Natas Kaupas: Streets on Fire section- My favorite Old School street skating segment

Natas Kaupas in Santa Cruz Skateboards' "Streets on Fire," from 1987, I think.  

OK, I was working at Unreel/Vision when this came out, fierce competitors of Santa Cruz Skateboards.  But this segment blew everybody's mind at the time.  The three biggest pioneers of street skateboarding were spread among the Big Three skateboard companies as the mid 1980's turned into the late 1980's.  Mark Gonzales was on Vision, Tommy Guerrero was a Bones Brigade member on Powell-Peralta, and Natas Kaupas skated for Santa Cruz.  Freestyle skaters like Rodney Mullen, Per Welinder, Pierre Andre' and Don Brown did the technical flatland tricks, and didn't make much money.  Vert still ruled skateboarding, with Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Steve Caballero, Chris Miller, Mark "Gator" Rogowski, and a dozen more living large in the late 80's skate boom by blasting in the remaining skateparks and on halfpipes.  

But bubbling under the surface, Gonz, Tommy, and Natas were showing kids everywhere that any urban environment was its own skatepark.  All it took was a creative mind to figure out how to use street obstacles.  At the same time, fading freestyle skater Steve Rocco threw his life savings into a little start-up company, and named it World Industries, as a joke.  Within a couple of years, the 1980's skate explosion died off, skateboarding went back underground, and street skating emerged as the new main form of skating.  

This segment of Natas was one of the epic pieces of video that inspired thousands of kids to see what their local curbs had to offer, just as street skating was becoming its own thing.  For the time, Natas' tricks were ground breaking, the rail slides were bigger than anyone had seen, and the roll bar slide at the end seemed unthinkable.  Combined with the incredible Firehose song, "Brave Captain," and with Natas wearing Etnies shoes in their skate video debut, this video segment was a sign of changing times.  I still watch this video once a month or more, just for the spirit and vibe of it.  

My thoughts on financial markets:

White Bear Investment Ideas

One of the first skateboard street contests- Oceanside, California 1985

Shot and produced by my one time boss at Vision's Unreel Productions, Don Hoffman, this video is a look at skateboarding "streetstyle," about a year after the first contest, I think.  Roots.  

On Facebook a couple days ago, BMX legend Dave Voelker asked, "Who invented street contests first, BMXers or skaters?"  Since I was at the Oceanside street skating contest in 1986, a year and a half before Wilkerson's first 2-Hip Meet the Street in Santee, in 1988, I knew it was skaters.  Dave Vanderspek put on a bike street contest in NorCal before that, but skaters still did it first.  When I went looking for an early street skating contest video, this one came up.  This was when skateboarding was ruled by vert skating, and the freestyle skaters were a sideshow, off to the side, as talented as they were.  Freestylers got their revenge a few years later, by becoming the guys running the industry.  Street skating was just begining to be a thing, and people were trying to figure out just what could be done with a skateboard in an urban setting.  Thirty-seven years later, that mission continues. 

Tom Green skateboard edit

As life in general keeps getting crazier, and mosre expensive, here's a little comic relief.  Tom Green is funny, but he also skates.  Here's a cool little fan edit of Tom's skating in different TV shows, movies, and videos.  Enjoy.  

Josh Dirksen's "No Idea" section- Where are these monster ditches?

Josh Dirksen is a new name to me, and here he is with a new part.  This shit is insane.  Street, park, vert, pools, some tech, a bit of everything.  In the beginning and the end, he takes it back to the very roots of skateboarding, skating down big hills.  Fuckin' insane part.  Well played.  And where are all these huge ditches and dams?  There are several places I've never seen in a video in this part.

Check out my Pinterest page