Everyone who was on hand realizes that skateboarding’s birth was painful. Many credit the invention of those first rolling boards to La Jolla surfer Peter Pakin when he fastened metal roller skate wheels to a short wooden plank.
While surfers like Anne and Carl Ekstrom, and their friend John Dahl, rode both surfboards and skateboards through the ’50s and beyond, the skateboard first became popular further north, in regions where the surf generally blows out before noon.
Many of the beach breaks in Orange and L.A. counties lack the curvature in the coast and the kelp forests that keep our waves somewhat glassy throughout the day. This may be why OC and LA surfers began looking in earnest for other recreation by midday. The skateboard became the obvious answer.
Hailing from LA’s Hermosa Beach, the Logan family were excellent surfers who later became household names in skateboarding. Brian Logan was among the sport’s fastest racers. Brian’s sister Robin showed all-around talent while excelling in freestyle. Brad was a rising star, following in the tracks of his middle brother, Bruce.
Bruce, who invented many of the original skateboarding tricks, went on to win world titles. He was one of the first professional skateboarders in the world and is the first skateboarder to be inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
The advent of the urethane wheel in the mid-1970s led to the rise of ramps and pools and vertical skateboarding. While skateboarding flourished in San Diego, much of the skate world was focused on Dogtown skaters Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta, who daily carved out new territory. This era was pivotal as skateboarders took to the sky and created a move called the aerial. Since that time, the aerial has morphed to become not just one move, but many.
By the ’80s, Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi were blasting airs of up to 10 feet. While Hawk was the more inventive of the two, Hosoi’s dramatic airs had names like the “Christ Air” and the “Rocket Air.” Hawk was a decent surfer, but his high-flying tricks never did translate to the ocean. Hosoi, who was not a surfer, skated with his namesake, Christian Fletcher.
Fletcher was the son of Herbie Fletcher, a surf/skate pioneer who pushed the limits of performance in both endeavors. Fletcher the younger rolled hard and followed Hosoi into outer space. While Christian Fletcher was not the first surfer to complete an aerial in the waves, he did help popularize the move for surfers.
The Siamese twins of surfing and skating were eventually separated, but many skateboarders never surfed, and many surfers never skateboarded. That is not often the case with hardcore Encinitas surf/skaters.
One of the most noteworthy examples is Olympic skateboarder and musical genius Bryce Wettstein, who daily moves from street to ocean. Bryce realizes that she is tandem riding on the shoulders of those who have knocked down the door and created the boredom-free world we all enjoy.
Defying gravity ranks among the greatest feelings in life, and surfing and skateboarding will always supply ample amounts of that.
