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Czech Television

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State Cinematography Fund

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A new day of socialist
Czechoslovakia has begun.

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To be on the concrete. To whizz
through space. To have it all in motion.

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Have it in blurs and in flashes.

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No need for waves,
for a ski slope, or a team.

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And that’s the way you like it.
Skateboard.

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I wanted to do something freely,
without anyone saying: 3, 2, 1 go!

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A young person yearns
for one thing. Freedom!

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This country was inaccessible
to anything from the West.

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This was a whiff of America.

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It was something
that had never existed here.

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And it made people
who owned it really special.

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This was a gift from my friend
for my 50th birthday.

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It’s an old model from the U.S.
I can’t even guess the year.

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But as you can see
it was made of one rollerskate

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but the iron wheels are pretty
special. Probably without bearings.

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It’s riveted so it must have been
meant to be made as a skateboard.

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-A bit small.
-I’ll try to jump on it. Carefully.

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-I might try...
-An ollie?

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Yep! It’s fucked. I knew it.

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I’ll glue it back later. The tail edge.

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I didn’t mean to. The original is broken.

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Oh well. We’ll glue it together.

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This was everything to me.
I even quit hang gliding.

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Then I quit playing in a brass band.
This is the love of my life.

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I want to show you a part
of the historical equipment.

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Here on top I have the latest thing.

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This is a modern gem,
a composite board.

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And now check the stark contrast.

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These are the boards
from our very beginnings.

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We’d fashion them after drawings
in ABC or VTM magazines.

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Let me take it all out.

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Throughout the years
I rode all these boards here.

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Jeez. What do we have here?

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This is really a great one
but you honestly cannot ride it.

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It’s one of the old boards
I found in my attic.

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I have no idea where I got this.

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See? I told you this one is no good.
It just keeps getting jammed.

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Awful. It was awful back then too.

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I would do sprints but then
I had troubles with my back.

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I always say skateboarding
and snowboarding cured me.

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Adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.

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Plus, it was a capitalist sport
and a minority sport.

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It actually wasn’t a sport back then.

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That was a different world.

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It was the year 1976. Our dad had lived
in the US for eight years by then

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and I had never seen
this thing in our country before.

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I didn’t see it in the U.S. either
but someone said to our dad:

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“Have you bought them a skateboard?”
And he said: “What is it?”

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Fifth grade. I was in the fifth grade.

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In winter I practised in the kitchen
and then in spring outside.

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It was love at first sight.

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I started here when I was 13, 14.
Dunno. Who’d remember that?

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Man, that was something
completely different. Brand new.

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This is how it works. So I hopped
on it and rode. Left, right, done.

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You see, I’m a good skier.

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I skied since I was five and I loved it
so much I could see skis everywhere.

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In summer we missed
the turns and these movements

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so skateboard was the perfect alternative.

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We simply skied on the board.

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I saw a skateboard for the first time
as a boy in a newsreel in cinema.

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I was in awe seeing skateboarders
play basketball and do high jumps.

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Skateboarding is a new sport.
It was invented by American boys

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who fastened two pairs of wheels
on a board and started gliding

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just like surfers on an ocean waves.
But on a dry land and downhills.

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On these skateboards
you can also play handball.

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You just rode and felt happy
because you were moving.

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It’s in the moves which are specific.

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It’s kind of like good sex.

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I LOVE SEX

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We are asking Mr Rybář
from Canneries and Distilleries

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-why there is a lack of ketchup.
-If I hadn’t kids I’d never queue here.

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Comrade Sedláček asks
why there is a lack of jam jars.

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-How long have you been queueing here?
-Only since 8am.

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Now it’s 11:30. And there’s nothing
but the scales and water here.

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At the moment there are no
skateboards delivered on our market.

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A year ago we had some knee pads,
elbow pads and helmets

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but not a thing ever since.

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Back then the wheels were made
of some weird hard stuff,

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definitely not polyurethane.

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Trucks were just metal plates
which were kind of bent.

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And we would cut the board
off some plywood.

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We just tried various combinations.

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These are street boards
on which we rode little ramps

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and this is a hand-painted board
based on an original.

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We used to copy Western designs
which we liked back then.

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And we would put the hip brands
on our boards to make it look alike.

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As for better boards, they would
come to those who were lucky,

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who sent begging letters
to American or German companies,

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some guys would send crystal,
or glass, or all kinds of crap.

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In exchange for a skateboard.

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I remember when I got the first
parcel with Kryptonics wheels.

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It felt like a small miracle.
Such a thing was impossible to get.

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I had to wait. I was waiting
for a month, two, half a year

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because they sent it by sea mail.
I thought they blew it off

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and then it suddenly arrived
and I got the mammon. Original!

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Wheels, that was an extreme issue.

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Even those who knew the ropes
had troubles obtaining wheels.

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Wheels make a good skateboard.

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If you look at these stripes,
it’s not some skidproof trick,

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the wheels are simply made of pucks.
We would call them “puckpals”.

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It was a nylon core with bearings
and a pressure hose pulled on it.

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That was our wheel.

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-We’d lathe them from sledgehammers.
-Or from grenades.

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We’d lathe bearings from a grenade.

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Good wheels must turn well.

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You can easily go 40 miles an hour
downhills. If you’re a good skater.

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If you fall on your head
and you’re not wearing a helmet

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you get a lisp after some time.

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Suddenly some places in Prague

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were swarmed by guys
with home-made skateboards.

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Back then it was a big rebellion
because in the era of communism

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you weren’t allowed
to even lie down in a park.

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People were scolding us
for riding on sidewalks etc.

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“You’re kicking up a rumpus.”
“Your wheels are ruining roads.”

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“Piss off! Let us sleep!”
That was a classic back then.

