Before the existence of the world wide web, there was the VHS. Thanks to VCR technology, skateboarding was delivered right into living rooms and revived the desire in many and showed them the possibilities with the skateboard. Skateboarding suffered its dull moments especially during the closure of skate parks.
It was due to videos (as well as skate mag publications) showing pro skaters in empty pools and backyard ramps that encouraged other skaters to do the same. And at one time while vert skating was the known skate contest game, videos showing skaters on the streets, rails, and ledges caught fire.
We’ve listed below the top ten legendary old school skateboarding videos (arranged by the years they appeared).
Bones Brigade Video Show (1984)
This is the prime video that revived the love for skateboarding and the first in the series of skateboarding videos to come. 1979 to 1983 were considered the dark ages of skateboarding and when this came out, the world got a glimpse of what the few loyalist of skateboarding were busy with. This video highlights pro skaters Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, and Lance Mountain to name a few. It also features ramps, pools, parks, streets, ditches, freestyle, downhill, super slo mo, and "new moves".
The Search for Animal Chin (1987)
This is the first skateboarding video that provided a plot for its viewers instead of just stunts and tricks on the board. The stars of the video - Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, and Lance Mountain are on a quest to find the missing master, Animal Chin (C. R. Stecyk, III ) who went into hiding because of the commercialization of the sport. Running for 65 minutes, the video featured various skate parks in California, Nevada and Hawaii.
Shackle Me Not (1988)
Running for an hour, this video shows you an array of tricks on the board by 29 innovative skaters of the 80’s including Danny Way, Steve Ortega, Ron Allen, Matt Hensley, and Mike Carroll among them. Because the founders of H-Street Tony Magnusson and Mike Ternasky were on low budget in filming the videos, they did their own home editing of the videos personally and it inspired many others to make their own too.
Hokus Pokus (1989)
It is the second video released by H-Street and was to be followed by five other skate videos not as highly rated. It shows an alternating presentation of vert and street skating with some injections of conversation encountered by skaters as majority of the people still didn’t accept the sport. Instead of investing more on video production, the company put more trust on talented skaters. Thus, the video featured new team members - Brian Lotti, Colby Carter, and Sal Barbier who rode with 15 others including Danny Way, Steve Ortega, Ron Allen, Matt Hensley, Mike Carroll and Tony Magnusson himself.
Video Days
(1991) – With only 10 well-chosen songs and five skaters of whom some turned to be among the world’s finest namely Mark Gonzales, Rudy Johnson, Jason Lee, Guy Mariano and Jordan Richter, this less than 25 minute video is jammed with day and night skating in the streets, parks and vert ramp. It’s a simple demonstration of the thrill one gets from skateboarding.
Memory Screen
(1991) – Alien Workshop was founded in 1990 and a year after, they released Memory screen as their debut video. It’s a 41 minute film featuring Rob Dyrdek, Steve Claar, Scott Conklin, John Pryor, Thomas Morgan, Bo Turner and Duane Pitre. The introduction appeals to the art taste with flashes of a mixture of B/W and colored images and short motion clips.But as the skaters are introduced, their fast paced and hard core skateboarding is more mind boggling and an art in themselves.
Questionable
(1992) – This is the first video released after the establishment of the “Dream Team” recruited by Plan B. It featured Pat Duffy, Colin McKay, Ryan Fabry, Sal Barbier, Sean Sheffey, Rondey Mullen, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard and Danny Way. It is also the first appearance of Mullen doing street-style skating after finally being convinced to alter from his then free style skateboarding which was losing popularity. The strong pull of the video is in conveying Ternasky’s message “Do what you got to do”.
Virtual Reality
(1993) – This is a 49 minute of rad skateboarding by Colin McKay, Tony Ferguson, Sean Sheffey, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard, Pat Duffy, Rodney Mullen and Danny Way. Here, Rodney Mullen shows off more prowess in the streets with never seen before tricks. The video seemed to have been released years ahead of the time and back then, what seemed next to impossible had pushed for further development in skateboarding.
Welcome to Hell
(1996) – This 30 minute video feature 7 skaters but notable parts are of Jamie Thomas, Mike Maldonado, Satva Leung, and Donny Barley. Jumps over bigger gaps and higher rails gave more thrill to skater and viewer so the title should have been Welcome to Heaven. It somehow became more controversial when Chad Muska’s part was removed from the video which can be seen in the DVD release.
Mouse
(1996) – 19 members of the Girl Team, notably Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, Rick Howard,and Mike Carroll among them, delivers 38 minutes of ground breaking tricks on their boards with a no-nonsense skateboard riding. It’s coupled with chill music and sprinkles of comic acts. It seriously beat Girl’s other previous releases.
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