Reddit mentions: The best skateboarding books

Concrete Wave, by Michael Brooke. Really sweet retro stuff in there.

HAWK: Occupation Skateboarder. You REALLY need this. I genuinely think it's absolutely essential. A brilliant read. I've literally read it like 20 times.

The Answer is Never needs to be on any list. It's the best thing I've ever read that captures that lust to skate, every day, progressing because you love it. He was really able to get that down on paper in a way that makes sense. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Because people pay me to write and people tell me I'm good at it.

Some very famous people, in fact.

People love this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Malibu-Images-America-Ben-Marcus/dp/073857614X

I did a book signing at Malibu and met a lot of people whose work I like: Minnie Driver, James Remar, Steven Spielberg, Sting, Katharine Ross, Leonard Maltin - all because of a silly little history book.

26 books are not by chance.

This one was translated into French and the publisher didn't even tell me:

https://www.amazon.com/Skateboard-Ben-Marcus-ebook/dp/B0055Q6DEQ

This guy reviewed it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEs3SPy0bKk

It was nominated for Sports Book of the Year by the Sportel Awards in France.

A book I didn't know had my name on it.

They were going to fly me to Monaco and put me up in the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, but I was in Hawaii and it was too far - 24 hours on a plane for one night in a hotel.

I probably wouldn't have gone anyway. so I sent the photographer. Lucia, who was in France.

She went with her dad, who was in Venice.

We didn't win.

A pity, because I could have used the 3000 Euro prize.

All of that suggests to me I know what I'm doing.

Having a book translated into French I didn't even know about.

And I had another one translated into German.

Meanwhile, you haven't produced anything.

Except mucus, methane, moaning and carbon dioxide.

You just hide behind avatars and whine at the world.

If you ever do anything remotely that interesting, you let the world know, will you?

You're not Norwegian. Norwegians are intelligent and polite and well-mannered

Or maybe you let America turn you into a crass Rompehull.

The Hiltons are Norwegian. They're good people.

The nicest billionaires I've met. And I've met quite a few: OS, AVF, SMac, etc.

Steve and Dave Hilton helped me with the skateboard book. The part about Hobie making a deal with VitaPakt Orange Juice in the 1960s, which was owned by Barron Hilton.

https://www.amazon.com/Skateboard-Good-Gnarly-Illustrated-History/dp/0760338051

This is the book that got translated into French - without me knowing it - and they were going to fly me to Monaco for the Sportel Awards Sports Book of the Year Award in 2017, I think it was.

https://www.amazon.com/Skateboard-rue-rampe-Ben-Marcus/dp/2366025408

But I was in Hawaii, so I sent Lucia instead, because she was in Hossegor with her dad and she shot all the portraits for the book.

Can't believe I didn't accept a free trip to Monaco, but Honolulu to Monaco would have been a 24-hour flight for a one-day stay.

Lucia worked hard on that book, so she earned it.

I found a couple more references, will post them here for historical purposes. If Tucson really was the first, then that is truly noteworthy.

1 - Another newspaper article.

2 - Yet another article.

3 - A photo from the local paper.

4 - 2015 Obituary for one of the owners.

5 - Pat McGee the skater who was there for the grand opening, still living.

6 - This book here also mentions the park and its owners and has the wrong address of 2169 E Speedway.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone who remembers this place and might have some more pictures. I wonder how long it was in business.

hi! this is my step mom. if you guys like this i suggest buying Craig Snyder's "A Secret History of the Ollie" its jam packed with old school pictures (including this one and many of my dad)


and here's an album with some cool 70s skateboarding pics of my dad

I watched a ton of Epically Later'd years ago, not so much these days.

As far as my top 3 skate books?

1. The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself - Rodney Mullen is one of the most unique individuals I have ever come across, and this story will move you. The ending gets me every time I read it.
   
   
2. Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder - While it's admittedly fairly dated now, it's a great inside look at the history of skateboarding from the guy who was present for most of it, and effectively helped thrust it more or less permanently into the public consciousness.
   
   
3. Stalefish: Skateboard Culture From the Rejects Who Made It - There is admittedly some bleed-over from the prior two books, and this one is largely more anecdotal than biographical, but you get a look at various aspects of skateboarding from people who spanned its history, from the late 50s to the late 00s.

Yeah, they just go around interviewing important figures about punk, I think. That's how they did Stalefish (great book, by the way) and I imagine that's how they did this.

[The Answer is Never: A Skateboarder's History of the World] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Answer-Is-Never-Skateboarders/dp/0802139450).