AMAZING SURF STORIES

In the summer of 1986, my mother dropped my friend and I in La Jolla to go watch the premiere of "Amazing Surf Stories"by Scott Dittrich. The line at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art was long and filled with all the local hero's, burnouts, bastards and groms from the PB and La Jolla area. After buying the tickets we walked to the back of the line. I remember hearing insults, funny laughter, shit talk and there was an ever present cloud of smoke. It carried with it the scent of cheap weed, cigarettes and a hint of Kretek clove, which must have been from the Mod-chicks.  I was 14 that summer night. I had just started to immerse myself in the world of surfing and skateboarding the year prior. Tom Curren and Archie were the reasons we came out to see the movie because their brand of surfing was everything I loved at that time. Curren had perfect style and Archie surfed like he was pissed. We were ready to watch that shit go down.

As the line began to move, someone offered us a joint and a beer. No thanks. I was happy with my huge soda and stash of candy that we got from the AM/PM by Windansea. The classy theatre was starting to fill up. As at any premiere, there were some clashes of the cool guys and I remember some dudes in the back heckling some other guys they didn't like, by yelling "Go back to Clairemont Faggots"! We looked over, slid lower into our seats and remained silent. As a grom, you pray to fly under the radar. I knew we were the prime demographic of abuse as we were gangley groms who didn't surf that good and we were not quick enough to defend ourselves as we had not yet developed smart retorts and funny quips.

Eyes forward, laugh along and follow the crowd.

Check.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lights finally dimmed. The sounds of 20-30 beers cracked simultaneously. The movie started to an uproar of cheers, funny insults for no reason and then settling into a low chatter. We were treated to Archie surfing Costa Rica at 100 miles-an-hour and the Curren footage was solid. Looking back on it, the video was not that great and we were ready to write it off, until, the sound of fire crackling and one word appeared on the screen. NATAS.

We watched in amazement as this rad guy with a weird name ripped around Venice on his skateboard. He was doing shit I had never seen before and by the sounds of everyone in the house, nobody had ever seen before. His last trick was a boardslide on a dumpster and the whole crowd erupted. Beer cans flew at the screen and people were cheering. For me, it made me look at skateboarding in an entirely different way. After the movie let out, all I really remembered liking was Natas.

Many years later, I owned a Skateboard shop in San Diego called Hanger 18. My joy was to have pros come in for autograph signings. I loved to give the local kids a chance to meet their heroes as it mattered to me when I was their age. I was doing good business with element skateboards at the time and I told my rep Travis that I wanted to get Natas to my shop for a signing. Natas was recently back into skateboarding after a stint as an Art Director for an upscale porn magazine called "Rage". Travis hooked it up and we had a date set for Natas and Mike V to come for a signing. 

Here I was, almost 20 years later in my own skate shop (Now 30 years later as I originally wrote this piece in 2014.) I basically look at it like I owe him for this part of my life. If i didn't see that video, I would have never fallen in love with skating. Its funny how some things you come across in life are so powerful, it changes your trajectory. That video part was one of those things.

The day arrived and my friend Junior came down to cook his famous Carne Asada. I forgot the grill, so we dumped the coals on the sidewalk, tip over a nearby shopping cart and proceed to cook up super ghetto style tacos! At the end of the signing I approached Natas. We spoke for a few minutes about that old surf movie and his video part. He was real humble and said thanks and we had another taco.

As a parting gift I gave him an old license plate that I bought off Ebay the week prior. It was a California issued plate with his name on it. I never did tell Natas the full extent of his impact on me, but standing next to him for a photo, I felt as though I had come full circle.

I was standing with the reason I got into skateboarding.