Wednesday, March 27, 2024, it is JUICE MAGAZINE party time featuring a screening of the legendary Bones Brigade Video Show. We will also have another live edition of Juice Talks with illustrious skateboarder Andy Anderson.
Join us at the Waterfront in Venice, as we roll down memory lane with the first Bones Brigade video ever made. This video made an impact felt around the world and has secured cult classic status. In his JUICE MAGAZINE interview, Lance Mountain spoke about filming videos with Peralta and he made this vital observation, “Stacy taught us a long time ago that our job is to go out there and make people fall in love with skateboarding. That way there would be more skateboarders. It was our job to make them want to do it. That’s still our job today. Doing that creates more skateboarders.”
For this episode of Juice Talks, Dan Levy will be talking to Andy Anderson about his new Etnies shoe, upcoming Swatch watch and Powell Peralta signature models with VCJ graphics, and we will have copies of the limited edition autographed Juice Beyond The Streets zines featuring Andy’s first art project.
It’s going to be a great night celebrating skateboarding, as the @GrlSwirl posse will be hosting a Pop Up Skate at the Venice Skatepark at 6pm, with a fun flat ground skate session, and then will be skating over to The Waterfront to join in the party and celebrate @authenicandyanderson.
For anyone that doesn’t already know from his Olympic skate debut, Andy is one of the most unique skateboarders on the planet, with a superb talent for blending classic tricks from the past with modern techniques to create a style all his own, and whose kindness has set a universal standard for skateboarding ambassadors worldwide.
The Bones Brigade Video Show is a 1984 skateboarding video, directed by Stacy Peralta and Craig Stecyk. It was the first of several videos produced by George Powell and the Powell Peralta company, and showcased members of the Bones Brigade skateboarding team, including Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, and Per Welinder.
The Bones Brigade Video Show was filmed at the beginning of the 1980s skateboard boom and was intended to show new skaters what had been going on in the sport during and after the 1979-1983 dark ages. It was expected to sell just 300 copies on VHS, but it sold 30,000.
Stacy Peralta, in his interview with JUICE MAGAZINE, said this about the Bones Brigade Video Show, “There was a time where we didn’t even have a skateboarding magazine supporting skateboarding. We were a sport without a magazine to document it, but I remember the day it changed. We kept doubling down, and the one thing I credit George [Powell] with is that he never gave up. He was on it, pedal to the metal, going full throttle. He approved the budget for the very first “Bones Brigade Video Show”, which was a ballsy move because it cost us a lot of money at the time. That video is what turned everything around for us. I remember we had gone to this ramp contest in Tahoe where Lance lit his board on fire and won. I went back to Santa Barbara after that contest and George pulled me into his office and he said, “Sit down, I have to share something with you. Our videos are making such a big splash in skateboarding. They seem to be lifting the whole tide in skateboarding and the sport is coming back.” Then he handed me an envelope. I opened it and inside was a check for $15,000. This was in late 1984. I hadn’t seen money like that in years. He said, “The sport is really coming back. We’re going to really ramp things up and you’re going to need to make an hour-long skateboard video every year from now on, so you need to get busy on that right now.” That was it right there. That was a turning point where it was like, “Wow. Skateboarding is really coming back.” And that’s exactly what happened. The videos were allowing kids to sit in their living room and figure out how to do a handplant or an ollie or a finger flip or whatever it may be. Our distributors said, “For every kid that buys one of these videos, 50 kids see them. You’ve got to come out with another one.” There was this crazy demand for these videos. Where we thought we’d only sell a handful of them that would play in skateboard shops. We didn’t realize, when we were making these things, that 70% of the country would have VCRs. It was just one of those things that coincided, like when the pool revolution coincided with the drought to make it possible for more pools to be empty and the urethane wheel to be invented at the same time. The cheap video cameras and the VCR revolution and skateboarding all came together and created an explosion.”
Bones Brigade Video Show features ramps, pools, parks, streets, ditches, freestyle, downhill, super slo mo, “new moves” and an original soundtrack. Some of the best skate songs are in this video. “Skate and Destroy” by The Faction, “Mr. Mysterioso”, “Skateboard Blues”, “Bones Brigade Shuffle” with Johnny Rad!
Get your own copy of Bones Brigade Video Show in Special Edition DVD at skateone.com.
Come celebrate the Bones Brigade and Powell Peralta team rider, Andy Anderson, and bring your good vibes as we gather our Skate, Music, Surf, Art and Venice Family together for another night to remember.
We will also have an amazing silent auction and an array of raffle prizes to win thanks to Powell Peralta, Bones Brigade, Bones Wheels, Skate One, Dogtown Skateboards, Vibes, Strauss and Juice.
RSVP to juicemagazineusa@gmail.com 😎
Location: @thewaterfrontvenice at 205 Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA 90291 from 5:30-10pm. See ya Friday!! #juicemagazine #venice
JUICE will also be setting up the Juice Punk Rock Skate Pop Up Shop where you will be able to find rare collectible back issues of Juice Magazine. Complimentary copies of Juice Magazine #79 will be available and as well as complimentary Juice sticker decals made by the great Graphics Lab.
JUICE is stoked to introduce VIBES as a premiere sponsor of the evening’s festivities. Learn more about Vibes delicious snacks as well as their important support of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund at https://lovethevibes.com. Follow them on Instagram at @lovethevibesofficial.
The JUICE STATE OF SKATE exhibit is a display of skateboards showcasing the current state of skate art, so please join us in honoring the spirit of surf skate culture where many of the stories of skateboarding began.
