Lords of Venice

Familiar with Venice, California? You might be really missing something if you're not? It's all just a click away, at Jeffrey Stanton's Venice History Web Site. From maps of the piers and photos of the attractions, to articles decribing the intriguing (and sometimes sad) history of Venice... it's all there.

Or at least it's almost all there. Stanton seems to have left out any mention of Dogtown's Z-boys. Too bad. The Z-boys seem to have spawned an entire sub-culture out of the depressed wreckage of Venice's seaside resort piers, parks, and canals. My brother, Rod, and I used to habitually read Skateboarder magazine back in the late 70's; we followed the progress of the Z-boys like hawks. It's true... they were our skating heroes.

Incidentally, there's a new film about the Z-boys, produced by Stacy Peralta (one of the early Zephyr team members), called Lords of Dogtown.