I became

a professional skateboarder
for eight years.

And now my son is, and I'm
sure his son will be, too, now.

Unlike my older brother
who is serving time in prison.

His son is in prison, too,

and I kind of feel I failed him

by not giving him a skateboard
when he was younger

to pull him away
from that general direction.

And I'd rather choose
being a skateboarder

than a gang member
any day of the week.

That's basically it. Thank you.

- They all--They applauded him
and everything,

and I think it was unanimous

that they voted
in favor of the skatepark.

- Any objection
to a unanimous roll call?

Seeing none,
the project is approved.

- [ cheering ]

- We got it.

- [ overlapping chatter ]
- Yeah.

- Skatepark!
- Triumph.

- Yeah.

- Got the skatepark. [ laughs ]

- Unbelievable.
- That was beautiful.

- We just fuckin' made history.
- Fuckin' sweet, dude.

Like, Venice has never
had a skateboard park ever.

They made shit, dude.
Like, we grew up

watching that shit
in magazines and videos,

and now we're responsible
for fucking making a skatepark

that's going
to change lives, dude.

- We were so naïve
back then and young,

that once it was approved,
everyone thought that just--

it would just,
you know, handle itself

and get done, I guess.

They just, like, I guess,
in essence, appeased us

by approving it
and hoped we'd go away.

- It was certainly a lot
of bureaucratic resistance.

There's always bureaucratic
resistance to a new idea.

- The City of Los Angeles

was really difficult
to work with on this park.

[ on-screen ]
It's all about politics

In the meantime,
there's over 20 skateparks

built in Los Angeles that
went in without any problems.

- Mayor Riordan,
when he was the Mayor,

came down here and went
to one of the workshops

planning the restoration
of the beachfront.

Then he came back from this
workshop about a half-hour later

and said to me, "Ruth,
your job is harder than mine."

- I don't know that I've ever
been to a meeting in Venice

that didn't have
some level of chaos.

And the closer
you get to the water,

it seems to be the more chaotic
the meetings get,

so any meeting about anything

down on Venice Beach
was chaotic.

- Everybody screaming
what they want,

how the park should be.

[ crowd yelling ]

- There was some city people.

There was a guy from the Kings
hockey team that was there,

and it was the funniest thing
when he stood up

and suggested
that they build a roller rink

for the rollerbladers
and the skateboarders to, uh,

"do their thing in."

- Part of the plan
was to be this combination

roller hockey rink
and skatepark.

And at one point
the Kings were involved

to pony up
some dollars for that.

- We kinda looked
at each other, like,

"Who's gonna stand up
and answer this one?"

And it was only appropriate
that Jesse stood up,

raised his hand,
and said, "Uh, excuse me,

"but if you do that, there's
gonna be a lot of problems,

"and you're gonna have fights,

"and you're gonna
have to deal with it,

and it's not a very good idea."

- They were trying to build
a hockey rink, right?

And we're like,
"We don't fuckin' play hockey.

This is Venice, man."

- [ cheering ]

- Wintertime, ice hockey,
summertime, roller hockey,

and they were gonna fund it,

and that was gonna be
shoved down our throats.

- Eventually it died out.

The community wasn't
all that jazzed about it.

- Pretty much, though,
we were kind of the core

that just kept going to these
endless city council meetings

and getting, like, turned away
and coming back.

- The VSA pretty much pushed

every step it took
to get this park,

from meetings,
to learning, to lawyers,

to adapting
to every new city guy

we had to deal with
the last 23 years.

HEIDI: The money would come in
for the park,

and then it would disappear.

It would get sent
somewhere else,

and the park
wouldn't get built.

- By the time
we had agreed with them

that what we needed was
a planning group of skaters

who would work with the city,

then reapportionment hit,
and I got moved

out to the Valley,
so I lost, uh, authority.

- Who do we need
to talk to at the city,

to get on our side, to give us
the correct information

to proceed forward
to get a park built?

- Just seemed we were
trying to so hard for so long

that, you know, it just seemed
like a hopeless case.

- You have to be
in the right place

at the right time with
the right combination of people

and the right things happening.
It's like--It's luck. Right?