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We’d set the wheels in motion,
stopped abruptly behind some chicks,

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wheels squealing, girls screaming.

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And we’d have a blast, you know.

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They had no idea
and we looked like fools.

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Excuse me, there used to be
this fire reservoir once.

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That would be so cool
if we found a piece of the old pool.

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We’re getting closer. I can smell it.

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Excuse me, can I ask you something?

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There used to be a small water
reservoir here. Never heard of it?

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Are these the blocks of flats?
They look it, right?

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Look, these two and this one.

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And this must have been out there.

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It doesn’t look wrong, right?
These must be the blocks of flats.

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-Boys, do you ride skateboards?
-No. -Why? You prefer football?

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-Yes, football is better.
-Football players make more money.

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Yeah.

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Where is our pool? Where is it?

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The pool in Karlovy Vary,
it was almost like California.

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Well, not really but good enough.

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Our first attempts to ride up,
turn around and glide down,

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or do some grinds.
We couldn’t practice anywhere else.

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There were no ramps back then,

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they were built much later.

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So this was the only way
to ride some kind of waves.

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Otherwise we’d have to ride
downhills, or do curbs, stairs

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but if you wanted some style,
some feeling, this was the place.

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I can’t remember it at all.

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-Remember the plywood ramp?
-Yeah, made just of the doors.

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That was actually King Skate,
the whole thing was made of doors

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and some braces, some scaffold.

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Then we moved it over there.
But the first one stood here.

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The first bigger ramp was here,
right where I’ve put the board.

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It wasn’t a classic half-pipe
but just a curb ramp

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which was made of three doors.

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It was hammered together
with nails with big heads.

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Our riding would make it springy
and the nails would gradually pull out

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and when you fell down
it would strip you like a grater

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so we’d have bloody back or hips.
The nails were flesh-shredders.

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You’d go to a building site nearby,
steal some blocks of plywood

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and we’d try to nail them together.

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Someone managed to get a permit
to build a welded half-pipe

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and it was a real iron monument.

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Strahov was an amazing spot.

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It was up on a hill,
just stadiums and no one around.

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-Only the Spartakiade got in our way.
-That was the only problem. It was 1980

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and they decided
we had to dismantle the whole thing

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so we wrote ČSS 1980 on the half-pipe.

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They closed the stadium,
enclosed it by police cordons,

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only the masses were allowed to enter.

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Prague and our whole country
lived and breathed Spartakiade.

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For Spartakiade
is not only a sports event.

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It is also a great manifestation of
our people’s unity,

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of our loyalty to socialism
and trust in our happy future.

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It was awful because
they banned skateboarding.

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They put a chain on our half-pipe
so we covered it with a metal plate

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and rode anyway.

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Skateboard was a huge symbol.

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And an escape to a feeling of freedom

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because we didn’t get to live
in a free country this way.

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But we could experience a great adventure.

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That’s why we had so many followers,
why people would come to Strahov.

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It wasn’t because of us riding
and horsing around. It was the freedom.

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People would simply come there
to experience the “what ifs”.

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That was the general feeling there.

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That’s what made it so special.
“The boys are daring, we want it too.”

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That’s how I see it.

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On my 18th birthday my father
gave me a cubic metre of wood

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so me and my friends built
the first ramp and a half-pipe here.

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Fashioned after the thing
which was originally in Strahov.

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Here in Březiny we also painted
a line 20 centimetres below the edge

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and wrote “King Skate” there.

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Whoever got all four wheels
above the line was called King Skate.

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On summer holidays we’d organize
a camp, people built tents around

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and spent a week or two here.
It was open for everyone.

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The river was dammed
with kegs of beer so we could drink

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and we would ride for dear life.

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Once we ran out of beer
we’d pack our stuff and go home.

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The underage kids got together
in pretty big gangs.

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Some gangs have
10, 12 underage members.

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We might say that each member
of the gang was quite unique.

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And that was appreciated.

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We came from various intellectual
backgrounds. There were boys

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whose dads worked in factories,
boys whose fathers were writers.

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But there were also illicit
moneychangers with long fringes.

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But no one cared, people
talked to each other no matter what.

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It would always click right away.

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Once I saw a guy with a skateboard
I’d always start talking to him.

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It’s the thing among people like Saab
drivers. Those who own something special.

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You didn’t even have to spot the board.

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Once you saw the scuffed shoes
you knew the guy was a skateboarder.

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We started talking
and I knew I had a place to stay.

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I divided skateboarders
into nutcases and friends.

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But mostly it was about friendship.

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There was always something
to talk about and it was really nice.

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No matter how many silly ideas came up
people would just go for it.

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Skateboarders are still a gang. Everywhere
they go riding they stick together.

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Those who rode were accepted

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but if you were just a poser
you were finished.

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Youth is a joy of speed and motion.

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On your feet, or on some wheels.

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If the wheels are small and attached to
a small board, it is called a skateboard.

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Those enchanted by skateboards
had a summer rendez-vous in Prachatice.

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During one week they exchanged
their experiences from half-pipe,

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checked out the others’ tricks,
turns and jumps.

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So the concrete is still here.
Pretty interesting way of gardening.

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I hope the owner
is not coming after us with a gun.

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Sure enough, people were sitting
on the railing, cheering,

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a friend was cooling beer in the pool
because it was his birthday.

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Many beautiful stories took place here.

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Ironically when we were looking
for a spot to build a ramp,

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00:27:34,300 --> 00:27:37,700
a half-pipe,
where we could do slaloms,

229
00:27:37,780 --> 00:27:43,420
we had to go to our town hall
which was occupied by communists.

