CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY THESIS TITLE: ROLLING SOUL: SKATING AND CREATING IN SAN DIEGUITO DURING SKATEBOARDING'S SECOND WAVE AUTHOR: MICHAEL DOLAN DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: JUNE 25. 2009 THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY JEFFREY CHARLES G -zs/o? THESIS COMMITTEE CHAIR DATE ANNE LOMBARD ~~ ~~5) !JOcJCj THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE JILL WATTS /}l cU:r/1 _ THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER Dolan 1 Abstract- The history of skateboarding has been written about frequently. All describe the clear and drastic evolution during the 1970s. But what has not been fully developed, is that many of technologies that led to the evolution of the sport came out of a specific region, at a specific time, and were developed by persons with a specific set of skills. To a great degree, skateboarding owed its evolution to what happened in the mid-1970s in North San Diego County in a coastal region called the San Dieguito area, an area that includes the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Del Mar, and the neighborhoods of Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and La Costa. In this area, a confluence of skateboarders, entrepreneurs, and propitious social and economic conditions transformed the sport and culture of skateboarding. Keywords- skateboarding, North County San Diego, San Dieguito, 1970s, multimedia, oral histories, subculture, youth culture, business Dolan 2 you'd see him rolling in on his rotten board with roller skates underneath. ... the rims ofthe skate wheels were worn off you could see inside the wheels and they would wobble something awful shooting andflashing imperialistic sparks! Charles Bukowski, "the world's greatest loser," 1972 Dolan 3 Introduction A skateboarder standing on the edge of the vertical ramp at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA in Encinitas would need to have the courage of an experienced rider and the confidence in the components ofhis or her skateboard. The 13-foot drop on to the hard wood surface ofthe ramp, 80 feet wide and 120 feet long, provides enough speed for the rider to go up the other side and above the edge ofthe ramp, at which point the rider can choose from a plethora of tricks to do from a rotating spin to a hand-plant stand on the edge, also called the coping. The ramp was the featured ramp at the 2003 X Games, ESPN's action-sports competition that has created worldwide publicity and a new competitive spirit for action sports since in 1995. But more important than the event where it was used is the place where it sits today- Encinitas, Ca, in the San Dieguito area ofthe North San Diego County - and the person who designed the ramp, skateboard legend and San Dieguito resident Tony Hawk. Hawk, who is no doubt the face ofmodem skateboarding, has had success at the X Games, including landing the 900-degree spin at the 1999 event. Much like the skateboarders riding the ramp he designed, Hawk relies heavily upon the integrity of the materials that make up his skateboard. The materials - their design and construction - owe much oftheir existence to the San Dieguito area, where in the 1970s a wave of skateboarding innovations took place. Skateboarding has come a long way from its first wave of popularity during the 1960s when the earliest factory skateboards were being produced. The early Dolan 4 skateboards - made of solid wood, narrow axles, and steel wheels - would not be able to handle the stresses oftricks oftoday. In fact, many oftoday's basic skateboard tricks might have never been developed ifnot for significant improvements to the basic structure of the skateboard. The most dramatic of these innovations - the urethane wheel, wide-axle truck, and veneer wood board- were developed or perfected during the 1970s in the San Dieguito area. The history of skateboarding has been written about frequently and even more I histories are in the works. The histories follow skateboarding through its waves of popularity and suggest a connection between the development of skateboarding and the culture of surfing. They identify a clear and dramatic evolution ofthe sport during the 1970s, and highlight the contribution to skateboarding that came from Los Angeles, where the sport developed its rebellious image. Yet these histories have failed to acknowledge, or at least to explore fully, the important role played by another coastal region in Southern California to the dramatic changes that took place in skateboarding during the 1970s. To a great degree, skateboarding owed its evolution to what happened in the mid-1970s in the San Dieguito area, an area that includes the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Del Mar, and the neighborhoods of Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and La Costa. 1 Two books that cover skateboarding's history are Michael Brooke's The Concrete Wave: The History ofSkateboarding (Toronto: Warwick Publishing, 1999), and Jacko Weyland's The Answer Is Never: A Skateboarder's History ofthe World (New York: Grove Press, 2002). While not scholarly works, both popular histories provide a chronological account of skateboarding, including the technological innovations that changed the sport during the 1970s. The books' focus on the broad history of skateboarding while this study takes a local view of one region's contribution and lasting impact. Dolan 5 In this area, a confluence of skateboarders, entrepreneurs, and propitious social and economic conditions transformed the sport and culture of skateboarding. A group of San Dieguito area innovators with a particular set of skills developed technologies that changed what skateboarders were able to do with their skateboards. The particular topography and stage of suburban development found in the region during the 1970s made it possible for skateboarders to experiment with using these technologies in particular ways. As they did so, entrepreneurs in the area developed strategies for publicizing the sport that widened its appeal and helped it to grow in popularity. This study takes the place of what has not been recorded by telling the microcosmic and local history of the San Dieguito region's innovations and skateboarding scene, which had unique qualities that led to the region's identity. To tell this story, this study uses the oral histories of various participants in the skateboarding scene in San Dieguito during the 1970s -the innovators who created new products and entrepreneurs who developed strategies to market the image and style ofthe area. These oral histories provide new evidence of the region's importance in the transformation of the sport. The fmdings of this study have been presented in two forms: a written history, which analyzes the implication of these oral histories in more detail, and a video documentary, which relies on the oral histories of the people who lived the experience to tell what the experience was all about. Both the written history and the documentary highlight the words of the men and women that pioneered these Dolan 6 innovations and created a stable foundation for the skateboarding industry to grow in the future. The first section ofthis written history outlines what took place in the San Dieguito area starting in the mid-1970s. This section shows the technological advances - in materials, design, and production- made during that time and is supplemented by the oral histories ofthose who were there. Tracker Truck co-founder Larry Balma contributes the story ofhow he and his partners started their company in Cardiff and developed the 4.25-inch-wide steering and axle mechanism- the truck, which changed the turning performance of skateboards. Balma also started the magazine Transworld Skateboarding with the help ofPeggy Cozens, who wrote the manifesto on the San Dieguito area's style, known as "Skate and Create." La Costa skateboarder and skateboarding historian, Dale Smith, provides details about the La Costa scene and the general history of skateboarding. The next section deals with some ofthe broader subjects in the discussion of skateboarding in the 1970s. First is how local skateboarding businesses formed in the 1970s. An examination of the changes to the American corporate world and the birth of creative industries will provide context as to how this took place. This section also will shed light on how an activity associated with the image ofrebellion, one that like its related culture, surfing, "aroused the ire ofthe general populace," successfully 2 entered the realm ofthe business world. Cultural identity is another subject discussed in this section. This discussion 2 Drew Kampion, Stoked: A History ofSurfCulture (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2003), 80. Dolan 7 affects particularly the youth and how they found meaning, belonging and, quite honestly, a sense of purpose in a time when the national spirit was low and there was an overwhelming sense of distrust in the institutions that had traditionally held a controlling stake in the American society. Sports historians Randy Roberts and James S. Olson identify this movement by claiming that sports filled in the void left when neighborhoods and a sense of community became more transient in the era 3 of post-World War II suburban sprawl. The sports culture of skateboarding is the last section discussed . This section includes a discussion on competitions and skate parks, but it also looks at the changing perception of sports during this time. Again, Roberts and Olson describe the legacy that impacted popular culture during the 1970s was "the extent to which individuals turned to athletics, exercise, and body image as a way of finding meaning 4 in an increasingly dislocated society." Skateboarding exemplifies this way of finding meaning: Skateboarding is a sport and has a sports culture.