Beyond The Streets To The Venice Pavilion - Welcome 2 Venice!

One of the best parties ever was held last Sunday at the Beyond The Streets art exhibit in downtown L.A. ... but it was exactly like Venice, only not in Venice. A recreation of the Venice Pavilion had been constructed using old photographs to get it as real as possible, and they did an awesome job. I showed someone photos the next day, and they were like "Whoa. It's exactly the same, but cleaner." Yep. It was like a time machine landed us right back in '90's Venice, complete with almost all of the same people too. It was one of the best Summer kick-off parties ever, hosted by our excellent friends at Juice Magazine.

Juice had a party the night before, so it really was a proper Dogtown Memorial Weekend - and one for the books. It was a hot, sunny day downtown, and folks were in the mood to let loose. There was free beer and food to help with that, and art and skating enough to satisfy even the most hardcore.

Old friends caught up all day, and new friends were made. There were some people I hadn't seen pretty much since the Pavilion was bulldozed over in 2000, and some that I'd seen just the night before, and everyone agreed that it was the most awesome thing every to all be back together in the Pit ... even if it was a fake one, it was as real a time as we've all had in a long while.

Josh "Bagel" Klassman had the best birthday party ever, as this jam fell on his day, and was also the release of a book of his photographs that Adidas Skateboarding put together (perhaps in a bit of penance for their earlier claim that they were "Defining Venice". No, THIS kind of day helps define Venice.), called It Wuz All A Beautiful Disaster. And it truly was.

This day wasn't, however. It was the best. A punk rocking set from The Shrine (a new favorite band now featuring Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy on bass!), and an even harder one from Excel set the tone and created a pit of skateboarding moshers. Super extra fun, and everyone just felt happy to be there (though like the old days, someone did have to be taken away in an ambulance - then the party went right back to raging after wishing him well). Metallica's Robert Trujillo was there mixing and mingling, and you name a skate hero and they were probably there.

Juice Dan was the M.C. for the day, and Juice Terri held down the Juice booth, and both accepted lots of love all day for the support and love they've given the skate community, Venice and international.

Skating was front and center, and you got wall rides from Christian Hosoi, Tuma Britton, Bennet Harada, and all the O.G. cats that gave Venice its name in skating. Everyone was tripping all day on how weird (and cool at the same time) to have picked up the Pavilion and transported it to a parking lot in downtown L.A. ... though an ocean breeze would have been most welcome. Maybe we can keep it and bring it back home? (Though I'm hearing a low buzz about unearthing the original again ... why not?)

Though the Pavilion pop-up was the place to be, there was also ridiculously sick art inside to be seen at the Beyond The Streets extravaganza back inside - and get yourself a little break from the relentless sun. Celebrating street art in all its forms - and beyond - the cavernous warehouse had room after room of mind-blowing art from legends of the genre, beautifully curated by graffiti historian, Roger Gastman.

The show opens with an entire wall of spray paint cans, illustrating the importance of this material in street art's history.

There was a "Cosmic Cavern" of all glow in the dark colors, that would have been fun to hang out in a bit while altered. Grooovy.

There was a room dedicated to the female street artists, repped largely by the Guerrilla Girls.

There were old school works by Basquiat, Keith Haring, Chaz Bojórquez, and Kilroy! ... all the way up to the latest stuff from the latest artists like ... you name it.

I loved an old man by Swoon (and I always swoon for Swoon) ...

Shepard Fairey work always has to be in this conversation, and his Andre The Giant pieces were well represented.

Slick showed up with his L.A. Hands, showing off Southern California in a nutshell.

Famed tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon created a funeral home installation insisting that "All Dawgs Go To Heaven". I sure hope so.

All souls need saving, some more than others ...

Another installation that was one of the heavier ones showed a bomb aimed at a wall of condoms, and when you looked inside of the bomb, it had a drive-in theater full of cars watching the world explode. It was as cool as it was gnarly.

The space was HUGE, and so were some of the pieces. The scale is not just beyond the streets, it's beyond impressive.

There had to be a C.R. Steckyk III wall, and there was. Topped off by a shark created from license plates.

"Trash Records" was an installation that exactly replicated the kind of record store we all know and love ... and miss.

Faile showed up with an enormous mausoleum that would not be out of place in an old European cemetery - or Vegas.

Much like the We Rise show that is located just a couple blocks away (and was just extended through June 10th - GO!), I've shown you a lot here, but I haven't barely scratched the surface with how much there is to see in this show (that goes through July, so get here also!). It's massive - and truly a spectacle to see.

There won't be an awesome Juice party when you go, and that is really what made this event SO special. Sure, it's the art and the skating and the memories and the cool, but what really makes something real is the people that know and love a place. Like the Pavilion. Like Venice itself.

It was an incredible day, with incredible people doing incredible things, and we were all lucky to be there - and we knew it. I think anyone that was there felt a real tug on their heartstrings, and a renewed internal vow to keep Venice real, to keep it special, to keep creating art and music and a new generation of skaters. Deeply heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in such an honestly epic day.

Love forever. Venice forever.

Roll Model - Skateboarding With Eric Tuma Britton

When third generation Dogtown skater, Eric Tuma Britton is your skateboard teacher, it automatically gives you an edge. Not only because he's been a professional skater for most of his life, but because he's right in there with the student, literally holding their hands.

Britton was born in Culver City and raised in Venice. More precisely, he was raised by skateboarding in Venice. He was given his first skateboard at the age of 5 by his father, and as it was a very surf and skate culture at the beach, he started skating a lot. A LOT. And making friends with the very legends who founded the sport, becoming a full fledged member of the Dogtown family by the age of 12. Britton still says that the highlight of his entire career was "turning pro for the legendary Skip Engblom," of Santa Monica Airlines (in 1991), and for whom Britton's respect is palpable.