230
00:27:43,500 --> 00:27:48,460
There was no other way to do it. But until
they knew what this would develop into

231
00:27:48,540 --> 00:27:51,020
they wouldn’t give us dirty looks.

232
00:27:51,100 --> 00:27:56,020
They were actually glad something
was happening and were pretty helpful.

233
00:27:56,940 --> 00:28:01,580
ČSTV, Svazarm, schools, municipal
offices and other organizations

234
00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:08,620
had to use all possibilities for sports
provided by the socialist society.

235
00:28:09,100 --> 00:28:14,420
We were different because
we didn’t belong to any unions,

236
00:28:14,540 --> 00:28:17,380
we were just boys in a park.

237
00:28:18,460 --> 00:28:23,780
Regulations of a skateboarding club,
duties of club members.

238
00:28:24,340 --> 00:28:28,700
To represent the club impeccably
in all spheres of its activity,

239
00:28:28,780 --> 00:28:34,700
to develop one’s qualification
and fitness and to promote our sport.

240
00:28:35,860 --> 00:28:39,580
To actively participate
in events organized by one’s club.

241
00:28:39,660 --> 00:28:46,700
To pay dutifully club dues
and ČSTV dues 200 crowns a year,

242
00:28:46,780 --> 00:28:53,060
pupil dues 100 crowns a year.
Due date... Blah blah blah blah.

243
00:28:53,460 --> 00:28:55,900
This is just a piece of paper.

244
00:28:56,220 --> 00:28:58,620
We just went on the same way

245
00:29:00,140 --> 00:29:06,620
but now we could do
legally organized competitions,

246
00:29:07,860 --> 00:29:12,140
legally organized fun.

247
00:29:38,860 --> 00:29:41,980
Each competition was a blast.

248
00:29:42,060 --> 00:29:46,980
The most important thing
was to actually meet the people.

249
00:30:09,980 --> 00:30:13,820
I remember my first competition
in Karlovy Vary

250
00:30:13,900 --> 00:30:19,100
where I saw slaloms, high jumps
and long jumps for the first time.

251
00:30:19,180 --> 00:30:21,980
This is the place of our competitions.

252
00:30:22,100 --> 00:30:25,100
The Czechoslovakian Championship.

253
00:30:25,180 --> 00:30:30,180
The place wasn’t so flattened out.
It was just a steep hill.

254
00:30:31,300 --> 00:30:35,820
Here by this awful, huge,
beautiful, empty pavilion

255
00:30:36,020 --> 00:30:38,740
there was our launch ramp.

256
00:30:39,140 --> 00:30:42,900
And this is where we’d do high jumps.

257
00:30:51,180 --> 00:30:53,100
It used to be nice here.

258
00:31:05,020 --> 00:31:08,460
You’d set the board in motion
by quick movements

259
00:31:08,540 --> 00:31:14,420
and then you’d keep the speed
or just go even faster.

260
00:31:16,300 --> 00:31:21,220
At the first competitions
we’d do high jumps, long jumps.

261
00:31:21,460 --> 00:31:27,620
Those were the events.

262
00:31:28,060 --> 00:31:31,460
-Weird events.
-Yeah, they were weird.

263
00:31:36,540 --> 00:31:41,940
I could even do turns back then.
Now it’s not that great anymore.

264
00:31:43,020 --> 00:31:44,900
Things like this.

265
00:31:48,380 --> 00:31:52,660
We’d also do these... Sitting...
What’s the silly thing called?

266
00:31:52,740 --> 00:31:54,820
Oh, Catamaran.

267
00:31:56,420 --> 00:32:00,420
Let me grab this poor invalid.
Jesus, I’m so sorry about this.

268
00:32:00,500 --> 00:32:04,500
I’ll just sit on it
as if it was a big skateboard.

269
00:32:05,140 --> 00:32:06,940
Careful, fellow!

270
00:32:08,060 --> 00:32:11,020
Man! Like this. Like this.

271
00:32:11,140 --> 00:32:14,100
You’d have to mind your fingers
so you don’t run over them.

272
00:32:14,180 --> 00:32:17,220
-And we’d go downhills.
-Really silly.

273
00:32:17,380 --> 00:32:20,940
But we’d ride even ramps like this.

274
00:32:21,300 --> 00:32:23,500
Hang on, let me... Hang on!

275
00:32:28,220 --> 00:32:30,420
I was a high jump champion.

276
00:32:30,540 --> 00:32:35,700
There are three registered records,
one of them belongs to Luděk Váša

277
00:32:35,780 --> 00:32:38,580
and one is mine, 155 centimetres.

278
00:32:51,820 --> 00:32:55,060
People are competitive, you know.

279
00:32:55,140 --> 00:33:00,460
Everyone wants to win,
to be faster and better than the others.

280
00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:09,140
I’d win the high jumps pretty often.

281
00:33:38,140 --> 00:33:42,620
Luděk deserves a song for his
performance and prestige promotion.

282
00:33:42,700 --> 00:33:46,220
-Luděk, do you like popular music?
-I do.

283
00:34:01,620 --> 00:34:06,100
Long jump is an awful event.
You use a footstop

284
00:34:06,180 --> 00:34:10,700
and jump to another board. If you take
off too late it just tears your back off

285
00:34:10,780 --> 00:34:16,300
and you’ll end up face down.
Excellent thing, really technical.

286
00:34:28,980 --> 00:34:31,220
It’s kind of a small murder.

287
00:34:31,300 --> 00:34:36,820
You fell down and your socks dropped.
Those were terrible falls.

288
00:34:51,700 --> 00:34:54,260
The jumps were always a big hit.

289
00:34:54,340 --> 00:34:59,500
Sometimes we’d collect money.
Girls would walk around with a hat

290
00:34:59,580 --> 00:35:03,380
and then we’d buy something.
Well, it was a wild ride.

