Z-Boys

Z-Boys, this is where the skateboarding that we know of today all started. The Z-Boys were a group of skateboarders in the mid-70's from Santa Monica and Venice California that are considered to be the most influential skateboard team in history. The aerial and sliding skate moves that the Z-Boys invented were and continue to be the basis for aerial skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and other extreme sports still popular today. Yes, the extreme sports that generation’s X and Y embrace were created by the baby boomer generation. The Moms and Dads of today’s skateboarders may very well have been gnarly skate punks themselves.

History

The crew, who began as a surf team, derived their name from the Zephyr surfboard shop in Santa Monica. Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk opened the Sanata Monica shop as 'Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions' in 1971 with what little money they could scrape together. The Z-Boys represented the shop in surf competitions, with the first member being fourteen-year-old Nathan Pratt. Pratt also worked at the shop and became an apprentice surfboard maker overtime.

In 1974, Allen Sarlo, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Chris Cahill and Stacy Peralta joined the surf team. The place that the team spent most of their time surfing was at Pacific Ocean Park, a once thriving amusement park atop a pier. Abandoned and run down, graffiti-covered walls and a secret cache of urban surfers now dominated the Pacific Ocean Park Pier, an area nicknamed by the locals as "Dogtown", and the ultimate mark of Dogtown acceptance was inclusion in the Zephyr surf team. With large tilted, wood pilings jutting from the water, and not enough room for all of the surfers, Pacific Ocean Park Pier was an incredibly dangerous place to surf. Despite these dangers, the Z-Boys surfed it anyways. They would surf in the mornings, when the waves were the highest. When the pier waves died down after the early-morning hours, they would hang out at the Zephyr shop, running errands, doing homework, skating and flirting with passing girls. At that time, the Z-Boys saw skating as a hobby, something to do after surfing, but it quickly grew from a hobby into a new way to express themselves.

In 1975, Cahill, Pratt, Adams, Sarlo, Peralta and Alva asked Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom to start a skate team separate from the surf team. Soon after, local skaters Bob Biniak, Paul Constantineau, Jim Muir, Peggy Oki, Shogo Kubo and Wentzle Ruml would join the Zephyr skate team, growing to 12 members in all. Engblom saw this as something that would help them with their surf training and self-discipline, so he quickly set up a practice schedule. The team would practice a lot of the times at Bicknell Hill. Bicknell Hill ran down from the Jeff Ho and Zephyr Surfboard Productions shop. There, the Z-Boys would set up cones and practice all day. They would skate real low, riding the concrete like they were riding a wave. They would drag their hands on the pavement like Larry Burtleman, a professional surfer who would touch the wave when surfing, dragging his fingers across it. Style, to the Zephyr team, was everything and they pulled all their inspiration from surfing. There were also four grade schools in the Dogtown area that the team would skate quite often. The Z-boys loved to skate these schools because they all had sloping concrete banks in their playgrounds. Soon, the Z-Boys were carving real waves in the morning and asphalt the rest of the day.

That year, skateboarding had risen back in popularity enough that the first big skateboarding competition since the 1960's was held. That competition was the famous Del Mar Nationals, held in California in March of 1975. This is where the Z-Boys made their debut and reached California cult status. The Zephyr team showed up in their blue Vans Authentic shoes, khaki trousers and blue Zephyr t-shirts. "To wear the blue Zephyr Competition shirt was the coolest thing," says Tony Alva. The crowd loved them. With their low, aggressive style, burts and inventiveness, it was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. It was a far cry from the upright, freestyle skating that was popular in the 1960's. The older skateboard establishment was not ready for the aggressive surf style and free spirited approach that the Z-Boys exhibited. At the end of the Del Mar competition, half of the finalists were members of the Zephyr team, and the older skaters could not comprehend that they had just witnessed a revolution in skateboarding. Within twelve months of the Del Mar Nationals, the 1960's upright, freestyle type of skating vanished from the public eye, and Z-Boy style would sweep around the world.

The mid-1970's brought a major drought to Southern California that parched Los Angeles. This drought brought on severe water restrictions, forcing many pool owners in the well-to-do neighborhoods to leave their swimming pools drained. The Z-Boys saw opportunity, and like the Del Mar Nationals, they moved right in. They would drive through neighborhoods scouting for empty or semi-empty pools. They would even scout from high ridgelines. When they found a pool, they would sneak in and drain the remaining water in the pool so they could skate it. They even went as far as to bringing in their own hoses and water pumps just to clear out the dank water that collected in the pools bottom. The Z-Boys crew took their surf style of skating to the empty pools. Every day, each skater would try something new, pushing themselves and each other. They pushed the limits and invented new moves every day. They would skate the sides of the pool, closer and closer to the pools coping as they got better. This was the birth of vertical skating, and it became the basis for skateboarding and many of the extreme sports seen today. One day during a skating session in the fall of 1977 in a pool nicknamed "the Dogbowl" in Santa Monica, the eureka moment arrived. Tony Alva pushed more and more on the coping until his board completely cleared the edge of the pool. He then twisted, doing a 180 degree turn and landed back in the pool, completing the very first aerial. This revolutionized skateboarding and many extreme sports. Many of the tricks performed on skateboards, and later snowboards, wakeboards, rollerblades and BMX bikes, would be performed in midair from that point on. The Z-Boys and their "Dogtown" style revived skateboarding, which had been on a major down-hill slump since the mid-1960s. Their stories in Skateboarder magazine and many others inspired kids all over the nation to buy boards.

