Freewheelin' Page #4

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The freestyle was like a ballet,

another direction for skating.

(spirited percussion music)

(lively jazz music)

(adventurous rock music)

Down at the lake, they were ice boarding.

It reminded me a lot of skate

sailing down at Bay Street.

On windy days, they really get up speed,

up to 30 miles an hour tacking

across the parking lots.

(spirited music)

Stacy took the movie crew down

to a local skateboard factory

to see how the boards were made.

- [Interviewer] Why is the skateboarding

suddenly reemerging,

the wheels are rolling?

- Well, 99% of the reason is the wheels.

I mean there's no two ways about it.

If the urethane wheel

hadn't been developed

and hadn't been put on a skateboard,

you know we'd be riding the

same type of skateboards

that we rode 10 years ago.

And obviously that wasn't

what people wanted.

- All I can take claim to is introducing

the urethane wheel to skateboarders.

Urethane wheels developed

10 or 15 years ago

for use in roller rinks on rental skates,

and for that reason that the people

that were making 'em never had

the conception to

introduce to skateboarding.

I think that they didn't

realize the market potential

and they didn't realize the interest

that was always there for the sport.

I just happened to go with friends

to a place that wheels,

where roller rinks were being made.

And after talking to the

manufacturer for a little bit,

decided that when I was financially ready,

I'd try to introduce the

wheel to skateboarders.

Once past the novice

stage of roller skating,

you desire a speed rather than control.

The wheels are being made

hard so they would roll fast,

whereas the skateboarder

controls the speed

by how long he goes

straight down a hill, say,

and therefore the hardness

was not necessary for speed,

but by softening the wheel up,

I gave the skateboarder what he lacked

with the old composition

wheels which was traction.

- Stace, dinner's almost ready.

- [Stacy] Okay.

- Hey, what about the homework?

- Oh, that's almost done.

I'm sick of that stuff.

It's really, doesn't make sense.

I don't know, I wanna do something else.

I don't like school that much.

I'm beginning to, shoot,

what's the matter with being

a professional skateboarder

or something, you know?

There's other guys that have done it.

Thought I'd try something like that.

- [Camille] Russ Howell is the most

successful skateboard pro.

He won five out of the first

eight contests this year.

And last year alone, Russ made

over $20,000 skateboarding.

- I started skateboarding in contests

competitively probably in February

when some students of mine

that I was teaching in a local

park, a recreation center,

you know, had pushed me into a contest

and I thought, well wow,

I'm too old for that

'cause I mean after all, at being 26,

you're at the grandpa

level taking Geritol.

So they pushed me in, I won it.

And I was finding that I really was

getting a lot of enjoyment

out of competitive skating.

You meet a lotta great

people and have a good time.

And then the second contest

was the Del Mar Nationals

that Bahne and Cadillac co-sponsored.

I won the first place in

senior men's freestyle there

and then strung out a chain

of five victories in a row.

And out of 12 competitions

I took eight first place.

Probably now I'm the

highest paid skateboarder

and really digging it.

I enjoy competitive skating.

(uptempo jazz music)

I'd let to get it adapted

in to schools systems.

I think it really has a good place

because they tried to teach

snow skiing in school,

but they don't have the facilities.

A lot of schools don't have snow,

so you can teach snow

skiing on skateboards,

you can teach gymnastics,

which really holds the

attention span of young kids,

the surfing style, all kinds of things.

Kids really dig skateboarding.

The kids that I've worked with,

God, they just learn so much

more quickly on a skateboard.

Things that would normally take

a lotta time anywhere else.

I want it put into school classes

when I get to be a PE teacher.

I try to incorporate different styles.

I think that if skateboarding's

going to become recognized as a sport,

we're gonna have to give up

many of our previous conceived

limitations on styling.

And I tried to introduce

a ballet-like gesture

and also a tai chi-type routine.

(rhythmic oriental music)

I think skateboarding is an

individual form of expression.

It can be an art form.

When performed with grace, continuity,

fluidity, whatever the

term you want to choose,

it's something that an individual

can get out and say, hey, this is me,

this is what's inside of me

and now I put it into a

physical expression type thing

and people can say, hey,

look at what he's doing.

You know, this is his makeup,

this is his character.

I can get out, I can do tai chi,

I can do gymnastics, I can do surfing,

snow skiing, whatever the

individual wants to express,

he can do it on a skateboard,

and I think this really,

it benefits him physically,

it benefits him mentally,

and it also benefits him spiritually.

- [Camille] Like all

California skateboarders,

Russ is into surfing.

And one night a really good

surf film came to town.

So of course, he had to see it.

He skated over to pick up his girlfriend.

(adventurous music)

(audience applauds)

(meditative music)

- [Narrator] Our story starts

in the beautiful islands of Hawaii.

Spectacular volcanic peaks contrast

with lush cane and pineapple fields,

providing a scenic paradise

for visiting tourists.

Yet the beauty of tranquil inland valleys

and hidden coves provides only a backdrop

for another group of visitors

who return here each winter.

These surfers have the fluid drive

to answer the challenge

of the biggest and best

surfing waves in the whole world

on the north shores of Hawaii.

(adventurous rock music)

(audience applauds and cheers)

(spirited music)

- [Camille] Most kids skate

just for the fun of it.

But as skateboarding gets bigger,

even some of the younger kids

are turning professional.

Stevie Monahan is the youngest skate.

- Jim Mahoney took me to make a movie

called Kenny and Company.

Producer asked him if I could

go off the back of a car.

Then he asked me and I

said, "I don't know."

I tried it once and I fell.

And then I thought it wasn't that hard,

so I tried it again and I fell.

The third time I made it.

I like to do jumps, off tables and stuff.

And just to win contests 'cause

I think it's pretty radical.

Every time I go to a different contest,

there's different judges and they,

I guess they like it and they

give me high points for it.

- [Camille] Desiree Von

Essen is another pro.

She's on the same

skateboard team with Stevie

and she does a great two board trick

called a double daffy,

better than anybody.

(adventurous instrumental music)

- [Stevie] My favorite

trick's I think going

off the back of a car, it's pretty fun,

or doing off the lips and waves.

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