When it comes to skateboarding, Jack Smith keeps it hardcore He’s been a passionate enthusiast since the sport began—he even gained a Guinness world record for long-distance skateboarding—and in the Internet age, he’s been an acclaimed blogger on the topic for a good while.  Indeed, there’s no one better then Smith to put together the ultimate skater bible, which he did: The Skateboarder’s Journal: Lives On Board 1949-2009.

The Skateboarder’s Journal isn’t a history or a how-to manual, however – it’s an attempt to capture the essence of skateboard culture via the people who do it. It’s expressionistic ride through six decades of the sport, featuring individual skaters’ histories (about 180 of them), from well-known faces to a young skate grommet just doing his first tricks to a 73-year-old architect who only started skateboarding at the age of 65.

Illustrating those narratives are nearly 300 photographs varying from candid snapshots to artful pics from the top lensers in the skating universe: Grant Brittain, Glen E. Friedman, Jim Goodrich, Wynn Miller, Mofo, and. Ted Terrebonne all contribute. From top to bottom, this is a “core” package: avid skateboarder Adrian Pina was responsible for the book’s graphic design, while skate legend/Dogtown and Z-Boys documentarian Stacy Peralta wrote the foreword. Flipping through the pages of The Skateboard Journal, the numerous icons of the sport appear: Britt Parrott, Bryan Ridgeway, Chris Yandall, Curt Kimbel, Dave Dash, D. David Morin, Dave Hackett, Dan Gesmer, Don Hoffman, Ellen Oneal, Di Dootson, Jim O’Mahoney, Jim Fitzpatrick, John Fudala, John O’Malley, John “Tex” Gibson, Keith Meek, Laura Thornhill, Mark Partain, Mike Weed, Roger Hickey, Tom Sims and Wentzle Ruml IV are all in there.

But it’s the cumulative force of everyone’s stories, from notable to nobody, that demonstrates the impact skateboarding had on so many different generations – “lives on board,” indeed…

and lastly in Jack’s own words: “The book looks great thanks to the efforts of designer Adrian Pina and editor Jonathan Harms, both of whom devoted an incredible amount of time and energy to this project (both are still making tweaks here and there).  And of course I would like to thank everyone who contributed stories and photographs, you are the ones who truly “wrote” the book. If you’ve been following my Facebook and TSJ postings, you already know the foreword was written by Stacy Peralta, one of my first skateboarding heroes.”

You too can get involved at the SJ site to share your skateboarding life with skateboarders from all over the world. Contribute to the culture, lifestyle and sport of skateboarding. Go deh !