291
00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:11,140
Once I came home from an event,
all gloomy and my dad said:

292
00:35:11,220 --> 00:35:15,220
“You came in second, right?
It was about time.”

293
00:35:16,780 --> 00:35:19,580
I’d always win. It was fun.

294
00:35:23,180 --> 00:35:26,340
Commendations and medals. Classic.

295
00:35:26,580 --> 00:35:32,060
We organized “Vysočina Cup”
and the winner got Vysočina salami.

296
00:35:32,140 --> 00:35:34,940
Whatever we could get our hands on.

297
00:35:35,020 --> 00:35:41,020
It was a nice feeling to win
and enjoy the 15 minutes of fame

298
00:35:41,900 --> 00:35:43,740
and life went on.

299
00:35:45,020 --> 00:35:49,940
We would ride the board all the time.
To school, from school, always.

300
00:35:50,020 --> 00:35:54,540
Then there came the competitions
and I must say I was pretty good.

301
00:35:54,620 --> 00:35:58,220
I won a few slalom races.
That was my thing.

302
00:36:16,140 --> 00:36:20,660
This is a great relic.
A piece by Petr Kotting.

303
00:36:22,020 --> 00:36:26,220
This girdler made it
for “The Strahov Grand Prix” event.

304
00:36:26,300 --> 00:36:28,980
And these are the names of winners.

305
00:36:29,060 --> 00:36:33,860
The first one was Petr Forman
in 1979, then Milan Milesík

306
00:36:34,220 --> 00:36:36,860
and the third winner was me.

307
00:36:38,500 --> 00:36:41,100
It was a matter of prestige.

308
00:36:41,180 --> 00:36:44,780
Once you won something
in that age, you were the boss.

309
00:36:44,860 --> 00:36:46,660
It was nice.

310
00:36:54,820 --> 00:36:58,460
The competition was a big deal for us.

311
00:36:59,140 --> 00:37:07,620
Everyone feels that these are
the moments when you must win.

312
00:37:12,540 --> 00:37:17,820
I wasn’t into competitions too much.
Mostly I did exhibitions,

313
00:37:17,900 --> 00:37:21,580
or things I enjoyed.
I just wanted to have fun.

314
00:37:21,660 --> 00:37:27,220
Because I was a naughty pupil,
my parents would get notes

315
00:37:27,500 --> 00:37:32,420
but I just did anything
to prevent the class from boredom.

316
00:38:14,140 --> 00:38:19,660
Once again like every year
marches resounded in Chrudim square,

317
00:38:19,740 --> 00:38:24,860
playing for newbies on the occasion
of their military oath.

318
00:38:24,980 --> 00:38:29,220
Most of the boys will now go
to their units all over the country

319
00:38:29,300 --> 00:38:31,420
and start fulfilling next tasks.

320
00:38:31,500 --> 00:38:37,300
What a change. From my free life
on a skateboard I rode into the drill.

321
00:38:38,580 --> 00:38:41,700
-Not very nice, trust me.
-I had a good doctor.

322
00:38:41,780 --> 00:38:45,380
She gave me some papers
saying I was totally washed-up.

323
00:38:47,060 --> 00:38:49,860
Plus some allergy and that was it.

324
00:38:50,580 --> 00:38:52,460
That saved my ass!

325
00:38:52,540 --> 00:38:54,340
I was very ill.

326
00:38:58,860 --> 00:39:02,580
They recruited
a healthy man immediately.

327
00:39:03,980 --> 00:39:07,820
But... It depended.

328
00:39:09,820 --> 00:39:13,820
There were various ways
to sort this out and...

329
00:39:15,020 --> 00:39:16,820
I was very ill.

330
00:39:17,500 --> 00:39:22,460
The professional soldiers
left the barracks in the evening

331
00:39:22,540 --> 00:39:24,980
and terror began.

332
00:39:27,380 --> 00:39:31,060
But that chapter isn’t
about skateboarding anymore.

333
00:39:31,140 --> 00:39:37,060
The good thing was that my friend
Martin Kopecký, chairman of our club

334
00:39:37,180 --> 00:39:40,300
who is in the skateboard heaven,

335
00:39:40,660 --> 00:39:46,020
he’d invite me to competitions
where I could relax a bit.

336
00:40:32,620 --> 00:40:36,100
We were always against organized stuff.

337
00:40:36,180 --> 00:40:42,820
We would be more like clans,
or... be organized in our own way.

338
00:40:43,100 --> 00:40:46,780
I’d say we did what we wanted.

339
00:40:47,380 --> 00:40:50,780
We didn’t care about socialism.

340
00:40:50,860 --> 00:40:54,740
The only thing we had to do
when we planned competitions

341
00:40:54,820 --> 00:40:57,140
was to ask for permission,

342
00:40:57,220 --> 00:41:02,700
we’d mostly use the Union of Youth
or something as a fig leaf

343
00:41:02,820 --> 00:41:07,420
because otherwise they wouldn’t
let us use squares as venues.

344
00:41:07,500 --> 00:41:11,780
And Martin Kopecký actually
pushed skateboarding through

345
00:41:11,860 --> 00:41:14,060
at the Central Committee of the UY.

346
00:41:14,140 --> 00:41:17,740
Our skateboarding dealt
with two big problems.

347
00:41:17,820 --> 00:41:19,700
One is a lack of materials.

348
00:41:19,780 --> 00:41:24,140
As you can see in this footage
a skateboard must endure a lot.

349
00:41:24,220 --> 00:41:27,380
In our country you practically
could not get any quality skateboards.

350
00:41:27,460 --> 00:41:32,220
The old Esarol brand is fit
for moving furniture, that’s all.

