When Nick Pitt of Warwick Publishing asked if I'd be interested in writing a book on skateboarding, I had no idea at the time how much of an impact this question would have on my life. It was quickly decided that within two weeks, I would have to create a book proposal to show Nick. Fortunately, I was visiting my parents for part of this time. I got some advice from my father about what to include in the proposal. The book's idea was to provide an overview of the various decades of skateboarding history from the 1960s to the present day. I kept things simple, and the two-page proposal made sense to me. However, I was somewhat nervous to show it to Nick and hoped it would meet with his approval.
Thankfully, things went exceptionally well when I next met with Nick to review the book proposal. Before I knew it, I had a book contract and a check for $3,000. I was promised another $3,000 after I completed the manuscript and $4,000 once the book came off the press. While I had written for the school newspaper in university, I hadn't done much writing and in no way considered myself a writer. I was shocked at how fortunate I was and still couldn't believe I had jumped the slush pile.
It was sometime in 1997 that I got to work researching and interviewing subjects for the book. I relied on the internet to find certain people and was lucky enough to make contact with Curtis Stevenson, who was the son of Larry Stevenson. Larry is known as the father of the skateboard. Not only did he bring skateboarding to the masses in the 1960s as the founder of Makaha, but he also invented the kicktail. When I spoke with Larry, it was difficult to understand him due to his age. But he was gracious with his time, and after a few calls, I gathered enough material for the first chapter.
It was remarkable to interview the people who were part of skateboarding's history. It felt like I was peering into a world that not many people had an opportunity to see. For the most part, people were welcoming and would agree to answer my questions. A few companies, however, kept ignoring my requests for an interview. Of course, once the book hit, these same companies were angry that they didn't receive any coverage. It was amusing to explain that I had tried to reach out, but they never contacted me.
Of all the interviews I did for the book, the one with Fausto Vitello, the co-founder of Independent Trucks and Thrasher Magazine, was the most memorable. For one thing, Fausto spent at least two hours with me on the phone, answering all my questions. He was funny and outrageous, and I was amazed by some of the stories he told me.
My original title for the book was "The Endless Wave." After several meetings with Nick, I suggested another title, "The Concrete Wave." At first, Nick wasn't too keen on the title, but he grew to like it as much as I did over time. Many years later, I could personally thank John O'Malley, who developed the Concrete Wave skatepark in the mid-70s. The name that John had created inspired me, along with a skate shop in Boston called Concrete Wave.
The most challenging aspect of putting the book together was getting decent photos. I came up with the idea of sending a request for pictures via Transworld Skateboarding Business Magazine. I was grateful they put my request in the magazine. While I didn't expect an avalanche of skate photographers to email me, I figured I might get a few. In truth, only one photographer contacted me, Scott Starr. Scott had regularly contributed to Thrasher and shot some stunning photographs. Nick was astonished when he sent up a portfolio. I distinctly remember when he said, "I have the cover shot!" So Nick and Scott worked out a deal, and Concrete Wave was fortunate to have some incredible photographs on its pages. Sadly, Scott died in 2022 at the age of 61.
Of all my memories with Concrete Wave, perhaps the greatest was at the September 1998 Action Sports Retailer show in Long Beach, California. I had completed the book in the summer and was now focused on getting skate shops to carry it. Fortunately, I had interviewed one of skateboarding's greatest technical minds, Paul Schmitt, aka "The Professor." Paul was intrigued by the book and became quite a supporter of my efforts. As a result, his company, Giant Distribution, decided to carry the book and sell it to skate shops.
Just before the ASR show, Paul had one of his staff members create a flyer announcing the book would be coming out in the spring of 1999. He probably had about twenty or so black-and-white flyers. I figured the cost was about three cents for each flyer. Paul and I wandered around on the show's last day and dropped the flyer off at various booths. At one point, we spied the Spin Magazine booth and spoke with a few people working there. At the time, Spin was at the pinnacle of everything cool. They had run stories about skateboarding. However, I was skeptical of anything happening. Spin was based in New York City, and I wasn't sure the flyer would make it out of Los Angeles!
