Grindline Documentary

Figured it deserved it’s own thread. Entertaining watch.

Though a couple of criticisms: little to no reflection on the North-Cal skate culture which may have contributed to the deaths of Phelps, Monk and P-Stone; and stating Burnside is the ‘birth of DIY’ - big claim, probably justified in a limited, concrete park kind of sense but maybe others know of other precedents?

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I mean you’re right - Burnside wasn’t the locus for the ‘birth of DIY’: technically that came a decade before with the emergence of backyard vert ramps like Groholski’s etc that provided the platform for Thrasher to re-energise the culture through involvement with contests on these DIY ramps.
But ‘birth of DIY’ is shorthand for ‘DIY’ in a modern sense of concrete laid without permission isn’t it?
I think Burnside has a justifiable claim to be the genesis of that as a ‘movement’ whether it was absolutely the first or not.
It was definitely the first modern large scale one.

Re your ‘Nor Cal skate culture’ point - the Pacific North West has a much greater problem with heroin/opiates than Nor Cal - that tends to be more meth I think (at least during this period). Plus, they’re unlikely to talk about death in a doc’ largely celebrating DIY I guess.

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Caveat: I only watched the trailer.
Will watch it tonight.

Knucks for starting the thread @Dent_Face

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Yeah, this is where I meant. Got my US geography terms confused.

And yeah, good points. Probably not the space for a reflection on the ‘live fast, skate fast’ attitude, but these three and Grosso dying in such a short space of time was quite shocking.

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Just watched it all - definitely a worthy piece of historical documentation and something that Thrasher absolutely ought to be doing.

Yeah, there are aspects of the tale missed out but so what, it’s their doc so it’s their narrative.
Can’t lie - I teared up watching Monk’s daughter singing Grindline tunes at the end. Good shit.

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Just finished it. Make sure you watch the end credits for a really fun/barmy setup. Total feel good ending after the ‘ending’.

I really, really enjoyed that.

Yeah, same here. It’s really cool having that love an appreciation. Just knowing how the community felt about her dad must really change the game for her in the best of ways from a dark situation.

Honestly, it didn’t need this at all. It’s a celebration of life. That’s enough in itself.

So sick…the hour FLEW by.

PS. Who is the guy in the final event who does the front smith grab? Best example I’ve seen ever.

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Well worth a watch, really good.

Marcel Martinez

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Marcel Martinez

Let’s not forget that the UK’s first park, Skate Escape, (also in/on Portland - Dorset in this case), was built on land with no permission. After a trip to the US and seeing the parks there and deciding we needed one here, Lorne just got in there and started building. I think phase 1 was done without the council having a clue what was going on. That’s about as DIY as it gets.

Similar deal iirc with Stockwell initially. Same guy just got in there with a digger and got busy before the official go ahead had been thumbs up’d.

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In the Uk we still have Livi, Stevenage, playing place, Harrow, Rom, slades farm and probably a few others I forgot.

Which parks still exist from that era in America?

Kona comes to mind but what else is there?

There are a few but not as many as we have because of planning regs etc and the relentless march of progress in Cali in particular.

I believe that The Turf in Wisconsin was dug out recently.

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Sergeant Derby Park!

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Also Sandy Hills skatepark in Maryland which was restored I believe. I’d like to go here one day.

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That’s the one Sheffey and Natas skate in Risk It or Reason for Living right?

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And the Gullwing ‘Inside Out’ vid (possibly).

Wow no idea. Santa Rosa skatepark springs to mind too…is that still there?

Actually I don’t know if that is even old :sweat_smile:

I think Santa Rosa is relatively new :wink: ie late 80’s / early 90’s. Built around the same time as Petaluma park and some other northern Bay Area parks, and they’re all pretty similar in design. Love me a lump n bump park.

I was last going to suggest Stone Edge in Florida as being a proper old relic but now I think about it, it was probably built towards the end of the 80’s rather than the 1970’s era. As @anonymity mentioned, most of those were ‘dozed way back.

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Randomly happened to watch this without seeing the thread. Really enjoyed it, didn’t know about the history of those 2 companies either. Juneau convulsing was gnarly

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I think some of ours are now listed too iirc.