- The real truth
behind the whole thing is,

if you really
want to bottom-line it,

how that park got made,

without, um, Bill Rosendahl,
that park wouldn't exist.

- Here we go!
- Yeah, Bill!

[ music playing ]

- At a certain point in my life,

I figure
I'm gonna run for office

and see if I can
make a difference

in the political process.

And I got elected.
Got sworn in July 1 of 2005.

And as an elected official
representing the Westside,

the first thing I said is,
"Where are my skateboard parks?"

- You know, the squeaky wheel
gets the grease,

and if you have a kid
at your home saying, you know,

"I want a park. Where's my--

"Where's the park
for me to skate?

You know, Unka Dunk,
what are you doing?"

I think that that was, like,
our little magical factor

that made the park
happen right now.

- He was a skateboarder,
and he lives in my house

with his father at this
particular point in time.

And there was no place
to skateboard,

so he built
his own, uh, skateboard

right on our street.

He hammered things together,
and made this kinds of stuff

and up--and all kinds of things
that they make in skateboarding.

- So every day, we--we'd drag
our ramps out from our yard

and bring 'hem
out here into the street,

and we'd set 'em all up
right here in the street.

And, of course, this poor lady
would get angry with us

and come out
and yell at us and--

- One night, I came home,

and the whole neighborhood
was in an uproar.

"This is driving us nuts.
How can this be?"

So then I said, "Oh, I'm gonna
find out what's going on.

Why don't we
have skateboard parks?"

And I found out there was one

that had been worked on
for 8 to 10 years in Venice,

but it was languishing,
and it was languishing,

because there wasn't
the focus and the direction

and the support given
from the elected official,

and they were out of money.

- Council Member
Rosendahl's office

and Mike Bonin
elevated this project

to, I believe,
one of the highest priorities

for the district to happen,

and with that endorsement,
it really picked up speed.

- So I said, "How much more
money do you need?"

And they said,
"A couple of million dollars."

- Now, the Damson Oil site
actually had funds set aside

for something to build here.

- There used to be oil wells
even where we are,

So there's a source of funds

from this oil well
remediation fund

that's all unique
to Venice Beach,

and the council office
opened those funds up

to provide some funding
for this project.

- Some money came from there,

but, uh, I think
they needed more money,

and they said it came
out of the general fund.

Um, I'm not exactly sure
what that is,

but that's what I've been told.

- We have the Venice
Property Surplus Fund,

which comes from developers that
put money in it for projects,

and it was sitting there,

so I took the 2 million,
I gave it to the city.

I said, "Now there's
your money for the park.

Now stay focused,
and get it done."

- Its one of the things
in my life that's restored my--

it's so corny--
restored my belief in humanity.

- The fun for me
was grabbing skateboarders

and saying, "Get in a room.

Figure out
what you really want."

- You ask five people
what they want in a skatepark,

you get
10 non-negotiable answers.

- Honestly, I think this park
had five different plans,

five different stages
that it went to to get to here.

- Jesse really, I think,
made a point of bringing in

some of the--the heroes that
came out of this neighborhood

as far as professional
skateboarding goes

and really valued
their opinions,

and I think part of that
makes it the unique park it is.

- You can literally see
how this park evolved

from this little
flow-course nothing

to what it is now.

- And in fact,
toward the end of the design,

Jesse had a really good idea
to try and rework it

to get the snake run in
that's in there now.

- You know, park designs
depend on what's going on

within the sport at the moment
the park is designed,

and the designs are unique
to the communities

in which
they're being built for.

- As far as transition
and kind of like

what this--this neighborhood's
known for, style and all that,

I mean, as far
as the way it's laid out,

it's--it's a completely
unique oasis unlike any other.

- Zach Wormhoudt, you know,
and those guys--

incredible guys
at California Skateparks,

they definitely
bent over backwards, you know,

to change the small things
that we requested

literally to--to the last minute
of building this park.

- Construction for the park
began on December 31, 2008.

- Hey, how are you?
- It's time, my dear.

- All right. All right.
- How are you?

- I'm Bill Rosendahl,
the Council Member

that represents
the 11th District.

