Freewheelin'

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1

(spirited music)

- [Camille] Wherever

there's a hill and concrete,

skaters will ride it

till they have it wired.

The speeds are amazing,

up to 50 miles an hour.

They call it freewheelin'.

I got the sun on my shoulders

I got the wind on my side

Feels like I could fly on forever

When I take you out on a ride

Down the road, it's a beautiful feeling

The day is still so new

Oh, watch me shine

I feel so fine

Just rolling with you

- Sometimes when I think about

all the things we did this past year,

it's almost like a dream.

We had so much fun,

but everything went by so quickly,

and there I was watching

Stacy get on the plane,

and I was really happy for him

because he'd finally

gotten what he wanted,

and now he was really on his way.

We really had a lot of fun together,

going places to skateboard and surf

and meeting all the best skateboarders.

I suppose before I met Stacy,

I really didn't know

much about skateboarding.

I just thought it was something

that little kids did,

but you can't be around

Stacy very long before

you learn everything there

is to know about skating.

He'd always be talking about it,

poles, slalom, downhill,

tubes, sun wading, pumping,

and all the freestyle tricks.

I guess by now I know as

much about it as anyone.

It's funny how we met, Stacy and I.

He had this job working in a restaurant,

and every day he'd have to skateboard home

and get dressed real quick for work.

Got a job in the city

Well, it's so dull, it's a crime

How can people look so unhappy

And tell me what to do

- [Camille] He wasn't real happy about it.

Even then, he was looking for a way out,

and I guess I was too.

I was going with an older guy.

He used to take me places,

fancy restaurants and that kind of thing.

- Can we get some water here?

- Sure, here you go.

(restaurant employees chatter)

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Camille] I really didn't

notice him right off,

not until we left,

and then I didn't even dream

I'd ever see him again.

But life's funny that way.

It was the very next day, a Saturday.

We'd gone for a drive in

the hills behind Malibu.

It was really nice to get out of the city.

Suddenly there he was again,

skateboarding with some friends.

I'll take a chance on a dream

I think we can ride on together

Nothing's gonna come in between

Looking down the road

It's a beautiful feeling

The day is still so new

- [Camille] My friend was really mad.

"Damn kids," he said, and I had to laugh

'cause I was one of 'em too.

(car horn honks)

Rolling with you

Rolling with you

I'm just rolling with you

Rolling with you

I'm just rolling with you

Rolling with you, just rolling with you

Rolling with you, just rolling with you

Rolling with you, just rolling with you

- [Camille] It was pretty funny.

There was Stacy skating around

and the car wouldn't run.

Stacy didn't say anything,

he didn't have to,

but we were both laughing behind our eyes

like we were looking across

two different worlds at each other,

and I could tell Stacy

wanted out of his too.

Anyway, that's how it happened.

Skateboard meets sports

car, and the skateboard won.

- [Boyfriend] Come on, let's go.

Baby, we don't have all day.

(gentle instrumental music)

- I guess I knew I'd see

him again, but not so soon.

The very next Monday at

school, there he was,

trying to get his homework

done before class.

(gentle music)

Hi.

- Hi, how you doing?

- Oh, pretty good, what you doing?

- Some geometry work.

- [Camille] Stacy loves

bank riding best of all.

The drop is so steep.

He comes down off the

lip with so much speed,

and then he cranks back in to it.

Wow, I could watch him all day.

It's so much like surfing.

Like most California skateboarders,

Stacy started out riding waves.

I guess that's why skateboarding

had to begin here in California.

What do you do when the surf's flat?

(vibrant guitar music)

But then skateboarding turned

into a whole new thing by itself.

It took the wave inland for everybody.

Skateboarding was getting big real fast,

and some of the guys were

already turning professional,

but Stacy was still going to

school and there was his job.

And sure, he didn't like any of it much.

What he really wanted to do was skate,

travel to other places,

but he didn't know how to go about it.

Everybody knew how hot he was though.

He was already Junior

Men's Slalom Champion.

And at the World Contest,

he had beaten everybody, even the pros.

So when the movie people

started looking around

for the right person to do the film,

I guess it was only natural

they heard about Stacy.

- Okay, I just, we were little

kids, me and my friends,

a couple of our older

friends started surfing,

and they started skateboarding as well,

and they got us into skateboarding.

And it was really hot, but after a while,

it got to be sort of a drag.

Skateboarding with those clay wheels,

you could get pretty messed up.

So we were sort of out of it

until the Cadillac Wheel came out

and then we really got into it

pretty heavily skating banks

and you know, they were

good for everything

'cause they grip so well.

And then I was on the Zephyr surf team

and they started a skateboard team.

So everybody was stoked

and I really got into it.

And some friends of mine from an old team

a long time ago taught me all my tricks.

(vibrant guitar music)

- [Camille] Stacy and his friends took

a lot of weekend trips together.

California's such a big place

and there was still deserted beaches

with fantastic waves and no surfers,

empty hills to ride,

spots that you can have all to yourself,

but you've got to go out and find them.

- Hey, Tom.

- Hey.

- [Stacy] Let's go man, ready to go?

Got your junk?

- Yeah.

- [Stacy] Need any help?

You taking this?

- Yeah.

- [Stacy] Where we going?

- Let's go the T bowl first.

- [Stacy] All right.

Is that big giant bowl?

- Yeah.

- Right on, skating safari.

Let's go, let's be on it.

- [Camille] They took a weekend safari

up the coast to San Francisco.

Stacy and two friends

that he rides with a lot,

Kenny Means and Tom Sims.

They stopped off here and

there, wherever it looked good.

(water flows in distance)

- Yeah, it's pretty good.

- Oh, it's cold too.

- Not bad.

- Did we get all those things of water?

Give me the water.

- Hand me your stuff, Tom.

- [Camille] They're really good friends,

but they all ride differently.

Even their equipment's different.

Tom rides a big board,

like the big wave surfers,

and he makes skating look a

lot like riding a big wave.

Kenny's the only guy around

who rides roller skates like this.

His style's really radical.

He's been doing it a long time,

13 years, and he's really hot.

(adventurous music)

- [Stacy] What happened, Tom?

- Well, I hit a rock down there

and it snapped the axle clean.

Even though they're heat-treated axles,

I think it was just too

much, too much torque for it.

But I'll have to stick

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