About two weeks later, Nick received an email from Dave Moodie, the editor of Spin. Dave was requesting to see an advanced copy of my book. I was stunned and somewhat excited. Nick was stoked about the potential. I was happy the flyer had stirred up some interest.
When Dave finished reading my book, we spoke on the phone. He asked me for a 5,000-word overview of the book. So, I spent some time, and after a few hours of cutting, pasting and editing, I sent him what he asked for. We spoke again, and he said he liked the Dogtown story. He asked me if I was interested in writing a Dogtown-only story. I told him I was happy he wanted that specific story, but the book contained stories about many people who had contributed to skateboarding. I'd just given him a 5,000-word essay on my book, and I wasn't interested in doing a Dogtown-only story.
At this point, Dave said they'd find one of their writers to do the story, and we parted on good terms. I told Dave I would happily help whatever writer they chose and share some of my contacts. A few weeks later, a writer named Greg Beato contacted me, and I gave him several key email addresses to help him with his story.
In March 1999, "The Concrete Wave - the history of skateboarding" book rolled off the press and into my hands. It was a fantastic feeling, and I was excited to see where things would go. That same month, I had my answer in an article in Spin Magazine. It was called "The Lords of Dogtown." Buried towards the end of the piece was the following paragraph:
THEY WERE REVOLUTIONARY When skateboardings popularity began to rise again in the mid-'80s, thanks in large part to the trailblazing videos that Stacy Peralta created to promote Powell-Peralta, the Dogtowners were no longer the most technically accomplished skaters. A new wave of kids like Christian Hosoi, Rodney Mullen, and Tony Hawk surpassed them. In the years that have followed, very little about Dogtown has ever made it into any form more permanent than the occasional magazine article. There are Glen E. Friedman's books of photos, Fuck You Heroes and Fuck You Too, which included numerous photos of Alva, Adams, and chapters in Michael Brooke's recently released history of skateboarding, The Concrete Wave.
It’s been quite some time since I looked at this Spin article. You can view the words online (just a quick Google search will find them!) I had forgotten one crucial piece that was only visible in the magazine. While Dave Moodie didn’t use my 5,000-word article for the print edition, he posted it on the SPINonline website.
This one article created two shockwaves. The first shockwave made some sense, and another was something I never could have foreseen. Thanks to the publicity, my book's first run (5,000 copies) sold quickly. Nick was delighted to reprint and realized he might have a hit. Approximately 93% of published books never sell more than 1,000 copies, and quite a lot don't even hit 250 copies!
The second shockwave was that several Hollywood producers read the Lords of Dogtown article and were intrigued. They thought the story of a group of skateboarders terrorizing backyard pools in the 1970s could be a wildly entertaining film. So, the Hollywood folks began clamouring for the life rights of the various characters featured in the piece. This included people like Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Stacy Peralta.
At some point during the negotiations, Stacy Peralta decided he wanted to tell the story of Dogtown in his way. He didn't want to sell his life rights and started working on creating his documentary. This decision led to the film "Dogtown & Z Boys." It came out in January 2001 and won several awards at The Sundance Film Festival. Vans saw their $800,000 investment in the documentary pay off beyond their wildest expectations.
Eventually, the documentary sold over 1.7 million VHS and DVD copies. The success of Stacy’s film also convinced Sony Pictures to pony up over 25 million dollars to produce and market the movie "The Lords of Dogtown.” I got to walk the red carpet at the film’s premiere in Hollywood and meet Heath Ledger.
My book went on to sell 42,000 copies, which is over four times what ranks as a best-seller. It could have sold more, but sadly, Warwick went out of business.
If I could sum up in one sentence what all this leads to:
Never underestimate the power of a 3-cent flyer.