- Just remember
when it's up and running

and you guys are playing there,

that you started it
by the first shovel.

- [ cheering]

- This is a wonderful moment,

that we will finally
have a skateboard park

for the kids at Venice Beach.

- I hear the chain saw
startin' up,

and I start watchin' these guys
chop down the palm trees

at this lined-out perimeter
they had.

And I went--I thought to myself,
"Is it really true?

"Are they really starting
to clear the way

for a skatepark in Venice?"

- And then, like,
when they started digging

like, that was a big surprise.
I couldn't believe it.

- Hey. Look!
- Hi, Dan.

- They're tearing it all out.

- Once the concrete,
you know, the rebar,

and they started digging,

it was an incredible feeling
to know that all a decade

of pushing to get it built
is really gonna happen.

And I'm not too old
to skateboard still.

I-I'm gonna get a chance
to enjoy it myself,

you know, and Jess as well.

- This is a reflection of us.

This is what
we were able to accomplish

working our way
through a system.

Not just getting
this thing built,

but proving that you
can go through channels

and do things
in a correct manner.

if you're dogmatic enough,
you can complete something.

So as a community,
it should be

kind of like
a shining touchstone

for people to be
able to hold on to,

like this was
something that they did.

- I believe this is gonna be

the one part of the snake run
coming around.

You know, I'm not positive.
And that's the smaller bowl,

and then over there's
the bigger bowl,

which I am sure of.

- It's interesting. This used
to be a tainted oil field

and is a property that--

you know,
and it was a city yard,

and--and since,
they've never been able

to figure out
what to do with it,

so this is a productive use
of this property,

which is
extraordinarily encouraging.

NARRATOR: The park
was finished in September

and opened October 3, 2009.

- The most expensive skatepark
in the world, $3.5 million.

A lot of pride to be shown off
that, you know,

we can do this, you know,

just a bunch
of ragtag skateboarders.

Lo and behold, we got it done.

- It's really a tribute to

not so much to government

as to the dedication of
people in the skating community

who were willing
to work with government.

- Fact that we
have a skatepark,

a skatepark that is right on
the beach looking at the ocean,

that we play in every day
is beyond me.

It's just
the most special thing.

- We built the biggest
and the best at Venice Beach,

uh, and that's happening.

It's probably the biggest
attraction in Venice Beach now,

uh, in the last 10 years.

- For me, it's like--
it's, like--comes full circle.

- Finally we got a park,
and I'm stoked.

- When I go look
at that park right now,

when I went past there,
I think--

I wanted to pinch myself,

like, is this really happening?

It was almost like a--just
some crazy dream that you had.

- When you go out there,
you literally get chills,

because you know what
went down in this neighborhood

for the last 30 years

wasn't happening like that
anywhere else in the world.

- Ah, opening day
was just, uh, incredible.

There was a lot
of uh, you know, pride.

[ overlapping chatter ]

[ cheering ]

- [ barking ]

- March!

Honor guard...

halt!

Right face.

- [ cheering ]

- Board!

Fire!

Ready. Aim.

Fire!

Aim. Fire!

- You know,
someone came up to me, you know,

told me, "A long fight
was a good fight."

For a long time,
I thought that was--You know,

I thought I really knew
the meaning of that sentence.

I'd say until last night,

when I was standing out here
by myself,

looking out at the park done.

I was quite amazed
and, uh, shocked

it being
right in front of me finished

and the next day'd come,
and this park would be opened.

And, uh, at that moment,
I truly understood

what that guy told me, that
a long fight was a good fight.

It made me extremely proud
to stand there and look out

and go, "Yeah, we did it."

- Yeah, we did.
- [ cheering ]

- But let me tell you something.

This didn't begin here
or in 1986.

This began
in the early seventies...

- That's right! Yeah!

- when our Dogtown fathers,

Skip Engblom, Jeff Ho,
Stecyk, Nathan Pratt.

And let's not forget
about the Zephyr Team.

They're the ones who made up
this style of skating

and the attitude
to go along with it.

And let's not forget the most
important thing they created.

They created this thing
called tradition,

and this tradition is Dogtown.

