Skaterdater

I was in Southern California, at a Marine base when this came out.

Like most of the other reviewers I don't know what the feature film I saw this with was, but I never forgot "Skaterdater"!

Always knew Mike Curb was involved and it was, for me, the only redeeming moment in his career.

It was close to being a silent film, there is NO dialogue, only some laughter at one point. So pleased that one of the other reviewers knew the locations; Torrence and Rolling Hills. Thanks for that, I love location info.

Today was the day I left a message on IMDb about this little gem, and then had the thought to check YouTube.

There it was, it's been put up at least twice.

Would any skaters be able to tell us what the wheels were made of in 1965?

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!.

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!

This is a great short film; I was looking for it for a friend who like all the other commenters saw it years ago and loved it.

I decided to try the former distributor, Pyramid Media.

THEY STILL HAVE IT, IT IS STILL AVAILABLE.

Get Skaterdater on VHS or DVD from Pyramid. Their website is www.pyramidmedia.com - though it's not listed there.

Call them (phone numbers are on the website) for a price. Not that expensive for a personal copy of a wonderful vision of growing up, surfer music, southern California and just being a kid.

Hope this helps.

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.