Mr. Brainwash is either a genius or the luckiest art-world hustler on the planet. Either way, his story is an interesting paradox of streetwiseness and seeming mental illness. Turns out he is the main character of Exit Through The Gift Shop, the Banksy documentary that has been buzzing since Sundance. While most folks, including me, thought it unusual for the most notorious clandestine artist would be appearing on camera, but in typical Banksy form he turns the tables and employs the opportunity to issue his own spectacle. This time, it is Mr. Brainwash that is the foil, a sort of sad-sack L.A. filmmaker and street art enthusiast who becomes obsessed with his subjects, especially the illusive Banksy. Mr. Brainwash is a Frenchman named Thierry Guetta who gains unprecedented access to many of the most prolific and talented street artists today through his relative, the one and only Invader, at a time when the medium (as well as the art market itself) was heating up quickly. Banksy, as a notorious and talented maverick, became Guetta’s (who had habitually documented numerous murals on his video camera) main obsession in the year running up the “Barely Legal” gallery show in Los Angeles. However, Banksy manages to turn the camera back on Guetta and the result in a seemingly effortless twist on the ‘street art documentary’ that Guetta himself couldn’t pull off. Banksy as a filmmaker crafts a commentary on the state of the art scene as well as a characteristically smart, tongue-in-cheek and ‘meta’ view on the spectacle. The joke turns out to be something I don’t even think Banksy could have conjured up on his own, at least not knowingly.

The interesting phenomena (or perhaps the most implicating) are the roots of this story in Los Angeles, the perfect backdrop to this fantastical tale. If you didn’t manage to catch the first hype on Mr. Brainwash, you didn’t miss much as his ascent was meteoric. Guetta’s rise was solely built at the suggestion by those who he’d been filming over the years, and via some carefully chosen quotes. Brainwash was born a la some sort of Warholian (he does owe equally to Andy as well) daydream, and this is where the core of the documentary seems to amazingly coincidental and too absurdly true to not be some exercise by the hand of Mr. Banksy. Still, the film itself hangs together as timely context for the best street art and most prolific artists, like some modern day ‘Wild Style’ if Lee Quinones was enabled as a self-referential filmmaker. Banksy moving into filmmaking is as natural a move as when he embarked on gallery shows in America. I expect his immersive brand of art could continue to morph to the point that, as in this situation, no one will know who the joke is on, including Banksy, but that is largely the point.

‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’ Opens in Select Cinemas Nationwide from April 16

Regardless of the references or locality, it’s a sound that has it’s own associations that are remarkably modern day. I doubt that many of the 20-somethings that play in these bands even considered that they’d be lumped into a genre, let alone have anything in common with their counterparts. Still, humans being what they are, yearn to lump things into piles, boxes so they can easily associate and try to feel a commonality with the bands.

Coincidentally(?), music blog Aquarium Drunkard has organized a festival aptly called Waved Out, which features many of the bands being lumped into this psuedo-genre. It is appropriately going to begin on Saturday afternoon, March 27th, and end on the early side. Apparently “chill-wavers” don’t stay out late, or maybe they enjoy the sun too much to miss the next sunrise. Whatever the case, though the music isn’t the charging BPM that you may want to take your daily run to, the eternal pop-timism is helpful booster fuel for your mood. Think of it as green tea to the highly caffeinated coffee. Contrary to the title, I’m not even sure you can run to chillwave, but now that Spring has sprung, I’m easily convinced to take those vibes and make a move.

Waved Out, Saturday March 27th 3PM

16 band, two stages

Lineup: Surfer Blood, Best Coast, Turbo Fruits, The Sandwitches, Dirt Dress, The Coathangers, Active Child, PoPo, Moon Duo, Gamble House, Family Portrait, Tape Deck Mountain, Apes of Wrath, Pizza!, Giant Cloud, Superhumanoids.

The Echo / Echoplex

1822 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 413-8200

If you’ve already broken all your New Year’s Resolutions, why not start the year over by celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year (this year will be the year of the Tiger) with a good ol’ race? The Chinatown Firecracker 5k/10k is one of best local courses in Southern California – I kid you not… Imagine running over the hills of Elysian Park, parts of Downtown LA and a grand finish running the off the ramp of the 110 freeway – yup you get to run ON the freeway. I ran this race for the first time last year by myself and had the *best* time.

