Be a Z-Boy!

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Be a Z-boy! The Dogtown Z-boys were a group of fun-loving, tough and rowdy, highly skilled and amazingly stylish surfers/skateboarders from the 1970s. Famous for their atittude, wild doings, and totally revolutionizing the sport of skateboarding; they have had various books and movies made about them, specifically the 2001 documentary film “Dogtown and Z-boys,” the 2002 book “Dogtown: The Legend of the Z-boys,” and the 2005 cinematic movie “Lords of Dogtown.” If you never heard of them before, their story is of adventure and the care-free spirit of youth, and it deserves at least a once over. For its interesting context, wide range of personalities, and authentic, thrilling real-life footage of the Z-boys skating, the documentary film “Dogtown and Z-boys,” directed by a Z-boy himself, Stacy Peralta, captures the real Dogtown soul. First, the documentary provided key background info and context of the Dogtown phenomenon. While reading the book and watching the cinematic movie, you get the sense that the dog town area is a tough place, and this is why their skaters are different, tough and aggressive, but the book and movie doesn’t go into depth about it. “There is downtrodden and seedy places everywhere around the world?,” you may be asking yourself, while reading the book. In turn, downplaying the role of the area of Dogtown to its skaters’ mentality. Watching the documentary, you find out that the Venice, Santa Monica, and Ocean Park area was the dream of wealthy land developer Albert Kinney - he envisioned a European jewel of a city in the Americas - and the dream turns into a nightmare. As Skip Engblom succinctly says it in the film, it becomes “… a dead wonderland.” You see that this is the environment that the “seeds” of Dogtown have to grow in, and realize that it all could have been completely different if Mr.

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