The Pundit

Trespass & Trickery in Los Angeles

By Gillian Terzis ⋅ August 7, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

There was a time before the legend of Tony Hawk, before his street-skating adventures graced our video gaming consoles, before skating tournaments offered multimillion dollar sponsorship deals and slots on MTV. The skater-punk aesthetic was encapsulated by The Dead Kennedys rather than Good Charlotte’and the skate movement was rooted firmly in the underground.

The old-school and underground-focussed skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys was released in 2001 to wide acclaim. It inspired Lords of Dogtown (2005), starring our own Heath Ledger as a pioneer pool skater in Venice, California.

Rick Charnoski and Coan ‘Buddy’ Nichols are skaters turned film-makers, and they are special guests of MIFF, showing a collection of their own and their friends’ short films in Super SK8mm + Mixed Cheese Bits. They’ve come a long way since recording their shorts on ‘five dollar camerasÔø?ƒ?.bought at the flea market,’ Nichols laughs, and their landmark film Fruit of the Vine started off with a run of five-hundred copies, and eventually expanded to over 25-hundred copies in the US alone.

They could probably wax lyrical about the beauty of a flawlessly executed trick, but this isn’t what interests them as film-makers. ‘We’re more interested in the personalities we’ve met while skateboarding,’ Nichols says. They’re interested in the stories, for instance, of skaters who possess immense artistic talent, or build elaborate yet illegal skate parks under highways’ ‘it just goes on and on,’ he says.

Despite the strong commercial interest in skateboarding, there are still hints of the clandestine evident in their films’in particular, the adventure of finding and creating one’s own skate park heaven with an empty pool. The physical dimensions of a pool lend quite well to skateboard artistry, particularly the indescribable sensation of weightlessness when one skims the upward contours of the pool tiles before meeting gravity. It remains one of the main focuses of Charnoski and Nichols’ films, this relentless quest for the perfect pool in LA, ‘the epicentre of pool-skating,’ Nichols notes.

Their latest conquest involves a swimming pool directly beneath the famed Hollywood sign. Armed with a noisy gasoline pump, the boys drained the pool and did their best to ensure the considerable water runoff was distributed between neighbouring properties (So no significant flooding damage was evident.). Despite their defiant draining act being performed in full view of neighbouring residents, no one bothered to say anything to authorities. Even Nichols is puzzled. ‘That’s what so fucking weird about LA,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘Everyone has their air-conditioning on with the windows shutÔø?ƒ?you could be skating in someone’s pool while they are there.’

It’s this element of trespass which Nichols and Charnoski find so enticing, and Charnoski sees the skateboarding experience as encompassing more than simply a smorgasbord of tricks. ‘I’m as much attracted to trespassing and finding these pools, as I am to skateboarding,’ he says. It’s testament to the old-school brand of skater subversion; a relentless pursuit for the right pool amidst a medley of challenges, including but not limited to: the Neighbourhood Watch, barking dogs, and a throng of skater buddies with a slightly unhealthy adrenaline addiction.

‘We just try to keep it real,’ Charnoski says in a laconic drawl, and he assures me that he and Nichols steer clear of a sensationalist portrayal of the skateboarding culture. They also prefer to utilise the skills of their skate buddies to provide editing, music and production assistance. ‘It’s overwhelming,’ he says with a wry smile, ‘but what our trip is all about, is to mellow things out.’ Well, it’s certainly a refreshing way to wile away the hot summer days in LA.