Table Of ContentSkateboarding LA
Alternative Criminology Series
General Editor: Jeff Ferrell
Pissing on Demand: Workplace Drug Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion
Testing and the Rise of the Detox Industry in the Justice System
Ken Tunnell Rebecca Tiger
Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Courting Kids: Inside an Experimental
Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Youth Court
Picking, and Street Scavenging Carla J. Barrett
Jeff Ferrell The Spectacular Few: Prisoner
Prison, Inc.: A Convict Exposes Life inside Radicalization and the Evolving Terrorist
a Private Prison Threat
by K.C. Carceral, edited by Thomas J. Mark S. Hamm
Bernard Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the
The Terrorist Identity: Explaining the American Way
Terrorist Threat Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl
Michael P. Arena and Bruce A. Arrigo The Securitization of Society: Crime, Risk,
Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City and Social Order
to Al- Qaeda and Beyond Marc Schuilenburg
Mark S. Hamm Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women, and the
Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Politics of the Body
Women’s Reproduction in America Beverly Yuen Thompson
Jeanne Flavin Narrative Criminology: Understanding
Stories of Crime
Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s
Edited by Lois Presser and Sveinung
Urban Underground
Sandberg
Gregory J. Snyder
Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail
Crimes of Dissent: Civil Disobedience,
Growth and the Neoliberal Logic of
Criminal Justice, and the Politics of
Carceral Expansion
Conscience
Judah Schept
Jarret S. Lovell
Meth Wars: Police, Media, Power
The Culture of Punishment: Prison, Society,
Travis Linneman
and Spectacle
Michelle Brown Hacked: A Radical Approach to Hacker
Culture and Crime
Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity
Kevin F. Steinmetz
in School and on the Streets
Robert Garot The Gang’s All Queer: The Lives of Gay
Gang Members
5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and
Vanessa R. Panfil
the War on Drugs
Dimitri A. Bogazianos Skateboarding LA: Inside Professional
Street Skateboarding
Gregory J. Snyder
Skateboarding LA
Inside Professional Street Skateboarding
Gregory J. Snyder
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
www.nyupress.org
© 2017 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Snyder, Gregory J., author.
Title: Skateboarding LA : inside professional street skateboarding / Gregory J. Snyder.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017010913 | ISBN 9780814769867 (cl : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780814737910 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Skateboarding—California—Los Angeles.
Classification: LCC GV859.8 .S595 2017 | DDC 796.2209794/94—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010913
New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials
are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
For Luna, I’m over the moon.
— Love Daddy
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue 1
Introduction 5
Professional Street Skateboarding 9
Subculture and Self- Preservation 12
Skateboarding and Urban Space 16
Overview 22
Part I. Immersion
1. Skateboarding and the City 35
A Quick History of Skateboarding 35
Ollie, Nollie, Regular, Goofy: Trick Basics 40
Public Plazas: Filling the Voids 47
The “LA School” of Urban Sociology 51
Skateboarding Subculture 55
2. Skate Spots 63
Scanning the Terrain 63
The Ethos of Progression 70
Excavating the City: Historic Skate Spots 76
Skate and Appreciate 86
3. Skateboarding Basics: The Grammar of Skateboarding Tricks 89
Name That Trick: Stoner Plaza 89
Grammar Counts 90
Learning to Skateboard: Aaron Snyder 93
Troy’s Story 100
Old Man Skateboarding 103
vii
viii | Contents
Part II. The Professional World
4. Professional Street Skateboarding 109
The Skate Plaza at Stoner Park 109
Career Stoners 113
June 9, 2015 122
Shorty’s and Darkstar: Aaron Snyder 124
Behind the Scenes at Street League Skateboarding 133
Street League Revisited: October 2, 2016 140
Skateboarding and the Subculture Career 144
The Street Not Taken: Robbie McKinley 148
5. The Production of Skateboarding Tricks 152
The Skater 153
The Photographer 155
The Filmer 156
RB Umali: The Filmer’s Toolkit 158
The Skateboard Team 163
6. Skateboarding as a Career 166
The City and the Subculture Career 166
Subcultural Enclaves 168
The Model of Subculture Profitability 170
The Ethnographic Imagination 173
Subculture Media and the Digital Turn 175
Pay Scales 177
The Vulnerable Careerists 178
Part III. Skate Spots
7. Skateboarding and Architecture 183
Skaters’ Response to Defensive Design 183
Resisting Arrest 185
DIY Urban Design 186
DIY Skate Spots: Fixer Uppers 187
DIY Skate Spots: From the Ground Up 191
8. Landmark Achievements: The Creation of Subcultural
Landmarks 194
Urban Public Space 195
Spot Progression 200
Contents | ix
The Carlsbad Gap 202
Profitable Spots 205
Defensible Space 206
Part IV. Resistance
9. Skateboard Activism 215
The Courthouse: A History 215
Decriminalizing the Courthouse 220
Legalized Skateboarding: Day 1 233
Courthouse 2.0, Day 2 234
Go Skateboarding Day 2015 240
10. Matt Gottwig: Circle Complete 243
Coda 249
Appendix: Interview with Alec Beck, Transworld Magazine 253
Glossary 259
Notes 263
References 273
Index 281
About the Author 297