While surfing is what pulled the Zephyr team together, skateboarding is what pulled them apart. As the members of the Z-Boys got more and more famous, it was hard to keep them together, as big money was being thrown at them from companies bigger than Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions. Jeff Ho tried to put together a sponsorship deal that would keep the team together under the Zephyr name, but could not get a deal done. He couldn't compete with the money his team was being offered, and in early 1976, he and Skip Engblom ended their partnership. Engblom ended up moving to Hawaii, and by the end of that year, the Zephyr shop closed. He now lives in west Los Angeles and owns and operates Santa Monica Airlines. He also builds surfboards and specialty skateboards, and is an actor. Jeff Ho moved to Hawaii and resurrected the Zephyr surfboard company. He hand crafted Jeff Ho Surfboards on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Recently, he opened a new shop back up in California under the name Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions. The shop is located in Venice, California. Craig Stecyk continues to pursue art and photo-journalism. He has two sons and lives in Santa Monica, California.

And, as for the 12 original Z-Boys:

Chris Cahill - Went to work shaping kneeboards for Nathan Pratts Horizons West Surfboard Shop.

Nathan Pratt - Later on founded Horizons West Surfboard Shop, occupying the same space as the Zephyr surf shop. He is married with two children and lives in Somis, California.

Jay Adams - Left to skate for Logan Earth Ski. Later on Adams had a hard time coping with stardom and served time in the Hawaiian State correctional facility on drug related charges. In the documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys, Adams was in recovery and on work release. He shrugs his shoulders in the on-camera interview and says, "I was on summer vacation for 20 years."

Allen Sarlo - Became a real estate agent and surfing champion. He lives with his wife in Malibu, California and has two children.

Stacy Peralta - Joined G&S to skate professionally. Peralta stopped skating after some time and started his own skateboard company. He discovered two promising southern California youngsters, Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero, who would become the skateboarding trendsetters in the 80's and 90's. Peralta was also a pioneer in extreme sports video, a medium he turned to to promote his skateboard company. His handheld, point-of-view filming style and rock soundtracks are the dominant style for today’s action films. He later went on to direct the 2001: Dogtown and Z-Boys, a Sundance Film Festival winning documentary that he also co-wrote with Craig Stecyk. He also wrote the 2005 film Lords of Dogtown, starring Heath Ledger, Rebecca De Mornay, Emile Hirsch, Victor Rasuk, and John Robinson. Tony Hawk also had a cameo role in that movie. Stacy Peralta has a son and lives in Santa Monica, California.

Tony Alva - Also went on to skate for Logan Earth Ski. He then went on to start his own skateboard company, Alva Skates, in Oceanside, California. He also has a signature Vans skateboard shoe. He has two children and skates pools every day.

Bob Biniak - Retired from skating in 1980. He married and went on to play professional golf. Sadly though, Biniak passed away on February 25, 2010 from a massive heart attack.

Paul Constantineau - Also went on to skate for G&S. He now works as a machinist and lives in Santa Monica, California.

Jim Muir - Owns and operates Dogtown Skateboards. He has a son and lives in Venice, California.

Peggy Oki - The only female in the Zephyr Competition team, rejected skating in favor of surging, and has competed in surf contests all over the world. She also went to college at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an environmental activists and fine artist/graphic designer, and lives and surfs in Carpenteria, California.

Shogo Kubo - Is married and has two children. He works and lives in Hawaii and still surfs and skates to this day.

Wentzle Ruml - Went on to skate for Rector. He now owns and operates an aquaculture farm. He is married and lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Although the Z-Boys have moved on to other things throughout the years, the Z-Boy movement continues to this day as an expression of performance, innovation and style.

Members

Original members in alphabetical order:

• Jay Adams
• Tony Alva
• Bob Biniak (died February 25, 2010)
• Chris Cahill
• Paul Constantineau
• Shogo Kubo
• Jim Muir
• Peggy Oki
• Stacy Peralta
• Nathan Pratt
• Wentzle Ruml IV
• Allen Sarlo

Later members:

• Paul Cullen
• Cris Dawson
• Jose Galan
• Dennis Harney
• Paul Hoffman
• Donnie Ohem
• Tommy Waller

References

• Ruibal, Sal "Far out! Cutting-edge sports have roots in '70s"

External links

• Official website
• Zephyr Team on KCET Departures Venice Interviews of Jeff Ho, Allen Sarlo & Matt Smith
• http://www.dogtownskateboards.com/