When a major drought struck Southern California in the early 1970s, neighborhood swimming pools dried up, many left abandoned or unattended. The imaginative Zephyr team saw this as an opportunity to try something new: The Z-boys began taking skateboards into barren pools, creating a now-iconic image synonymous with their group. Skateboarding as a sport took an evolutionary leap at this moment, birthing a new generation and the next phase in its culture.
The Z-boys began riding the walls of pools, eventually over the rails, making them the first documented skateboarders to catch air. The young community outcasts sparked a small revolution in their impoverished beach town. Today, it’s known as the vert style of skateboarding. Skaters like Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk and Eliot Sloan emerged from this style of skating, becoming internationally recognized for the sport itself. The Z-boys, as a result, were living legends of the origins of skating.
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Today, Dogtown nostalgia is still alive on the streets of Venice Beach – a new generation of skateboarders continue to create their own community and their own mark on west Los Angeles. As a neighborhood spanning all ages seeks out ways to push the limits of the sport, in 2009 they finally found a home worthy of their talent. A $3.5 million skatepark in the heart of Venice opened its doors (or, rather, its expansive park of pools and ramps) a decade ago, and it’s now a hotbed of talent that honors the Dogtown legacy preceding it.
Despite the ongoing shifts that continue to gentrify Venice Beach, Dogtown lives through another generation. From its 2005 film adaptation, Lords of Dogtown, to the artistic manifestations of Z-boys on every other corner of Venice, the counterculture embodied by a team of misfit Californians is as strong as ever. In fact, visitors can experience the magnitude for themselves on any given day in Venice Beach: Just head to the skatepark where passers-by slow to a halt to watch the new and emerging talent.
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Source link : https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/history-la-dogtown
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Publish date : 2019-06-26 03:00:00
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