4 skateboarding films that catch some air

Since we recently looked at the wide and wonderful world of surf films, let’s turn our gaze to the concrete oceans and the artists who ride them. Here are some excellent skateboarding films to watch while we’re all still stuck inside (but more on that in a moment).

“Skateboarding Realms”: Dan MacFarlane is Houston’s skateboarding treasure, and this short film (available on iTunes) shows why. It shows off a whole new way of looking at the art of the board that is not necessarily based on dramatic moves. Instead, MacFarlane specializes in strange, lowkey tricks that use surfaces in ways that appear to defy gravity and human ability, as if the board were a living part of him. It’s mesmerizing to watch, and MacFarlane is working on a followup.

I had the chance to speak with MacFarlane recently about skating the empty streets of the outbreak, and he had nothing but encouragement for people wanting to go out right now and skate. He told me the goal for skaters is not to come into contact with others, making it a healthy option for outdoor exercise in the age of social distancing. Plus, closed businesses offer more chances to skate the usually unskateable.

Watch it: Stream on iTunes.

“We Are Skateboarders”: Ben Duffy’s documentary is one of the best looks at the soul of skateboarding, as messy a subject as that may be. The film offers plenty of trick porn, which makes it accessible to just about any audience. However, where it really excels is in its sociological approach to dissecting what skating means. The film features a huge number of skaters of all ages. There’s some wonderful commentary from Lance Mountain about how sport heartthrobs like Ryan Sheckler are both wack and punk rock for taking corporations’ money while continuing to do amazing board work. There are seedier bits that remind you that skating is a lot rougher edged than many other extreme sports, including talk of hazing. Ultimately, it is a movie that links skating with an outlaw spirit, even after it became big money to companies like Mountain Dew.

Watch it: Rent on various streaming services, including

Amazon Video.

“The L.A. Boys”: Here is that wholesome content you ordered.

Powell Peralta’s “Ban This” (side note: go watch “Ban This”) is one of the most influential skateboarding videos of all time. It put a lot of big names on the map and inspired countless others to take up the board. One of the most memorable segments of that film involved a fourkid street shop team called the L.A. Boys, and this is a documentary about them.

Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson, Gabriel Rodriguez and Paulo Diaz were virtual unknowns when “Ban This” came out, and shop teams were not highly regarded. However, this small group of friends skating together captured people’s imaginations. It didn’t hurt that they were all tremendously gifted skaters, particularly Rodriguez and Mariano. Mariano was still in middle school at the time, a kidbrother figure who had to compensate for his lack of jump power with mindblowing ground work. “The L.A. Boys” feels more like a heartwarming rockumentary about a smalltown band making good than your typical skateboarding film. It is energizing to see the love of skating expressed by these kids who changed the game for a generation to come.

Watch it: Stream for free on Tubi.

“Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi”: One of the more tragic skate stories out there is that of Christian Hosoi. He started very young and quickly rose up the ranks of skaters to be one of the top names. He and Tony Hawk were usually mentioned in the same sentence. Then street skating lost public attention, and he found himself bankrupt after hitching his wagon to a group of companies that failed. Eventually he was arrested for transporting crystal meth and wound up in prison.

However, that’s not the end of the story. Hosoi cleaned up and began to use the board for the Lord. “Rising Son” is his moving story toward faith and redemption, showing how he was able to reclaim his soul from addiction with the help of religion. It’s still very much a skate movie, and people looking to get kids hip to Jesus by appealing to rebellious extreme sports should probably be prepared for more Mötley Crüe behavior than they expect. More than anything, it puts a face on the cost of the big business aspects of skating, a cautionary tale for the people who will be making the next generation of riveting videos. Plus, “Rising Son” is available for free on YouTube, so there’s no excuse not to watch one of skating’s most underrated and troubled sons rise, fall, and rise again. Watch it: Stream for free on YouTube.

Stacy Peralta Ben Duffy’s documentary "We Are Skateboarders" is full of tricks.