- That's right!
- [ cheering ]

- And this park behind us

is a testament
to what they started,

and this tradition will carry on

to the true
fourth generation of Dogtown.

- Thank you!
- Respect!

- As I step down
from this competitive sport,

I will keep this park
clean, safe

for all the kids
to have somewhere to come

and not have to deal
with all the B.S.

- Amen.
- [ cheering ]

- For the next 50 years,

Dogtown!

- [ cheering, whooping ]

- Yeah, baby!

- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

[ music playing ]

- My favorite thing of the day
was Ray Flores

showed up in white shirt
and a tie.

I've never seen him in anything
other than a T-shirt.

- It's not even
from a thrift store.

- And I said,
"What are you doing?"

And he goes,
"This is what it means to me.

This is how important
it is to me."

- * No time
to get hitched, man *

* Playing, so I switched names,
swervin' in the 'burb *

* But damn it,
watch me switch lanes *

* Nah, nah, they sittin'
on 26 Mains *

* But, ah, Lord,
that party got me hit, man *

* I got the product
if you fiends need a hit, man *

* They need me like the bike
need a kick stand *

- * Oh, let's go,
let's go, let's go *

- * Just clap
- [ clap ]

- The street section,
I've already seen

some amazing skateboarding
go down there.

[ music playing ]

CROWD: Oh!

- These kids have a place to go
and rip any time of the day.

- Jesse came up with the idea
for the snake run

when we were--
when we were designing it.

I personally thought

it was gonna be
an old, you know, thing.

This is what we had
in the seventies,

so I knew all the old guys
would like it.

I didn't think any of the kids
were gonna care for it,

so I was kind of against it.

I didn't think
it was gonna be great.

I was wrong.
I was totally wrong.

It is, by far,

the most popular part
of the skatepark.

- The Venice Skatepark
snake run

is one legitimate snake run,

and that's something that was
really missing in L.A. County.

But that thing is special.
That thing is special,

and it--and it rides
like a true snake run.

But at the same time,
you have this whole bowl,

this kind of, like,
miniature pool

with metal coping at the end,

so you have--you have this basin
to go do your rip shred,

but you have this whole trail

to set you up
for speed beyond belief.

Like, you can go
a hundred miles in there

if you know
how to skateboard well.

- It's just fools you
into thinking

that you can go as fast
as you want,

and then, uh,
next thing you know,

it rears its head out,

crushes you
into one of the walls.

- Small bowl is a sleeper.

I call that the "sleeper bowl,"
'cause looking at the layout

and--and watching
the building process,

I thought that might be
the worst thing in the park,

but in actuality,

it's one of the coolest things
to skate.

- I can tell from a lot of guys

that I see skate that
on a regular basis,

it, uh, has a lot
of good flow to it.

It's really fun.

The extension on it's great.

The roll-in's great.

Uh, You see
a lot of good skating

going down in that thing.

- The big bowl
is pretty special.

I think it's a throwback

to the classic bowls
of the seventies

from the skateparks back then.

There's no waterfall.

There is a slight gradation

on one
of the shallower drop-ins.

I think it's got girth,
which is a good thing.

You can half-pipe that bowl.
You can carve it.

Whatever you got for that bowl,
uh, you can do in there.

I think it's got
a lot of big transition.

I'm glad that it's
not below eight feet.

I'm glad that it's 9 1/2 feet.

It's--It's solid.

It's--It's a good staple for--

for the young generation
to learn how to ride the bowls

the way the older generation
has taught them.

- One of the things I like
about Venice is it's a new spot,

and I'm really excited
to go ride a new spot.

Not only that,
but a world-class spot,

one that you can keep going
back to and never get bored.

And find new speed lines,
and ride with new people,

and just have a good time,

and that's--that's
what skateboarding's about.

[ music playing ]

- Whoo!

[ music playing ]

- We never carry stuff
on the beach,

'cause we're always dancing.

[ dispatch chatter ]

[ waves crashing ]

[ seabirds calling ]

- Hey, you guys got a permit?

What's up, man?

- Every day,
you're down here doing this?

- Seven days a week.

Every--Every frick--

Ah, son of a bitch!