The Chinatown Firecracker Run is a small local race with a 5k and a 10k course and bike ride. The New Year festivities occur the entire weekend (Feb. 27-Feb.28) – you even get a free carbo load dinner with the price of race admission (which is not too common). Before the race gets started Chinese New Year is celebrated by lighting 100 firecrackers. What better way to get your heart pumping than some loud explosives!

Along the course locals and volunteers cheer, hand out water, and at the very end little old ladies hand you bananas and orange slices. The real feeling of community involvement make is one of the reasons this particular race holds a special place in my heart.

I plan on running the 10k and having dim sum afterward. Then running another 13-15 miles for LA Marathon training. Sounds crazy, but this is mileage that needs to be done if I expect to make it through race day.

More information here.

Theme song for the race: “Wild Nothing – Chinatown”

Say you’re tired of the same neighborhood you’ve been stomping for the past few weeks and are on the market for a new running route… Aside from some cool analytics features for pace, time splits, max/min speed and elevation change – you can also find cycling and running routes via other Garmin Connect users right off the site! If you live in a pretty populated city (Los Angeles for instance) you should be in for a treat.

Here are some easy to follow steps to get you started on finding some cool and local running routes:

From the Garmin Connect page click on the “Explore” tab. You will be taken to a search page where you can look up by keyword and location different activities from other Garmin Connect users. Filtering options include: activity, event type, distance and elevation.

It’s a very cool way to know what to expect when running a route (depending on notes + output). For example: I found a user who ran the trail at Elysian Park – one I’ve been meaning to check out. After clicking on the route I found out that there was a decent elevation gain – and am now able to figure out alternate routes if the distance is not what I’m looking to do (this person ran a 5 mile route).

From the looks of it, you cannot “friend” or “connect” with other Garmin Connect users (ironic). It would be cool to be able to connect with other Garmin users who are running the same routes (especially because you already know their pace). I doubt that Garmin would put much time or money into building out an online community from the possibilities their site presents. It is a really stellar opportunity for a developer to create a mashup app based on a geo-location game. Wishful thinking? Maybe?

Here are some other route finders for non-Garmin users:
SportsTrack
Walk Jog Run
Map My Run
Daily Mile

Take this with you on your new running route:

Image courtesy Plymography

Whether you are training for a race, or trying to keep a certain level of fitness with your running, the number one concern for most people is finding the time to do it. If you’re like me and have little to no time during the day to do a medium to long tempo run or otherwise, you may have to join what I like the call “The Afterhours Crew” or night runners, if you want to get technical.

Night running is a great way to give yourself enough time to spend on your run, along with the added perk of not having the sun beat down on you. It also saves you the hassle of having to cut your route short so as not to be late for work. But, there’s also the added cost that running at night (especially in LA) isn’t exactly the safest thing in the world. It’s important to make sure that you are keeping in mind good rules for general safety (reflective gear, phone, ID, letting someone know where you’re going, etc.) That being said, if you’re looking to join some of the creatures of the night for your training runs, here’s a list of a few tried and true running routes around Los Angeles County that are good for starters:

Silverlake (Chavez) Ravine
This is a short but dedicated path that was made for running around the Silverlake Reservoir. The surrounding neighborhood is safe so runners nearby tend to frequent this route for night runs.

Hollywood Blvd
There’s nothing quite like experiencing the Hollywood Walk of Fame at night, while you’re running… on a Friday. The great thing about Hollywood is that people are up and out at all hours of the day, and as they say, there is safety in numbers.

Aviation Park
The 440-yard, five-lane running track surrounds a regulation-size football/soccer field. The track is only a few years old and it open in the evenings with plenty of lighting. Good for people who live on the Westside or Southbay area.

Rosebowl Loop
The trail around the Rosebowl is a popular running route for runners closer to Pasadena. Well-lit paths in addition to some off shoot trails leading up the to Los Angeles Forest (for daylight hours).

The Ragnar Relay Los Angeles is a race with teams of 9-12 people who take alternating “legs” or running portions covering Santa Barbara to Dana Point. The entire race covers over 177 miles and takes about 24 hours to complete. Teams travel across the course throughout all hours of the day via self-equipped vans for drop off points. In addition to vans the teams are required to equip themselves with night running gear, back up drivers, first aid kit, provide the race with volunteers and still maintain some form of mental stability to run at all hours of the day.

