Z-Boys
The skateboard team known as the Z-Boys from Venice Beach are credited for integrating the well known surfing style with skateboarding.
In 1971 Skip Engblom, Jeff Ho and Craig Stecyk opened a surf/skate shop on Main Street in Santa Monica, California. They started a surf team that consisted of six talented kids, Nathan Pratt, Allen Sarlo, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Chris Cahill and Stacy Peralta. The team surfed at Bay Street in Santa Monica when the swells would roll in. When the surf was flat the kids put their surfboards in the closet and would terrorize the streets on skateboards.
In 1975 the kids asked Engblom and Ho to start a skate team. They agreed and entered the Z-Boys in the Del Mar Nationals in Mach 1975. The boys placed in the top four in the Freestyle and Slalom categories. The judges were not able to comprehend the new style of skateboarding they had just witnessed.
The 1970s drought in Los Angeles left many swimming pools empty and the surf flat. The Z-Boys took their surfing style skating to the pools. They would trespass on properties that had drained pools and skate them.
Fame and fortune hit the young boys when a series of articles and photos about the boys appeared in Skateboarder Magazine. The boys drifted apart with the fame. Skateboarding and surfing became their life. Many of the young boys successfully created skateboard companies and received sponsorships.
The boys had revolutionized skateboarding forever. The aerial and sliding moves are attributed to the Z-Boys.