351
00:41:32,300 --> 00:41:36,700
We competed only here
in the Czechoslovakia. It’s a pity.

352
00:41:36,780 --> 00:41:39,620
He was a rad organiser,

353
00:41:40,300 --> 00:41:44,660
an interesting person who could
weld people together into a team.

354
00:41:44,820 --> 00:41:49,900
He could unobtrusively dig
the best qualities out of people.

355
00:41:49,980 --> 00:41:54,660
I created a system
of The Czechoslovakian Cup,

356
00:41:54,820 --> 00:42:00,020
I established certain rules
so that things could be happening.

357
00:42:01,540 --> 00:42:06,180
When Claus Grabke
and then Shane Rouse came here

358
00:42:06,980 --> 00:42:11,140
and started showing us their tricks
we were staring at them in awe

359
00:42:11,220 --> 00:42:13,980
because we’d never seen it before.

360
00:43:06,380 --> 00:43:09,420
Those guys were absolute role models.

361
00:43:09,500 --> 00:43:12,780
Plus, they never behaved
like prima donnas, you know?

362
00:43:12,860 --> 00:43:17,340
They were here to get the skate
into this country, to make it work.

363
00:43:17,420 --> 00:43:22,340
“You wanna know this and that?”
“Yes, please. Show it to me again.”

364
00:43:22,420 --> 00:43:28,340
“You mean that trick? I haven’t
done it for years but I’ll try my best.”

365
00:43:32,540 --> 00:43:35,740
A year later Mark Gonzales
came here to Summer Camp.

366
00:43:35,820 --> 00:43:40,820
He arrived, did an ollie 360,
landed on his feet and rode on.

367
00:43:41,100 --> 00:43:45,620
We were stoked, shrieking “What now?”,

368
00:43:47,180 --> 00:43:49,700
we just lapped it up like this.

369
00:44:23,020 --> 00:44:27,020
Someone who could speak English
came to him and said...

370
00:44:27,100 --> 00:44:28,740
Actually, not to him, he just said:

371
00:44:28,820 --> 00:44:32,340
“If we had such equipment
we could do this as well.”

372
00:44:32,420 --> 00:44:36,980
And he just looked around
and came to this young kid

373
00:44:37,060 --> 00:44:42,420
with the kind of board I showed you
earlier, the one with puck wheels,

374
00:44:42,500 --> 00:44:46,980
and even on this board he was
able to fly a meter above the ramp.

375
00:44:47,100 --> 00:44:51,700
And then he told us: “See, guys,
it’s not just about the equipment.”

376
00:45:09,220 --> 00:45:11,340
We fraternized with them

377
00:45:11,420 --> 00:45:16,660
so we got to get cheaper
skateboards, or their old ones.

378
00:45:17,340 --> 00:45:22,940
And suddenly you were able to start
doing the same tricks they did.

379
00:46:19,540 --> 00:46:23,180
It’s like when you haven’t seen
someone for five years

380
00:46:23,260 --> 00:46:26,460
and then you meet him
and it feels like a week.

381
00:46:26,540 --> 00:46:29,060
I haven’t seen Shane since...

382
00:46:31,380 --> 00:46:34,340
Since 1987 I guess.

383
00:46:34,500 --> 00:46:37,180
It’s 2017 now. So it’s been 30 years?

384
00:47:08,780 --> 00:47:10,980
It’s not worth adjusting.

385
00:47:11,260 --> 00:47:13,060
It’s all in the legs.

386
00:47:13,340 --> 00:47:16,140
Fooling like this in your old age?

387
00:47:17,700 --> 00:47:19,820
Aren’t you going to ride?

388
00:47:26,100 --> 00:47:29,220
You have to ride as if it wasn’t there.

389
00:47:30,740 --> 00:47:35,300
-Good advice is better than gold.
-As always, right?

390
00:48:08,100 --> 00:48:09,900
Well, Thiele Junior.

391
00:48:10,540 --> 00:48:15,500
What is your training level
for high jump? How much did you do?

392
00:48:15,620 --> 00:48:18,820
-85.
-85. And how about your dad?

393
00:48:21,820 --> 00:48:23,620
Hundred...

394
00:48:26,020 --> 00:48:28,180
-125, I guess.
-No shit.

395
00:48:29,940 --> 00:48:31,740
Your dad’s a badass.

396
00:48:33,900 --> 00:48:35,700
Turn it off, man.

397
00:48:35,780 --> 00:48:38,300
-I’ve just found out.
-What did he say?

398
00:48:38,380 --> 00:48:42,100
Junior jumps 85
and you do 120 at trainings.

399
00:48:42,180 --> 00:48:46,380
-It was just a practice.
-Yeah, right. Practice.

400
00:48:50,620 --> 00:48:54,940
-Did you really do 120?
-Well, it was only a practice. -Only.

401
00:48:55,100 --> 00:48:56,900
Only.

402
00:48:59,660 --> 00:49:03,060
You mustn’t give such information away.

403
00:49:14,020 --> 00:49:16,340
This is gonna be a wipe-out.

404
00:49:37,380 --> 00:49:40,420
That’s how the champs ride, man!
Cool, man.

405
00:49:40,500 --> 00:49:42,500
Great job. You’re the best.

406
00:50:04,540 --> 00:50:09,820
Nowadays when there is an event somewhere
I always ask is there a party afterwards?

407
00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:13,500
I’m not going to travel that far
to watch people compete

408
00:50:13,580 --> 00:50:18,420
and then just say goodbye
and go home. Nope. Not even today.

409
00:50:18,500 --> 00:50:23,220
Back then there was no way
to do an event without an after-party.