I’ve personally been training for the race by alternating my runs and speed workouts while having days where I “double up” on my runs (meaning, I’ll do six mile repeats in the morning and do an easy 3-4 miler after work). The Ragnar site also provides you with a full training plane here.

Sounds like a party doesn’t it? The reason I’ve been particularly excited to do the relay is not only to have something to look forward to after conquering the 26.2 miles of the LA Marathon but also to be able to experience something that is not always unique to running… actually being on a team and spending time with some really great friends who are just as passionate as I am about the sport. These are people who I’ve come across via several social networking avenues like twitter and DailyMile (a running social networking site) who have are a home away from home of sorts in my realm of personal relationships. I’m beyond excited to take this on with them!

We also named our team Wish You Were Beer (watch out for us on the course if you’re there) if that doesn’t top off the incredible amount of fun to be had by all. If you’re interested in partying in a van of your own with 11 of your closest friends it’s not too late to sign up for the relay.

Here’s a video of Ragnar Relay of 2009:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before I forget, (not that I would) we’re now 62 days away from the LA Marathon. So far for 2010 I’m  122 miles down and a few hundred more to go with training.

The LA River begins in the San Gabriel Valley and stretches south all the way down to the Long Beach area. The path along the River is over 40 miles wide and has been recently repaved in various parts.

I’m not going to lie, this place is a concrete jungle to say the least. The river is encased in cement, you will find flocks of seagulls, maybe ducks, a lone tire (or two) and pure Rocky moments out on the road. Who needs dirt and sand when you can do an urban trail run? Run along the cement walls of the path, climb down to run by the river, run under overpasses and train bridges and hum some Red Hot Chili Peppers lyrics to yourself.

Here is a full bike path map for all of Los Angeles county (with the river included). Depending on which part of LA you are in you can enter various points along the river. I fancy the LARIO (Los Angeles/Rio Hondo) portion of the trail but intend to hit up the portion by Griffith Park soon.

I like to use these paths for medium to long (8-13 mile) runs due to the lack of stop lights which may impede my flow to keep on going.

If you’d like a good sound track for an 8-13 miler South LA River, run I’d suggest checking out this mix by local Los Angeles Tech House DJ and fellow runner DJ Domas, host of Digitally Imported Tech House Channel it’s a 2 hour podcast that *screams* South LA (you’ll believe me when you hear it). You can also hear it live on the web before downloading here.

Next time you’re in the North East area of the river see if you can pinpoint some of the Graffiti River Artists featured in this YouTube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Camo UFOs is two dudes, (thee) Mike B and Nate Day. (thee) Mike B is one of the funkiest dudes around—if you’ve gone out in the Los Angeles area in the last few years (or Helsinki—dude is mad large in Helsinki, for reals), you’ve heard him spin at the best spots: he was resident, for example, at the late, great DJ AM’s legendary Banana Split  party from jump. Nate Day, meanwhile, hightailed it from Philadelphia to El Lay to bring some City of Brotherly Love groove sauce to the City of Angels. Together as Camo UFOs, they prove a truly dynamic duo: on their remixes for Major Lazer’s “Pon De Floor” and Count and Sinden’s “Mega,” B and Day bring the same post-modern rude bwoy lunacy to d&b/jungle that Major Lazer did to dancehall, reinvigorating it in the process. In Camo UFO’s hands, d&b sounds totally current, yet teems with the kind of try-anything braggodocio that, say, Aphrodite had when he used to make jump-up tracks with the Jungle Brothers. Camo UFOs is all about skittering breakbeats going nuts and video game synths taking over the world, and it’s just a dubplate good time. That’s clear from their new mixtape, which they’re giving away free here. It traces the rude roots of the Camo UFOs sound, combining genre classics with their slamming remixes. And Camo UFOs don’t just make dope music—they also have cool swag. If you see them out DJing somewhere, hit ‘em up for a Camo-branded lighter! Rewind!

