This little known 1975 skateboarding movie shows skaters under the Huntington Beach Pier (1:44), skating the pier bank, which was on the north side of the pier, and the open area on the south side (now outside dining area).
Why was skateboarding invented? So surfers could "surf" sidewalks and streets when the waves were flat. Reportedly the first skateboard was made around 1958 in San Diego, some say other times and places. I'll leave that argument up to skate historians. The first big wave of skateboarding happened around 1965-66, and faded, leaving a few hardcore types skating during the down years. By 1975, the year of this film, the wave of popularity was building again. From 1:44 to about 3:00 in the video above, you can see skateboarders (including a couple Zephyer kids- the Z-Boys- in blue shirts), skating the pier bank, and Russ Howell and a couple others skating the south side area. For 30 years or more, the Huntington Beach Pier attracted skateboarders almost daily.
The 1970's skateboard wave lasted longer than the first wave, and led to quite a few skateparks being built in Southern California, and some other parts of the country. I caught that wave myself, as a little kid in Ohio, buying my first board in 1976, like tens of thousands of other kids nationwide. The handstands and 60's freestyle tricks gave way to the surf style of the Z-Boys, which led to backyard pools and vert skating. But the wave of popularity crashed, and a larger number of hardcore skaters went underground, and sessions kept happening at the H.B. Pier.
The pool skating of the late 70's led to the birth of quarterpipe and halfpipe ramps, which made vert skating demos and contests possible in places with no pools. Here's a Christian Hosoi in 1986, at a contest on a halfpipe right on the sand, with the H.B. Pier in the background.
This is Pierre Andre' Senizergues, French freestyle skating champion, and founder of Etnies (Sole Technology), skating at the Huntington Beach Pier in 1989.
Freestyle skateboarding made a comeback, and by the mid-1980's, freestyle skaters Pierre Andre' from France, Don Brown from England, and Hans Lingren from Sweden, and H.B. local Jeremy Ramey, were locals at the H.B. Pier. They all skated for one of the Vision Skateboards brands out of Costa Mesa, which included Sims and Schmitt Stix skateboards. Per Welinder, a freestyle skater from Germany came by on a regular basis, so did Bob Schmelzer, and Costa Mesa local Darryl Grogan could be seen skating at the pier from time to time. By that time, there were big posts in the pier bank, and a huge chain across the bank, blocking skating. That chain mysteriously vanished in 1989 (pretty sure aliens took it, ; ) ), and a lot of great sessions went down on the bank that year.
I was a BMX freestyler who rode with these guys on the weekends in that era, and pretty much anyone in skateboarding might show up in those days. Street skating was just morphing into its own genre' then, and Mark Gonzales and then up-and comer Ed Templeton cruised regularly. There was a whole posse of local H.B. street skaters, which included Jason Lee, now best known as an actor (My Name is Earl, The chipmunks movies, etc). I saw Natas Kaupas there once, Ray Barbee once or twice, and many others.
Freestyle skating died out again in the late 80's, and street skating was the new wave building in the skateboard world. The freestyle skater locals still skated some by the pier, but Pierre and Don got busy running Etnies Shoes, which grew into Sole Technology, putting out Etnies, E's, Emerica, and Sheep shoes over the years, as well as 32 snowboard boots, and Altamont clothes. They are now located in Lake Forest, next to the huge Lake Forest skatepark the company built for the city.
Skateboarding in association with the annual U.S. Open of Surfing started happening in the 1990's, and continues. Pools and courses are built annually, right on the sand by the H.B. Pier. As I write this in May 2021, things were on hold with the Covid pandemic over the last year, but will resume again. Here's the last big on the sand skate event, the Van's Rebel Jam in 2019. While the history of skating at the Huntington Beach Pier doesn't go back as far as fishing or surfing, there have been skaters skating there over for over five decades now, and likely many more to come.
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