>> Where are they now?

Just as soon as they got their first taste of fame, the Z-Boys broke up, coaxed away by sponsors offering money that the team’s founders, Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho, couldn’t hope to compete with. Here’s a rundown of a few of them and where they ended up.

Stacy Peralta: A natural businessman, Peralta quickly capitalized on his Z-Boy reputation. He founded his own team, the Bones Brigade, which discovered pro sensation Tony Hawk, and formed a company, Powell-Peralta, which released a series of successful skateboard videos. In addition to directing Dogtown and Z-Boys, he has written a script for a Hollywood version of the story. Unfortunately, his trademark long blond hair has not stood the test of time and he is now usually seen wearing a baseball cap.

Jay Adams: Blessed with the most natural talent, Adams had the least interest in business and instead gravitated to the West Coast punk rock scene, not to mention drugs. After getting into a fight following a Suicidal Tendencies show, he was sentenced to six months in prison for felony assault. In the movie he is shown to be a sad, lost case; however, other Z-Boys have risen to his defence and said that the portrayal was heavy-handed. Presently, though, Adams is in jail in Hawaii on drug charges.

Tony Alva: The most aggressive and, according to all accounts, egotistical, Alva is legendary as the first skater to get air and the first to do rebel-style magazine ads. He started his own skateboard line and for a while achieved near-rock-star prominence as skateboarding exploded. His ’70s curls now styled into dreadlocks, he says he still skates pools daily.

Nathan Pratt: One of the few Z-Boys who is unhappy with Peralta’s movie, and in particular the involvement of Vans, which is a co-producer of the film. Pratt says that Vans is using the Z-Boy image to sell shoes and is not offering proper compensation. Peralta has gone on record as stating that he will never speak to Pratt again.

Jim Muir: The brother of Suicidal singer Mike, he was the first to register the Dogtown name to produce merchandise.

Glen E. Friedman: Along with Craig Stecyk, Friedman was a key photographer of the Dogtown era (he was 14 at the time) and a co-producer of the movie. He has recently protested what he considers unseemly corporate marketing tactics on the part of Vans and the movie’s distributor, Sony Pictures Classics. His books include Fuck You Heroes (94), Fuck You All and this year’s Dogtown: the Legend of the Z-Boys.
-Al South