Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) Review

 

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

I don’t usually do documentaries, just because to comment on it would be to comment on how interesting life itself is, but I’ll make an exception for this one.

Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary about the rise of skateboarding in the 70s thanks to the guerrilla skating done by the Zephyr Team, a group of former teen surfers in Venice Beach, California.

Directed by a former member of the team, Stacy Peralta, the documentary showcases an hour and half’s worth of home video footage, interviews with the remaining members and others in the skate scene, pictures, and all set to the tune of an amazing soundtrack of classic rock hits. And showcases it, it does. We see how skateboarding went from a weird 50s and 60s freestyle thing, to becoming the hard-hitting, rebellious nature that it is now, starting with the Z-Boys and their surfer turned skater style that came together so well.

The documentary itself also touched upon the individual lives and futures of some of Dogtown’s most successful skaters in Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, and Jay Adams, with Adams’ piece hitting hard as it felt like a tribute to him, 13 years before his death. We also got great interviews from people in the scene and who were influenced by them from people like Zephyr co-creator Skip Engbloom, C.R. Stecyk III, and Dogtown’s lone female skateboarder Peggy Oki.

One of the better documentaries I’ve ever seen, with it really showing the transcendent nature this group possessed, skating for fun and creating new specific styles and setting a precedent for the sport of skateboarding that would extend all the way to today, revolutionizing freestyle and starting vert skating, which would go onto influence legends like Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk, as well as set the ground work for competitions like the X-Games.

9.2/10