ABOUT THE BONES BRIGADE:
In 1978, a mechanical engineer who had developed new skateboard products teamed up with one of the most popular skaters of the era. George Powell and Stacy Peralta created Powell Peralta and immediately began retooling how skateboard products were made and marketed.
George, who had started developing products in his garage and kitchen oven, went on to invent innovative equipment such as double radial Bones wheels, named for their unique whiteness, and trend setting skateboard decks. Stacy recruited the skaters and handled marketing along with his longtime creative cohort Craig Stecyk III. Rejecting the expected action shot marketing, they used their young team to create esoteric images conveying the culture’s sarcasm and disenfranchised dark humor. While spitballing about his stable of skaters, Stacy commented that he never wanted to call them a “team,” a label that invited all kinds of jock baggage. Craig shrugged and simply said, “Bones Brigade.”
Powell Peralta reinterpreted a military motif, warping it with pioneering skateboard graphics more suited to biker gang tats than decks. As great a skater as Stacy was, his scouting skills surpassed any celebrated onboard skills. By 1984, Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero and Mike McGill compiled the most competitively dominant skateboard team in history. On top of winning large, cheap plastic trophies, Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen—two 13-year-olds initially ridiculed by their peers—created new ways to skate and pioneered modern technical skating.
Disgruntled at the way the skate mags played favorites, Stacy weaponized consumer VCRs by directing The Bones Brigade Video Show in 1984. The low-budget amateur skateboard video was the first of its kind and sold a surprising 30,000 copies (including Betamax!).
At the time, skating needed all the help it could get. The 1970s “fad” that swept the country after the invention of the urethane wheel had deflated embarrassingly by 1981. Remaining participants’ social status ranked below the chess club. Powell Peralta averaged an anemic 500 monthly board sales and Tony Hawk once received a royalty check for 85¢. To increase brand awareness and grow skateboarding, Stacy produced and created a new Bones Brigade video every year, showcasing his crew’s varied personalities and invented maneuvers. The videos routinely featured riders crawling out of sewers, skating abandoned pools and back alleys, bombing desolate hills—essentially shredded an apocalyptic world hidden to most non-skaters.
By the mid-’80s, Brigade videos were sold all over the world and a new generation of teens discovered skating, making the Brigade international stars. The dearth of skateparks forced enthusiasts to DIY it, triggering a wooden ramp revolution. Endemic brands had started their own magazines and for the first time skaters controlled every aspect of skateboarding. Powell Peralta peaked in 1987 with $27 million in annual sales while its pro team continued to dominate contests, cash $20,000 monthly royalty checks, tour the world, occasionally cause riots and star in the ambitious The Search for Animal Chin, which remains the most successful skateboard video of all time.
But the activity’s cyclical nature reaffirmed itself by the end of the decade and skateboarding descended back to the faded fad category. The industry broke apart as zeros dropped off checks and most top pros drifted away in search of second jobs. Powell Peralta dissolved over the owners’ business differences and Stacy left to pursue filmmaking in Hollywood. Almost all the core Brigade members split and started their own skateboard brands just like their mentor had in 1978. George regrouped and continued making skate products under the Powell and Bones banner.
Twenty years on, the Brigade all remain in skateboarding. Although they’ve succeeded in separate endeavors, they continue to be bonded together as veterans of a culture war. Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero remain skate stars while Tommy Guerrero runs a skate brand and Mike McGill owns and operates one of the most successful independent skate shops in the country. In 2001, Stacy returned to skateboarding with his award-winning documentary Dogtown and Z Boys. Stay up to date with the Bones Brigade here. Today, Powell Peralta continues as one of the premiere brands in skateboarding with the best quality product still being innovated daily by George Powell. For more information, please visit https://powell-peralta.com.
ABOUT JUICE MAGAZINE:
Juice Magazine – Since 1993, Juice Magazine has been dedicated to the core of skateboarding, surfing and punk rock with a focus on in-depth interviews by the icons of skate, surf and punk rock culture. The Juice Magazine crew includes a line-up of surf and skate legends, and the honest approach of their stories and photos make Juice Magazine more than just a magazine. Juice Magazine is committed to giving credit to the true pioneers and innovators of skateboarding, surfing and music and keeping it punk. For more information, please visit juicemagazine.com.
ABOUT VIBES:
Vibes set out to reinvent snacking by creating the most delicious on-the-go flavorful and fruity and sour stars reflecting the ethos of Venice Beach. A snack with not only bold flavors and just the right consistency, but with thoughtful additional ingredients that are good for your mind, body, and soul. Vibes is a snack that not only gives you more, but is better for you! Gluten Free, Vegan, Low Sugar, and Non GMO. Vibes added Amla Fruit, Elderberry, and Ashwangada, to enhance its fruity and sour snacks, with a variety of new flavors coming very soon. Finally, and importantly, with love for our planet, and marine life, Vibes is proud to partner with and support the great work of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund. For more information, please visit https://lovethevibes.com.
ABOUT THE WATERFRONT:
The Waterfront sits at the base of where the Pacific Ocean Park Pier (POP) once existed, a place of legend where a young group of surf skaters launched the Dogtown & Z-Boys aesthetic. The Waterfront features beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean, from the world-famous Venice Beach boardwalk, and offers California cuisine with carefully selected seasonal local produce and curated beverage menus. Get Waterfront reservations at https://www.thewaterfrontvenice.com
