Why is Signal Hill important in the history of skateboarding?
Signal Hill was the first downhill skateboard race, and pretty much every aspect of current downhill skateboarding started at that race. A short list of innovations from Signal Hill would include air braking, the Hut Tuck (developed by John Hutson and Michael Goldman,) the first women’s downhill skateboard race, the first street luge in a race, the first skatecar, the first sliding gloves, and many more.
And remember that skateboarding was a different world back then. Everybody who was anybody in skateboarding came out to that race. The first woman to win, Leslie Jo Ritzma, rode Tunnel Rocks down that hill. John Hutson won in 1978 while on a brand new truck called Independent. It was a crazy time of every aspect of inventing, where people worked up the courage to throw themselves over the steep precipice at almost 60 miles an hour.
It was half-race, half-spectacle. Skateboard legend Skip Engblom attended the 1977 race and described it as similar to the French Revolution;“The crowd really wanted to see blood!”, and they weren’t disappointed. The race was filled with crazy accidents and spectacular crashes.
Interview with Mike Horelick and Jon Carnoy – creators of the documentary
How did this documentary come about?
While working on the history of Tunnel, we uncovered many beautiful photographs of skateboarding from the 1970s. Among those were some great shots by Bobby Smith of The Signal Hill Speed Run, the world’s first downhill skateboard race. These inspired Mike to write an article, Board Out of Their Minds, for the Los Angeles Times. It also served as a basis for the feature-length documentary.
The project started as a simple discussion. We realized that this was such an amazing story, it would be a gripping short documentary film. With our background as filmmakers, we started putting gears into motion. Before long, the City of Signal Hill became involved, helping support the film. We dug deeper and deeper into the story of this event. That’s when we realized this was not a short film but a
feature-length film.
As for our narrator, there we were sitting in the legendary Rip City Skate Shop in Santa Monica, when who came in but Ben Harper, who besides being an amazing musician, is a huge skateboarder. We worked up the courage to show him a couple rough clips from the project, and he loved it. He remembered reading about the races back in the day as a skateboarding kid. Ben brings an enthusiasm for the project that you can’t fake. He serves as the storyteller of this amazing tale, and exceeded our expectations only by about a thousand times.
What were some of the most surprising things you found about the race?
There were definitely a lot of surprises when covering this race, which was run annually from 1975 to 1978. It grew every year, starting with 100 spectators or so in 1975 and only two racers, to a large event in 1978 with a crowd over 5,000 and several divisions for racers. It had grown so large that Sports Illustrated covered the ill-fated 1978 race. Every year had unusual twists, such as the Big Wheel racer in 1976 who conquered the steep drop on the kids’ plastic toy wearing only a swimming suit. The first race on Signal Hill wasn’t a skateboard race but an antique car race. Named The Model T Hill Climb, racers chugged up the steep hill in their Fords.
The skate cars were pretty unusual…what are your thoughts?
The skatecars are probably the most unique aspect of The Signal Hill Speed Run. Created solely for the Signal Hill Speed Run (although later also raced at Derby Downs in Ohio,) they had lean steering like a skateboard and used skateboard wheels, but also shared design elements with motorcycles and Formula One cars.
To this day, there exists a debate. Are skatecars skateboards, cars, or something in between? As filmmakers, our view would be that these vehicles are in a class of their own, and hopefully this film will bring recognition to the skatecar racers as well as the designers and crews that produced the speed darts. These were not production cars but one of a king, with innovations that would make Leonardo Da Vinci jealous!
What is the one thing you’d like the current generation of downhill skaters to take away from this film?
We were lucky to have short interviews with some current downhill skaters like Mischo Erban and James Kelly, as well as footage of others like Douglas Dalua. These modern downhill stars all realized that the roots of the sport came from this annual race from over 30 years ago. We look at this as the greatest story that has not been told, until now. Every current longboarder should definitely see this film! But this is not to say that this is a film solely for skateboarders. We have been asked many times, “I am not a skateboarder. Why would I want to see this film?” We always answer the same. Do you have to be a mountain climber to see a documentary about scaling Mt. Everest? Of course not. This is a story of the brave men and women who risked it all to conquer Signal Hill, trying to win a prize that wouldn’t even cover medical expenses.
Where can people see this film or purchase the DVD?
We are currently in talks to distribute The Signal Hill Speed Run. It will definitely be available on iTunes in the near future. All news about the film is posted on our Facebook page; The Signal Hill Speed Run 1975-1978.