Skater Dater - The Quintessential Skater's Film
I was 10 years old in 1973 when I discovered skateboarding - then a quintessentially and nearly exclusively Southern California pursuit. One of my big influences was a seventeen and a half minute long, black and white, short film called Skater Dater made in 1965. I instantly recognized it as having been filmed locally, around Long Beach, San Pedro and Torrance. I could identify (and idolize) the cool kids in their stylish windbreakers hanging ten barefoot (eek! - the dad portion of my adult persona shudders in horror) and nose walking on their Black Knight decks. Ostensibly, its a pre-teen love story, but I'm pretty sure that was lost on me. Those kids were board dropping, nose walking and alley-ooping and I knew that was what I wanted to do. The soundtrack sounded like it was lifted off a Dick Dale or Ventures album, and that was cool
I probbaly haven't seen Skater Dater again since I was in junior high. What a delight it was to find it on Google video (thanks Mark Frauenfelder on BoingBoing.