Well here’s the rub though, the folkie roots are genuine, albeit from a large musical Mormon family upbringing in California and only most recently transplanted from ‘LA is hot as fuck’ (Bed Across the Sea) to every so chilly Manchester. The album, recorded in LA, is steeped in a dreaminess with passion and sensuality and is way edgy for a seemingly folkish romp, but hey only to be expected from this adorable, quirky one time nanny to the Tom Waits brood (lucky kiddies) – he who quotes her music “like going swimming in a lake at night” – being another BF with one Guy Garvey of Elbow (guest on the sublime ‘Murder of Birds’) whom she has toured with in ‘08 and clearly as wacky as like minded sirens Bjork, Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom and the Coco Rosie’s.

Catch Jesca Hoop live in LA this Friday 15 Jan at Hotel Cafe – tix here
and on Tour throughout the UK in Feb – dates here

Live duet with Guy Garvey (Elbow) on ‘Murder of Birds’

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Money’ off of Kismet debut album

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Hunting for My Dress’ out now in the UK but also available online at Amazon, eMusic and iTunes (with bonus track) and be sure to check Kismet and Kismet acoustic !

Aaron Rose has long been a force in bringing marginalized artists and creators into mainstream culture, like skate, music and film. From his work with RVCA and Nike to his Alleged gallery (RIP) and Beautiful Losers art show and documentary, Rose has been at the flashpoint of many amazing artists careers such as Phil Frost, Barry McGee, Ed Templeton and many more. More recently his interests seem to be in film, and rightly so. His work and relationships have included folks like Mike Mills, Spike Jonze and Thomas Campbell, all who are represented in a new project called Projections, which is billed as “a festival of rare and hard to see films” and most certainly has some rare gems that will find their way out into the world on the back of some hip new filmmaker we’ve never heard of. One such filmmaker of the throwback variety is Jonas Mekas, who many probably didn’t realize his status as the godfather of American “underground” cinema who promoted and praised the works of directors like Kenneth Anger and Paul Morrissey. His Walden film will be on display at Rose’s opening for Projections, bringing the rare and hard to see to the forefront. No doubt this festival will be used to celebrate the art of cinema, and there will be no shortage of artists handy.

Saturday, January 16th

Roberts & Tilton

5801 Washington Blvd.

Culver City, CA 90232

Unfortunately for the Lakers (28-7), there was also a mock “We want tacos” chant by Clippers fans as the home team pulled away in the fourth quarter.
It was all Clippers from the start and all Clippers at the finish.

Couldn’t come up with anything better than we want tacos? I guess the Clipper massive was as caught off guard as the rest of us.

via LA Times

South Rakkas have gained the most fame for their blazing dancehall riddims (“Clappas,” “Red Alert,” “Bionic Ras,” “Chinkuzi” anyone?) and Stimulus Package doesn’t disappoint on the digital irie tip. With cameos from the likes of Capleton, Serocee and Mr. Agony, this is the best post-modern dancehall album since Major Lazer dropped their heaviness. “Double Up” with Killa Queenz and Lady Chann is ultra banging on this front, but dancehall isn’t the whole story here—South Rakkas cover the whole of electronic grooves and beyond here, demonstrating their depth. There are tracks featuring the surprising likes of Australian electro-indie hype band Grafton Primary and Satomi Matsuzaki of indie-noise iconoclasts Deerhoof (uh, WHAT?!!!). As well, it’s awesome to hear Mylo’s “Drop The Pressure” turned into a dubplate riddim on “Dance Wid We” (again, WHAT??!?!) and “Like U Like” is on some Justice shit. As well, South Rakkas’ remix of “Hands Up” is like Daft Punk gone dubstep, and that ain’t a bad thing! Then again, this diversity shouldn’t be so surprising from producers who can flex from Beenie Man and Bounty Killer one moment, T-Pain the next, and then on to the likes of Lily Allen, Beck, Duran Duran, Kelis, Tricky, and Yo Majesty. This is truly future funk – it’s thrilling to hear all these genres getting a South Rakkas freak out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also, here is SRC’s DJ mix of the Stimulus Package for a taste of their supreme mixology. It’s a crime they released this after December 31st—New Year’s Eve woud’ve been a lot more live with this Stimulus Package! It’s a festival of sounds, traversing the streets of Brazil and big rooms of South Florida to the dancehalls of Jamaica and New York. As always, South Rakkas turns up the volume and isn’t taking prisoners. Hands up! And again, did we we mention it’s FREE? So get it now.

via Mad Decent

If you’d like a super humbling trail running experience complete with a gorgeous backdrop of most of Los Angeles County, then you *have* to try this trail… Westridge Trail is located in Pacific Palisades and is part of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Follow for the trail advice, but you can keep returning for the music playlists — this crew shows a pretty adventurous taste in music ( La Roux’s Foamo remix?) —  as well as the topical information about running in this urban maze we call LA.