Turning pro at a young age meant having a lot of freedom, a bunch of money, traveling a lot, not having much responsibility, and living a full-on punk rock lifestyle. For many around the country, it was a time of skating still being seen as unacceptable and rebellious, but at SAMO High, where Britton attended school, they were the cool dudes, skating in from the beach.

It was good times. Britton hanging out with all the legends (like Natas, my favorite, and who gave Britton a skateboard when he'd hang around on Santa Monica's Fraser Avenue with Kaupas), learning all the tricks, and being featured on the cover of Thrasher in 1992. It was all great, until Britton gave up skating for six years, neither the scene or Britton being that into it anymore. He did well at modeling - and partying - during those years, but when Juice Magazine moved to Venice in 2000, it brought both the scene and Britton back to skating. And skating HARD.

"It made me feel good. It brought my drive back to do something for myself, it brought the vigor for the sport back," reflected Britton on the scene at the time. Fellow pro skater, Bennet Harada had been teaching skate lessons to local kids. One day, Harada asked Britton if he could pass a lesson off to him, and Britton accepted. He found that he immediately connected with the kids, and that teaching came completely naturally to him. So much so, that now it has become a real business, with more students signing on all the time.

A big part of Britton's success (all word of mouth!) with teaching kids (or the young at heart, the midlife crisis, the bucket list, whatever) comes from his ability to be childlike himself. From his willingness to get in there with them, to have fun with it, to make them comfortable through holding them and letting them register how a move feels as he does it with them, and by really being ultimately more than a teacher to these students, but a mentor and a friend. At the skatepark, and in out in the world. Another reason that Britton is so good with kids might be that he is father to perhaps this town's most darling kid, Taj. Who is six, and has been skating most of his life ... just like Dad.

Testimonials from kids and parents alike all sing Britton's praises. "He has such patience!" "He has such a gift for this!" "I love Tuma!" "He's such an amazing teacher!" All true. When Britton hears those compliments, "My heart melts. It gives meaning to what I do." And you can feel the meaning behind it when he says that. I spoke to Louis Ryan (proprietor of Venice's Townhouse), whose eight year old daughter is a student of Britton's, to get his take on it. "Tuma is a natural teacher. It's not like a coach feeling, he made it fun. He gets in there and jogs next to her, and she did really well. You can see the respect he gets at the skatepark ... he's an amazing teacher. The style and grace that he teaches her exudes off her after her lessons ... and it's helped with her surfing too!"

Which is great, because that's the master plan for Roll Model Skateboarding. So many people want lessons that it's probably time to get a real warehouse facility, with means for other employees to help with the demand, skate camps, surf workshops, skate trips, contests ... all that good stuff. It's time.

It's time for Venice kids to get involved too! Britton told me that the majority of his students are from Malibu, the Palisades, and Santa Monica ... with only a few in Venice! (But awesomely, almost all Venice girls!) With our beautiful skatepark, and our legendary history as a skateboarding mecca, there needs to be future generations of rippers from Venice. Lessons with Britton are about as good a place to start as there is.

In speaking about Venice, Britton told me about how when he was growing up, it was the ghetto. It was unsafe. People either lived there or went there to get drugs, but with all that, there was still more community, more culture, more of a family feeling. "The poor artists are doing the most creative stuff. The monied people want to buy into that, and sanitize the area. That might be better for kids, but it's taken away that family feeling, and what bothers me is the families of color are being displaced." Yes, that bothers me too. Because we're better than that. And we know it.

"Skating has been my entire life. I kind of fell into teaching, but I didn't expect it to be so fulfilling and heartwarming," Britton told me genuinely. "You get back such a heartfelt response from the kids, you can see the gratitude in their faces when they get it." Those kids have sent him letters of thanks, and sent him new students so they can have skate buddies, and that's how it's all growing bigger every day.

"It helps kids keep on the right track. Skateboarding has done miraculous things in my life. I've had my struggles. Life isn't easy. It can be brutal. You're gonna fall down. You're gonna get hurt. But skating teaches you to persevere. To get back up. To push forward until you get it."

That can apply to everything in life, of course. What good lessons to learn as a little kid, while having a complete blast!  Like Britton tells the kids, "If you believe you can do something, you will. In skating, or in life." You. Will.

Roll Model Skateboarding can be reached at Tumanation13@gmail.com or by calling Tuma at #310.663.0365


*Photos courtesy of Eric Tuma Britton

Life Rolls On At The Venice Skatepark

Saturday was a beautiful day to put the spotlight on a beautiful cause, as Life Rolls On took over the Venice Skatepark.

Life Rolls On was founded by Jesse Billauer, after he broke his neck surfing in 1996, and became a quadriplegic. Determined to surf again, Billauer and his friends banded together to make that happen. He joined forces with the Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation to create Life Rolls On, helping others afflicted with disabilities to make their own dreams of fun and active lives a reality.

Kids and adults missing limbs, stuck in wheelchairs or otherwise physically impaired, filled the Venice Skatepark with laughter, hoots and hollers when someone stuck a trick, and total inspiration.

Seeing these young people - and all the wonderful volunteers helping them - defy their conditions and just GO for it made it all but impossible to ever complain or make excuses not to try something new and possibly scary. Especially if you have all your abilities intact.

Tourists and locals alike surrounded the railings of the Skatepark, yelling their encouragement. Looking around at all the positivity and possibility, it gave you the feeling that together, humanity can make just about anything happen.

So awesome.