God, I hate these.
But you know what?

They didn't hit the park,

but still, that is the park.

- So you gotta clean that off?

- Yeah, right now.
- Every day?

- Every single day.

- And every day,
what's going on?

- Every day, there's bullshit,

graffiti, trash, hobos, bums,
you name it.

Every day.

But it's nothing different.

You know, it's just the beach.

It's always been like this.

You know, I knew
it wasn't gonna change

because they put
a skatepark here, you know?

This is gonna stay the same.
This is L.A.'s backyard.

You know?
Shit, you can't stop it. Ha.

Once we got the park,

the next day
after the park opened, we went,

you know, "Hey,
nobody's here to clean it,"

so we just started cleaning it.

You know, fall to it.

You had to clean it, you know?

Yeah, there we go.

Unfortunately I think
I'm gonna have to bring

the pressure washer out
for this one.

I'm sure when the kids
who do this now,

when they get older,

they'll realize
how stupid this shit is.

You know,
when they get in their 30s

and they have kids
and they have their own pad

and someone tags on it

and they have to go outside
and fix their fence or,

you know, get the shit
off their car or something,

they're--they're
gonna understand that,

you know, "I was a dumb-ass,"
you know, back then. Heh.

- Right now,
it's a little moist,

but it's actually
kind of sticky at this point.

You know, Venice isn't known

for having anything really nice
for very long.

If we had paint,
it would be slick,

and people would--
would slide out.

There's a park in Australia
that is right on the beach.

It's got graffiti on it.

And we just had a pro come back

from a contest over there,
and he was like,

"It's a deathtrap." You know?

It's just too--It's too slick.

- We're proud of
the Venice Skate Association

for one reason
and one reason only.

We got this park made,

and we're out here
every day cleaning it.

- I arrived here
this morning at about 5 A.M.,

and, uh, close to 15, 20 tags
were put in here.

They were all
definitely of poor quality.

Some of the higher-up
graffiti artists had told me

they consider
what these guys do "trashfiti."

Like always,
we set everything in motion.

I--I ran home,
got on the phone,

started making phone calls,

started getting
the gear together.

And, uh, I wasn't really
too worried about the troops,

'cause I knew they would come.

As the day goes,

more and more people would
show up and start helping.

And pretty much
that's what happened.

You know, we had guys

who don't even help
on a regular basis coming up,

asking, "How can we help?
What do you need?"

Now, here it is,
six, seven hours later,

and, uh, we're, like, 25 minutes
away from calling it done.

And it sends a message,
too, to them.

You know, I'm pretty sure
they think they were funny,

whoever did that. Well,
if you want to waste your paint,

come in here,
and tag the whole park up,

you know,
as long as nobody catches you

or nothing, go ahead,
but guaranteed,

we are gonna show up
that morning at 5:00,

and we are
gonna clean it nonstop

until all the graffiti's gone.

- I'm Joe Connolly.

They call me
the Graffiti Guerilla.

I've been removing graffiti
and working with people

in the graffiti art movement
for about 20 years

in the City of L.A.

You know, to have an area
as big as this

with only just a little bit
of graffiti on garbage cans,

it's--it's a goddamn miracle.
It's--I mean, it's a miracle.

It's--somebody's
paying attention.

- Whatever happens
at night happens.

We just have to deal with it
the next morning.

We can remove the graffiti,

you know, if--
if we get it early enough.

You know,
we can keep the park clean,

no matter how dirty it gets,

no matter how much coffee
is spilled

or drinks or beer in the morning
or broken glass.

It's not really even
a neighborhood thing now.

It's more like a skater thing.

It has really
taken on a life of its own,

and I really appreciate
everybody's effort to help,

'cause we can not do
what we do without 'em.

- Really, the VSA
isn't just a few faces.

There's numerous amounts
of volunteers

that we have
that help here every day.

They make up the VSA.
It's about community, right?

- You know, when I see new kids
around here, I greet them.

I welcome them to the park.

I let them know
if there's a problem,

"You come see me personally."

When they're injured,
I am Johnny-on-the-spot.

I'm here, you know, most days.