Peep: Notorias

Click here to view the embedded video.

Iconic shoe brand K-Swiss (with new performance store on Main St Santa Monica just open) is putting foot to mouth in the commitment to running as the official footwear and apparel sponsor, so do yourself a favor and check in at the very informative site for info, training tips and much more – before you know it, the new and improved you (and us) will be on the run like never before.

the countdown continues ….. become a Roadrunner today !

For one, he obviously chose the Palace as the setting to match that aesthetic temperament: it’s an incredibly ornate space, all gilt and faux rococo, the drama of its overwrought luxitude contrasted by a cracked, shopworn veneer; it’s definitely a place teeming with the ghosts of Hollywood past, just as Casablanca’s songs are haunted by another, seemingly more authentic era. But when he started playing, Casablancas demonstrated another maxim of our time: concerts are the new album art. In stark contrast to the Strokes’ humble, indie rockist, we’re-just-a-band-and-this-is-our-music live persona, Casablancas went for baroque both musically and in kinetic multimedia visuals. While Phrazes turns on chiming ‘80s-style synth pop and drum-machine beats, at the Palace Casablancas was backed by an eight-piece band of multi-instrumentalists, which at times featured dueling Thin Lizzy-style guitars, a horn section, two keyboard players (their axes concealed in what looked like a steampunk remix of a scavenged sea vessel), and two drummers (the hot female percussionist in cutoffs was a nice touch). All around them raged kaleidoscopic images that spanned Magritte-style surrealist landscapes to Tron-style lite-brite retro futurism. Phrazes single, “11^th Dimension,” got the heaviest visuals, going for a kind of Pink Floyd meets Daft Punk kaleidoscopic impact.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Despite the complexity of the psychedelic presentation, Casablancas was off the cuff per usual, cracking jokes all the while and laconically deflecting an encore in lieu of an “intermission.” And oh yeah, the songs were great, from the ironical country-twanging ode to a New York that no longer exists, “Ludlow St.,” that opened the show, to a slightly absurd (but spirited) cover of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” (!). As for the Strokes, he largely avoided their catalogue except for a grinning, disheveled version of the band’s “You Only Live Once,” which he claimed ominously was the last time anyone would be hearing that performed. Of course, who knows where he and the Strokes will end up, but from this performance its clear that despite any early-aughts slackerdom that clings to him, Casablancas’ ambition only seems to be growing outside of his bandmates’ sphere.

Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer are two of the most legendary sports photographers. Their work has become part of the cultural lexicon, as well as inspiration for new generations of photographers as well as athletes aspiring to be captured so artistically.

Iooss is best known for his portraits of famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky. In his career, he has covered virtually every major sports event, including all 43 Super Bowls. Iooss has also photographed performers like the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

Leifer’s photos have regularly appeared in every major national magazine, including the Saturday Evening Post, Look, LIFE, Newsweek, People and, most often, Sports Illustrated. Most notably, Leifer photographed Muhammad Ali on 80 occasions, including the photo above of his knockout of Sonny Liston. Along with celebrating these two titans, this exhibit, at the new innovative Annenberg Space for Photography, is also a rare peek at the artistry of Sports Photography, as it is not usually shown in an exhibition space.

The Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, CA. 90067
Tel: 213.403.3000

Open Wednesday through Sunday: 11am-6pm. Admission FREE
Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Palladium Boots has a cool series called “Uneven Terrain” that explores some of the man-made odd-modern landscapes, that are simultaneously strange yet interesting from an anthropological standpoint. The scars of the industrial revolution to be navigated by today’s explorers. Recently, they went in search of oil underneath Los Angeles, which is already pretty “meta” if you live here.