410
00:50:23,300 --> 00:50:28,140
We’d reunite after a month
and there’d be hugging, kissing

411
00:50:28,220 --> 00:50:32,340
and that’s where
a never-ending party started.

412
00:50:34,820 --> 00:50:40,020
Sometimes the competition
just developed into a huge party.

413
00:50:42,180 --> 00:50:46,300
We’d “eat” beer.
A lot of beer was “eaten” there.

414
00:51:14,340 --> 00:51:19,460
I remember that awesome goulash
which was served in coffee cups.

415
00:51:19,540 --> 00:51:23,780
Goulash with spaghetti.
We’d always look forward to that.

416
00:51:23,860 --> 00:51:27,660
Some people would bring
canned food to the events.

417
00:51:27,740 --> 00:51:31,100
Chinese luncheon meat and stuff.

418
00:51:31,540 --> 00:51:35,660
But back then everything was
quite cheap. Food, beer.

419
00:51:35,740 --> 00:51:38,060
Beer for one crown seventy.

420
00:51:57,140 --> 00:52:01,740
On Friday you’d set off
with 200 crowns in your pocket,

421
00:52:02,220 --> 00:52:06,820
you’d come home with 20 crowns
after a gnarly weekend.

422
00:52:13,580 --> 00:52:17,820
It might have been Martin Kopecký,
our biggest guru back then,

423
00:52:17,900 --> 00:52:21,500
who came up with an idea
of Bikini Contest.

424
00:52:27,260 --> 00:52:32,420
We pulled tables together,
put white sheets over to make a catwalk,

425
00:52:32,500 --> 00:52:37,580
skateboarders with pens and papers
sat in the first row as a jury

426
00:52:37,660 --> 00:52:42,820
picking the most beautiful girl.
they were all young and beautiful.

427
00:52:42,900 --> 00:52:47,580
The girl who went topless
and had awesome breasts won.

428
00:52:54,780 --> 00:52:59,420
Not many girls rode skateboards
back then, it was a boys sport.

429
00:52:59,500 --> 00:53:04,420
You got all dirty and bruised,
it just didn’t suit girls.

430
00:53:04,940 --> 00:53:10,460
I also preferred them to stand aside,
look nice and watch us ride.

431
00:53:10,980 --> 00:53:15,540
I’m not a fan of female skateboarders.
But some of them look hot anyway.

432
00:53:21,980 --> 00:53:29,020
For me as the only girl among boys
it was hard on the one hand

433
00:53:29,260 --> 00:53:34,940
because I’d compete with boys
and always ended up at the bottom.

434
00:53:35,180 --> 00:53:37,580
There was no women category.

435
00:53:38,620 --> 00:53:43,380
But otherwise I felt fine,
I would rouse an interest

436
00:53:43,580 --> 00:53:45,940
being a woman who could ride.

437
00:53:46,460 --> 00:53:50,740
Little girls play with dolls,
real girls ride skateboards.

438
00:53:50,820 --> 00:53:54,540
How about you?
How about you? How about you?

439
00:53:56,940 --> 00:54:01,060
“Get me a bottle of coke and this will
be a perfect America,” Bezbol yawns.

440
00:54:01,140 --> 00:54:06,100
“Get me three chicks and this
will be a cool party,” Jerry grins.

441
00:54:06,180 --> 00:54:10,940
It’s kind of high-flown
but that’s the way it was back then.

442
00:54:11,020 --> 00:54:16,460
What a beautiful drawing.
A skateboarder in the night air

443
00:54:16,540 --> 00:54:21,900
and a lot of women in lit-up windows.

444
00:54:23,420 --> 00:54:26,540
Our dreams, our wet mornings...

445
00:54:49,740 --> 00:54:55,300
Football players had great bodies
but we were just crazy

446
00:54:56,100 --> 00:54:58,580
and we were aware of it.

447
00:54:59,020 --> 00:55:03,020
So picking up a girl was...

448
00:55:04,340 --> 00:55:08,420
My friend Simon Thiele said
we were something like rock stars.

449
00:55:08,500 --> 00:55:12,300
Cities would hand us
their prettiest girls.

450
00:55:16,340 --> 00:55:21,660
When one managed to win
at some event, well...

451
00:55:22,180 --> 00:55:25,100
that was counted as a success.

452
00:55:25,220 --> 00:55:30,660
I mean girls never want to date
a guy who always loses.

453
00:55:39,500 --> 00:55:44,780
Some guys liked to use the fact
that they rode skateboards

454
00:55:44,860 --> 00:55:50,780
and there were always girls
who’d cling to the skateboarder.

455
00:55:53,940 --> 00:55:56,260
We’d call them “stickers”.

456
00:55:57,220 --> 00:56:02,460
When I arrived to the event in Hrádek
nad Nisou I saw playboy Luděk Váša there,

457
00:56:02,540 --> 00:56:07,020
this handsome athlete,
a head taller than me and said:

458
00:56:07,100 --> 00:56:09,180
“Guys...” Sure, he was drunk.

459
00:56:09,260 --> 00:56:13,780
“Don’t bring your girls in here,
or we’ll fuck them all.”

460
00:56:13,860 --> 00:56:19,380
Things went pretty well with girls
back then. It was pretty good.

461
00:56:22,340 --> 00:56:29,100
Me and Roman Bagin decided to create
this club called “Ain’t Putting Out”.

462
00:56:29,540 --> 00:56:33,500
We’d just wouldn’t give a damn
about those chicks.

463
00:56:43,180 --> 00:56:44,780
Two months later

464
00:56:44,860 --> 00:56:50,500
I was automatically transferred
into “Ain’t Getting None” club.

465
00:56:51,020 --> 00:56:54,220
And this club is really tough to leave.

