Skaterdater, one of the best skateboarding films ever made, has finally popped up in a decent color version after years of bouncing around the Internet in terrible looking transfers.

This sweet little movie from 1965 chronicles the early days of skateboarding when kids rode tiny oval decks with steel wheels. Amazingly the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966 for short film. The first and only film about skateboarding to manage that kind of artistic feat. It’s got a groovy soundtrack that includes a tune by Davie Allan And The Arrows, “Skateboarder Rock.”

I owned a Hobie skateboard and we use to call what we did sidewalk surfing and we did it barefoot. On the East Coast, where I lived, sidewalk surfing was the closest we could get to the SoCal lifestyle and we bleached our hair to give us the appearance of being teenage beach bums. But the humidity and wooded suburbs of Virginia were about as close to Dogtown as The Four Seasons were to the Beach Boys.

The film tells a story with no dialogue. The surf rock-esque soundtrack was composed by Mike Curb and Nick Venet with Davie Allan and the Arrows playing “Skaterdater Rock” .
It was the first film on skateboarding. It was distributed theatrically, both domestically and internationally, by United Artists. It was reviewed extensively, including “Time Magazine”.

The skateboarders were members of the neighborhood Imperial Skateboard Club from Torrance, California. Their names are Gary Hill, Gregg Carrol, Mike Mel, Bill McKaig, Gary Jennings, Bruce McKaig and Rick Anderson. Most of the action shots were taken in Torrance, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes Estates. The final shot was Averill Park in San Pedro.” Wikipedia.

These young dudes have some classy moves and an almost Zen-like grace. The roots of cool, California-style.

If you dig the soundtrack, you can stream all the tracks here.