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Sid Davis ProductionsSkateboard Sense

Safety film about the (then) new hobby of skateboarding. Produced by Sid Davis.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Sid Davis Productions
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: eb4423 - - March 1, 2009
Subject: Absorb the Impacts on the Meaty Parts of Your Body
9 min, 14 sec

Reviewer: Classic_TV_and_Radio_Fan - - November 12, 2008
Subject: UNDERRATED AND VERY FUNNY
Ok it's not funny, but it sure is underrated.

Reviewer: Robin_1990 - - April 15, 2008
Subject: Thank You Rick Prelinger
This film looks like it was saved just in time. It's not "Citizen Kane", But it's a fun time-capsule with great footage. Thank you Rick for preserving this fun film.

Reviewer: mr_loophead - - October 15, 2007
Subject: Oh wow...
RaDiCaL video, dude! Takes me back to my youth - banana boards and any incline we could find in the city. Too bad my bones couldn't handle the fall nowadays.

Reviewer: mjwise - - January 25, 2006
Subject: Well shot
Sid Davis Productions was actually getting fairly competent by the 70's if this film is any indication. I can't help but wonder if Sid himself had passed on producing and directing duties to others by the 70's and also if this was still produced under his infamous $1000 film budget.

Gone are the cheaply acted outings and heavy-handed, moralistic tales of the 50's. This film gets its point across through simple demonstration (with, as others have mentioned, excellent tracking camera work) and a few sped-up shorts. While I think you could disagree with some of its message (Kneepads, gloves, etc. are NOT the sureproof protection from injury the film makes them out to be, for one), it doesn't try to somehow moralize its message, and a great deal of time is spent just showing off moves, helping to assure some kids might actually watch it all!

First minute or so is the best if you ask me -- a great introduction with a good music track. It's a shame the Prelinger print apparently is damaged -- some small sections in the beginning are missing, causing the music track to have to skip as well.

Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - - July 28, 2005
Subject: Old School Shredding
Surprisingly mellow Sid Davis production covering skateboarding safety, circa 1975. If you have ever seen the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, you'll recognized the surfing influenced skating moves displayed in this film. For that alone, this makes this a wonderful time capsule.

There are a couple slightly odd sequences of Mack Sennett-style slapstick showing how not to skate, and the consequences for not wearing safety equipment. There is also an amusing bit that highlights the changes in skating attitudes from the 1970s, were they admonish that skating on the street is not fun, but rather advocate skateparks or a reasonable facsimilie. The practicing on how to fall of a board is also a bit odd.

However, the basic advice about wearing padding and checking your board is still good today. That, at least, shows that some things never change.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 8, 2005
Subject: Ha! Ha! What a wimp!
Can you imagine these guys with their helmets (I'm not talking about just their hair), their elbow and knee pads and their 'tricks' going into a competition today? They'll be laughed off I tell you!

Seriously though, this is a fun aniquated film that dealt with skateboarding for it's time. The one thing that really caught me were the tricks that they were doing, like the whirly-twirly thing and the ever popular Handstand On The Skateboard trick. We don't see that nowadays, it's all about air now.. A great neat little film, it's reccomended!

Reviewer: John_Smith - - March 25, 2005
Subject: Subtle with interesting effects
This film is quaint, a real product of its time. It also has some very impressive features that in a way forecast the Z-boys film. Close to the beginning there is a tracking shot from behind, whrer the camera follows a skater zigzagging through a line of orange pylons. The skater's moves are great, but it occurred to me that the camera operator was duplicating the the moves to keep up, and the shot was steady with no bumps or jitters. The sped-up accident sequences are very clever too, being both funny and punctuative of minor acidents. In all, another example of first rate filming in the '70s.

Reviewer: Karma Hawk - - March 24, 2005
Subject: precursor to ESPN
This is a skateboard safety film, being that it's a Sid Davis film you might be expecting some horible things to happen to the boarder, but surprisingly it's pretty mellow. It's a good film with a few odd parts (such as how the instructor teaches viewers how to fall properly) it's narated by an actual skateboarder so that definatly helps. So you may be wondering why the 3 star rating? well this film is from the 70's (or so I'm told) and this is probobly around the time these film makers started to "get" that the old ways of shooting weren't the most effective so what we're left with is a film that actually dates pretty well but not for it's benefit, if your looking for campy humor don't look here, however if you want to see a surprisingly well done safety film about skateboarding than this is for you.

Reviewer: MediaWhore - - November 30, 2004
Subject: Skate Or Die
Excellent 70's skate footage encouraging kids to wear protective gear and to stay off the street!! Like the other reviewer on here stated, this film really shows off skateboardings surfing roots with all of the carving manuevers they perform on the banked playground walls (or cement wave). The narrator for this movie states "You just can't have any fun skateboarding on crowded streets, it's just too dangerous". How wrong he is!! Anyone who appreciates skateboardings colorfull history will love this film.