466
00:56:54,500 --> 00:56:59,780
It’s the classic “Karlíček never fucks”
so unfortunately that was it for me.

467
00:57:40,780 --> 00:57:43,540
It took style most of all.

468
00:57:43,820 --> 00:57:47,900
It might have been
the feeling of uniqueness

469
00:57:47,980 --> 00:57:55,340
that made our gang dress
in a crazier way than others.

470
00:57:55,820 --> 00:57:59,820
But it might also have something
to do with the era because back then,

471
00:57:59,900 --> 00:58:03,980
maybe even before I got my first
skateboard, there came punk rock.

472
00:58:04,060 --> 00:58:06,580
We were called The Dry Brains...

473
00:58:16,460 --> 00:58:20,540
“My ear’s covered in blood
I pierced it myself...”

474
00:58:20,620 --> 00:58:25,980
-Well, songs like this.
-We needed a leader, a singer.

475
00:58:26,380 --> 00:58:31,380
And we got the best one we could.

476
00:58:31,540 --> 00:58:33,860
I was such a lazy bastard...

477
00:58:33,940 --> 00:58:37,540
When you do punk it’s ok
if you don’t sing in tune.

478
00:58:37,620 --> 00:58:41,260
-A garage style.
-It’s all about your image.

479
00:58:58,820 --> 00:59:03,500
All the bands were banned
so if you wanted to do a gig

480
00:59:03,660 --> 00:59:07,980
you had to play your songs
for some five, or six people who’d say:

481
00:59:08,060 --> 00:59:12,580
“You must change this verse.”
A classic censorship.

482
00:59:12,660 --> 00:59:16,420
No regime which lays such claims

483
00:59:16,900 --> 00:59:21,380
and dictates people what to do
can be considered normal.

484
00:59:25,420 --> 00:59:27,780
YOUNGSTERS WITH A QUESTION MARK

485
00:59:30,140 --> 00:59:33,620
They live among us.
Years ago they were a rarity.

486
00:59:33,700 --> 00:59:38,020
Nowadays we get to meet them
more often, especially in larger cities.

487
00:59:38,100 --> 00:59:43,780
Their appearance brings out a smile,
sometimes repulsion, fear, even shock.

488
00:59:43,860 --> 00:59:47,420
Punk was very often
connected to skateboarding.

489
00:59:47,500 --> 00:59:52,300
There was the influence.
To be different and to provoke.

490
00:59:53,700 --> 00:59:56,380
That was the right thing. To be different.

491
00:59:56,460 --> 01:00:02,180
To be the best in being different,
and all the adrenalin on top of it.

492
01:00:40,780 --> 01:00:44,500
And of course,
we loved provoking the cops.

493
01:00:45,100 --> 01:00:50,780
When you do something non-standard
you always get into troubles with cops.

494
01:00:50,860 --> 01:00:55,580
Skateboarding was non-standard
back then. And it still is, right?

495
01:00:59,020 --> 01:01:03,140
They did it out of boredom.
They’d walk around and kept checking

496
01:01:03,220 --> 01:01:07,180
and when they came across
such a weird guy they had to stop him.

497
01:01:21,980 --> 01:01:23,980
Roman Bagin was just...

498
01:01:24,620 --> 01:01:28,620
He was a kid who...
He was the Czech Sid Vicious.

499
01:01:30,420 --> 01:01:36,460
He killed himself. A long time ago.
Such a sensitive guy.

500
01:01:36,540 --> 01:01:40,780
It’s a common mistake to think that
those people were crazy, or uneducated.

501
01:01:40,860 --> 01:01:45,180
It was the other way around.
They were much more sensitive

502
01:01:45,260 --> 01:01:48,140
who suffered in the lack of freedom.

503
01:01:48,260 --> 01:01:52,940
And for them this was
the only way to stand up against it.

504
01:01:53,020 --> 01:01:55,420
And they’d be punished.

505
01:01:56,020 --> 01:02:03,060
But they just kept showing people
to be true to themselves.

506
01:02:13,540 --> 01:02:18,580
I think he was the first
graffiti artist in the Czech Republic.

507
01:02:18,660 --> 01:02:24,660
I was blown away by his tag.
He wrote Bagin as 13QFIN.

508
01:02:26,380 --> 01:02:31,820
He did it in the film Snow Bitches
and the footage was sent to Jake Burton

509
01:02:31,900 --> 01:02:35,420
who has been using 13
instead of letter B since then.

510
01:02:35,500 --> 01:02:43,340
This information about number 13
was delivered to Burton by Luděk Váša.

511
01:02:43,460 --> 01:02:45,580
And that’s a fact.

512
01:02:46,340 --> 01:02:54,740
Bagin would also run around Pernink
with a black spray tagging snow.

513
01:02:59,140 --> 01:03:03,860
These people were a huge inspiration
for others. Maybe even role models.

514
01:03:03,940 --> 01:03:06,820
I think people seek their idols.

515
01:03:08,940 --> 01:03:13,500
This person influenced me
in everything I do.

516
01:03:13,780 --> 01:03:17,980
He introduced punk
and things like Tristan Tzara to me

517
01:03:18,060 --> 01:03:20,940
and showed me
that Dadaism was the real punk.

518
01:03:21,020 --> 01:03:26,140
Lenin was another punker,
one of the regulars at Voltaire Cabaret.

519
01:03:26,220 --> 01:03:28,180
Bagin simply showed me the way.

520
01:03:28,260 --> 01:03:32,060
I realized that being a punker
doesn’t mean just punk music

521
01:03:32,140 --> 01:03:35,940
but you need to have
some general knowledge.

522
01:03:41,660 --> 01:03:46,340
Then he got into a trouble
when they found him on a bridge,

523
01:03:46,420 --> 01:03:50,700
he spent some time in a loony bin
and then two weeks at my place.