- Sometimes the little kids
were just like--

They just need a helmet,

and you know
they're gonna wear it,

so we'll just give it to them.

- 'Cause he has
a bigger hat size than his dad.

Does that feel--
That's weird. Hold on.

- It's just giving back
to the kids,

giving back
to the community of Venice.

Yeah.

That's the reason
why I'm doing it.

And I also get to skate
this place, too.

- This was my opportunity
to be a part

of something that I believe in.

It's good, because we
care about the kids here.

We get to give them
a lot of guidance here,

give them
something positive to do

in--in a positive environment.

- Lance, Lauren, Primo, Blue,

I mean, they're here
giving their own free time.

There's the table here for--

to put your board
and tighten your trucks up.

There're tents here.
There's first aid if they need--

anybody needs help,
somebody gets hurt.

I mean, what other
skateboard park has that?

Do you know one? I don't.

- The number one benefit

is that when your kids
are hanging out here,

they are not hanging out
on the street corner,

drinking a 40.
That's a guarantee,

'cause they're
not doing that here.

We don't allow people

who are, you know, drunk and
stumbling off the boardwalk

to come and hang out
in the park.

- You're on your way.

- This is for skating.
That's what this park is for.

You know, it's supposed
to be a safe place.

- Think the LAPD and the VSA
have, uh, come a long way.

'Cause every, uh, spring
when they come in

and introduce themselves,

and they--they talk about
what their goal is

and the mission of the VSA,
what they're doing out here.

We have a new set
of Beach Officers

that are coming down here,

and they come in,
introduce themselves.

Think the LAPD and the VSA

have, uh, come a long way

to--to work together
and to tackle the issues

that they have over there
at the--the skatepark.

- The Venice Park is still--
It's still a little bit--

There's a little bit of--
I don't want to say territorial,

but definitely local pride,

because the kids
that are coming up here

and their parents that skated,
they're really rippers.

I think more pro skaters
come out of here than anywhere.

I'm used to seeing
this level of skating.

It's like everybody I know
can skate like that.

You know, I don't--
And then I travel, and I go,

"Wow, kids don't skate like this
anywhere else."

So this is
definitely the Dogtown guys

and the way they
sort of mentor the kids up,

and it's very competitive.
They're not slackers here.

They don't
just hang out on a board,

They skate.
You know, they really skate.

- We didn't have
cookie-cutting homes, you know.

I didn't come
from the Brady Brunch.

But it--But it doesn't mean
I'm a bad person.

It doesn't mean that I'm
not willing to help out.

You know what I mean?
And have good ideas.

So when--when Jesse's
out there doing stuff,

and he--it's from his heart,
you know?

And--And the people in the VSA,
it's from their heart.

- Venice Beach
is a breeding ground

for innovative new tricks
as well as--

Some of our kids today, they're
skating just like adults would,

and they're learning
twice as, three times as fast

because of all the knowledge

that's getting pumped out
from video games

and also just having

guys of our time
and younger teaching.

- Whoo!

- We've got
a whole new crop coming up.

You know, we've got, uh,
kids like Kiko and Asher.

Talking six, seven,
and eight years old,

and they're blowing away

what we were doing, you know,
back in the seventies.

- When I was, like, two,
my dad tightened the wheels

so it wouldn't slid off.
So I just stand on it.

- You got little kids like Kiko,
just--He's up and coming.

You got kids like Asher.

There's Jamie Quaintance here,

whose dad was an old-school
Venice local, you know?

Now his son has, like,
kind of, taken over that,

you know, position,
and they're out here ripping.

You know,
they're out here representing

kind of
a forgotten neighborhood.

- Yeah, I know
almost everybody who's here

that's, like, good
at skateboarding, pretty much.

Even the kids, you know,
all the kids look up to me.

They all want--
"Oh, I did this trick.

I did that trick."
And I'm like, "Yeah, man!"

You know, I encourage them
as much as I can.

I love it. It's just
I feel like a--a king here.

- [ cheering ]

- Ah, maybe a prince.

- Like, I've had
some six-year olds

that just rip
super, super hard, you know,

and they--they just get it.

I don't know what it is
and why certain kids just--

You know, I guess it's
all about the athleticism.

