Skaterdater

I host a backyard 16mm film festival every September. For many years we were able to borrow films from a static collection owned by our county library system.While perusing their catalog several years ago, I happened to see that "Skaterdater" was available. I remembered viewing this on TV late one night when I was younger. It had stuck with me. At that time, I was swept up in the initial craze of "sidewalk surfing". We built our own skateboards from discarded roller skate wheels and scrap lumber. There weren't a lot of hills by my house, so sometimes we would get a pal to tow us on a bike. But I digress...

Skaterdater is just a sweet movie with a timeless message. Long story short, I now own the 16mm print and it is the featured presentation at my film festival. I highly recommend it.

Skater Dater brings back a lot a childhood memories. This is one of the three films we always watched in Catholic school when it rained during recess or lunch. It was this along with "The Red Balloon" or "Born Free." I've probably seen this movie a good 25 to 30 times.

This was back in the late 60's through mid 70's, and just around the time I was starting to have an interest in girls. Before I had a crush on Marsha Brady and Laurie Partridge, there was the girl on the bicycle from Skater Dater.

What was also great about watching this movie when I was young was where it was filmed. I grew up in Torrance, CA. and all of the locations were in south Torrance (my neighborhood) and in Rolling Hills (an adjoining city). I knew all locations very well. Maybe if I had kept a better eye out, I would have seen the girl on the bike ride by, but alas, it was not meant to be.

If anyone knows where I can buy a copy of this film (VHS is fine, but would prefer DVD) please post and let me know.

I saw this in my mid teens (mid 70's) at a time when I was already getting the feeling that the past was better. I'm smart enough now to know that the belief in the "good old days" is almost wholly an illusion, albeit, a POWERFUL illusion. When I saw this film all I wanted to do was get into a time machine, go back to the time when it was made and STAY there!

I saw this short in Barcelona (Spain) in 1967 in a Sunday matinee –when I was 8 years old, accompanied by my grandmother- together with the Cinerama/Cinemiracle "Windjammer" film, and I never forgot it . I remember perfectly the almost absence of dialogue, and the skate scenes in the streets with the kids. I also remember –but not very certainly because sometimes memory fakes- that Beach Boys "Good vibrations" was in the soundtrack . And, after the short, red curtains open and open and open. and widescreen Cinerama film starts… but this is another story. Sweet memories, sweet childhood!.

In the mid-1960s there was a skateboard craze that came and went, and has recently been revived to an almost extreme level, and this short film is about a group of kids on the verge of coming-of-age while zooming around on skateboards in mid-'60s California. Dialog is almost non-existent and none is needed, almost everything being on a visual action level which works out just fine. The music is by Mike Curb and Nick Venet, which although dated a bit, remains very much in tune with the times and the location and fits this short film perfectly. There's a lot of nice photography and some fun skateboard sequences that will certainly bring back memories for anyone who ever scuffed their toes and skinned their knees on a skateboard.

In the story, one of the skateboarder pack-leaders keeps accidently running (literally) into a girl on a bicycle. Eventually, the two of them get together and this does not sit well with the rest of "the guys" and before long a ritual contest to see who rules the hill takes place...

Skaterdater remains a memorable short film with great atmosphere and was in fact nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film in 1966, and was shown in some theaters between features at the time, which is where I first saw it as a kid. Being a rather ambitious skateboarder myself at that time, I never forgot it and it made an impression that lasted to this day. Unfortunately, Skaterdater evidently was never released on video, not even in any short film compilations that I know of. In fact, it hardly ever gets a mention anywhere and it wasn't until just recently that I finally managed to find a copy of this remarkable little film which hopefully, with today's renewed interest in skateboarding, might eventually find its way onto home video soon.