“Twenty billion barrels of oil sit beneath Los Angeles. Hidden in plain sight, thousands of wells pump day and night all over the city covered by hollow office buildings, camouflaged next to high schools, and concealed behind shopping malls. We put on our boots and went exploring.”

via Palladium

Both concerts shared some things in common: each was sold out, and while there were a number of smooth, middle-aged pates at each (both onstage and off), there were also a number of young’uns that proved the timelessly hip nature of both bands. Indeed, in their prime both DEVO and the Pixies made music that was ahead of its time, and these performances proved that we’re still catching up. Also, these historical shows actually allowed listeners to appreciate utterly familiar material in a new light. People associate DEVO with synthesizers, clackety sequencers, and ‘80s-sounding drum machines, but revisiting Q: Are We Not Men… reminded us that above all, this group began as a hard-hitting rock band – albeit one that saw things through their own bizarre universe. After a selection of DEVO’s incredible, strange promo films from the ‘70s, the band hit the stage to the driving strains of “Uncontrollable Urge,’ the first song from Q: Are We Not Men…, and proceeded to blaze through the whole album. Despite the vintage of both the players and the material, the music sounded fresh and new: vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Mothersbaugh spiraled across the stage with the nerdcore energy of a high-school track star/mathlete, bassist/singer Jerry Casale grooved like Fred Astaire mixed with a spastic chimp (that’s a compliment), superstar drummer Josh Freese pounded away like he was inventing punk rock, and guitarists Bob 1 and Bob 2 made animal howls scream out of their six strings. Vivid, high-powered versions of “Mongoloid,” the trademark singalong “Jocko Homo,” and their brutal deconstruction of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” all had the crowd rabid. It was stunning to hear the album all the way through like this, treated like a punk symphony, but the power of the band came through as well in the non-lp encore, which climaxed with a crushing version of the DEVO classic “Gates of Steel.” DEVO may actually sound better now than they did back in the day: with shows like these, it’s great DEVO understand they still have a duty now, for the future…

The Pixies proved just as classic and futuristic in their approach to older, beloved material. After a kick-ass, irreverent set by openers No Age – whose garage-meets-shoegaze blast raised the bar for the headliners – the Pixies started the show with the surrealist film Un Chien Andalou by Luis Bunuel, which is referred to in the “slicing up eyeballs” line from Doolittle’s classic “Debaser.” Then Black Francis, Kim Deal, Mike Lovering and Joey Santiago all came out in near darkness, starting the proceedings provocatively with a slew of unfamiliar b-sides. But when the band kicked into the brutal debaser “Debaser,” it was clear that this was going to be a hell of a ride. The band’s stage production was incredible: strange, humorous films played behind them, and an enormous light set resembling a molecule chain undulated behind them, but it was the interplay of the band that was the highlight. The Pixies circa 2009 is a much, much better band than the earlier vintage: guitars crunched with whipcrack dynamics, drums thundered and stuttered with precision, and the vocals were energetic and, dare I say it, better than the album version. Above all, for all the talk of inter-band aggro, the members looked like they were having the time of their lives. And so was the audience, singing along to absolutely indelible, legendary songs like “Wave of Mutilation,” “There Goes My Gun,” “Gouge Away” and an absolutely monumental, crowd-participation monster version of “Monkey Gone to Heaven.” The greatest moment, like DEVO’s the night before, came during the non-album encore, the closer “Into The White.” Driven by Kim Deal’s ethereal vocal, this was a psychedelic barnstormer that gave Spacemen 3 a run for its money, driving the groove into kaleidoscopic insanity. It was a perfect way to go into the night, our memories and nostalgia given a perfectly good roughhousing by bands that are as good – and really, better – than they ever were.

BONUS! Free Live EP from The Pixies that corresponds to the show at Pitchfork

American Sports Data found that in 2002 there were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world, however the sports witnessed it’s first boom in the 1960s. Originally a “hobby” for off-season surfers, skateboarding got to the point of popularity as “sidewalk surfing” that ABC broadcast the international skateboard championships, and this was before urethane wheels had even been introduced. So, imagine this video in that light, a freestyle skateboard championship for the ladies division in 1965 from Anaheim, California, televised nationally. Peep it here now.

via Nerdcore