- My run is first that I,
like, go right there.

First I go on that top thing,

and then I go around and round,

and then I go air
on the front-side hip.

- Bingo!
- [ cheering ]

- Mostly that's all I know.

- It takes a village
to raise a child,

and so all these kids
have been raised in our village,

- and you'll see 'em.
- Ah, I love skating here.

I mean, you're on the beach.
You're in paradise.

- The skatepark right here
is pretty hectic.

A lot of people
get hurt out here,

but a lot of people progress.

- When I was 11,
my brother, he used to skate,

and I would sit around the park,

but finally my friend Ashley,
she told me to get up and skate.

So, yeah, that's how I
started skating, but I loved it.

- This skatepark really, like,

you know,
changed my life around,

and I appreciate people here,
the VSA members.

Um, Jesse, Blue, Tonan,

all those guys
taught me how to skate.

I'm really appreciative
to them.

- Kids of today
are so lucky and fortunate

to not only have this as, like,
their place to really flourish

and become some of the best
skateboarders in the world,

but they also have the legacy
of what came before them.

- My dad, growing up,
was a skater.

He skated with Dogtown,
and he was a shredder.

He grew up with Jay Adams

and Christian Hosoi
and all them.

So, I mean,
I've always been involved

in the skateboarding world
forever.

Jesse Martinez is
like my uncle, so...

I just--
It's always been in there,

so since I could crawl,

I was pushin' around
on a skateboard.

This is my town.

Like, I could
never do wrong here.

- My advice
for a young skateboarder

who wants to go pro,
you know,

you might want to find a company
that's a little smaller,

that has somebody
that really cares

about who you are
as a person.

- Don't do it
for the fame and fortune,

because if that's
what you're looking for,

it's gonna be like water
going through your hands.

- Get out there. Get out there
everywhere you can go.

Everywhere.

Skate everything. Skate hard.

- You know,
partly because of my son Julian

and my other son Christian,

I have a whole different outlook
on this park...

and the legacy I'm gonna
leave behind one day here.

I don't want
to leave this legacy of...

ass-kicking pro skateboarder.

- To have this
being here and now

for the next generation of kids,

it's beyond, you know,
a dream come true for me.

- So, uh, Venice to me
is right up--

right up there
with some world-class spots now.

I mean, right on the beach,

and the whole town of--of Venice
is just poppin' right there.

It's gonna be a hot spot.

Kids are gonna come

from all over the world
to ride this park,

and it needs
to really be, you know--

It's gonna make Venice
another world-famous spot,

like it deserves to be.

I mean,
the roots of skateboarding

are right there in Dogtown.
There it is.

- Money, you won't
be remembered for.

But to be a Dogtown Boy
and a legendary Dogtown Boy,

you will be remembered forever,

and that's--that's more
than money can ever give me.

And I'm just, uh--

Let's just say,

I'm more than proud
to be called a Dogtown Boy.

[ music playing ]

- Big respect, and we
owe it all to the O.G.s,

you know, that laid down
the foundation.

And, you know, all I
gotta say is, "Big up,"

and thank you very much!

- Wanting to--
to resurrect a place

where our children can grow up

and have a place
where they can become

the best skateboarders
in the world.

- Um, this is Jayce. He's two.

And this is Dez, and he's four.

Future Venice originals
right here.

[ chuckles ]

- Being able to, uh, compete

and have, like, a place
that they could call their own

and develop their skills,
you know,

this is really gonna give
a lot of opportunity

to those young kids.

- And this is
our home away from home,

and, um, I'm pretty picky,

so this is definitely
a great place to come to.

Trust me on that.

- Jesse's always done everything
he can for skateboarding

and probably more than anybody
else for this Venice Skatepark,

so he does it out of heart.

He's been a skateboarder
his whole life.

And, uh, you know,
most people, you'd say, like,

they'd do it for free
if they didn't get paid,

but he is doing it for free
and not getting paid,

so he's doing it
out of his heart.

So why don't some
of you guys start payin' him?

- I feel in a way,
Dogtown will never die.

As long as we have
the new generation coming up

and remembering where you're at,
where you're from.

*