524
01:03:50,780 --> 01:03:55,980
And then I talked to his mum
so this is a sensitive issue for me.

525
01:03:56,060 --> 01:03:58,780
Soul is really hard to cure, man.

526
01:05:11,220 --> 01:05:15,100
After years 1982-84
when I was doing my military service

527
01:05:15,180 --> 01:05:18,380
the repressions got stronger.

528
01:05:18,780 --> 01:05:24,660
I’d get letters about boys
being arrested, things got tough.

529
01:05:25,700 --> 01:05:28,700
Once you met a cop you got busted.

530
01:05:28,780 --> 01:05:34,980
If their van was full you were lucky
because someone else took your place.

531
01:05:35,340 --> 01:05:40,580
Sometimes they’d just let you go.
Sometimes they’d call another van.

532
01:05:40,660 --> 01:05:44,820
And after 1984 they eased up.

533
01:05:47,380 --> 01:05:49,900
They couldn’t keep up any longer.

534
01:05:49,980 --> 01:05:55,940
The state just had to accept
skateboarding officially.

535
01:05:56,020 --> 01:05:59,540
In 1986 Vancouver hosted
an exhibition called

536
01:05:59,620 --> 01:06:03,020
“The World in Touch,
the World in Motion”.

537
01:06:03,100 --> 01:06:07,780
There they even organized
the first World Cup of Skateboarding.

538
01:06:07,860 --> 01:06:11,580
One of the various events
was also high jump

539
01:06:11,980 --> 01:06:16,460
where Luděk Váša, the Czechoslovakian
team member, won a gold medal.

540
01:06:16,540 --> 01:06:22,140
I participated as a professional
so I was to supposed to get 500 USD

541
01:06:23,180 --> 01:06:28,900
but they took it away from me
saying they’d paid the flight tickets.

542
01:06:29,180 --> 01:06:34,500
But the problem was that we only
had a flight ticket from Toronto

543
01:06:34,580 --> 01:06:37,820
so they finally gave us at least
some money for a bus ride.

544
01:06:37,900 --> 01:06:44,660
But I was happy to compete
with Tony Hawk who won that time.

545
01:06:45,660 --> 01:06:48,860
It was just a totally different world.

546
01:06:49,820 --> 01:06:52,540
What a beautiful award.
How high did you have to jump for it?

547
01:06:52,620 --> 01:06:56,540
-5,1 feet. -In metric system?
-155 centimetres.

548
01:06:56,620 --> 01:07:02,020
-How did it feel to win?
-I couldn’t believe it. Then came joy.

549
01:07:02,300 --> 01:07:05,180
In Canada everyone told us

550
01:07:05,260 --> 01:07:10,020
they’d never seen a Czechoslovakian
citizen coming back to his country.

551
01:07:10,100 --> 01:07:15,420
They immediately offered us jobs
in some skateboard factory.

552
01:07:15,500 --> 01:07:18,820
But I said we can’t let down
all the skateboarders here.

553
01:07:18,900 --> 01:07:24,580
None of them would ever get
a chance to go abroad because of us.

554
01:07:24,660 --> 01:07:29,980
So we came back.
That event helped us get white cards,

555
01:07:30,060 --> 01:07:33,700
we could travel
to any events we wanted to.

556
01:08:08,540 --> 01:08:11,020
I never wanted to emigrate.

557
01:08:11,260 --> 01:08:16,660
I enjoyed being here with my mates.
We made our own America here.

558
01:08:27,020 --> 01:08:32,460
No one had ever tortured me here.
I could do anything I wanted.

559
01:08:32,540 --> 01:08:38,140
No one had ever tried to
drive me into becoming a snitch,

560
01:08:38,500 --> 01:08:42,020
sure, they tried to lure me
to join the communist party

561
01:08:42,100 --> 01:08:48,820
but I’d say I didn’t feel ready and that
was that. I’d never ever become a commie.

562
01:08:49,660 --> 01:08:55,460
So I think if anything had really
bothered me I’d have done a runner.

563
01:08:55,540 --> 01:09:00,740
But I personally felt kind of free.

564
01:09:01,500 --> 01:09:07,020
Once we started travelling abroad
I got to meet many immigrants.

565
01:09:08,380 --> 01:09:11,460
And none of them were doing great.

566
01:09:12,140 --> 01:09:17,460
All of them were scraping along,
looking forward to go back home.

567
01:09:17,540 --> 01:09:22,060
But they couldn’t.
It was pretty tough for them, too.

568
01:09:30,460 --> 01:09:37,580
Passport control often finds items
made by sabotage groups on trains.

569
01:09:37,660 --> 01:09:41,460
These items are lying about in aisles,
in compartments and toilets.

570
01:09:41,540 --> 01:09:47,140
Leaflets were found describing the Western
society as something of a paradise,

571
01:09:47,220 --> 01:09:50,260
appealing to youngsters
to leave our country,

572
01:09:50,340 --> 01:09:52,620
for refusing to join military service,

573
01:09:52,700 --> 01:09:55,860
appealing for
criminal activities against the state.

574
01:09:55,940 --> 01:10:00,940
People who close the borders
and take away your freedom...

575
01:10:04,380 --> 01:10:06,820
That’s bad enough, isn’t it?

576
01:10:07,260 --> 01:10:10,180
Everything was becoming a problem

577
01:10:12,620 --> 01:10:18,340
and it got even those you honoured,
or those who didn’t have to do it.

578
01:10:18,460 --> 01:10:25,220
For all kinds of reasons, for a career,
for family they joined the party

579
01:10:25,340 --> 01:10:30,140
because they knew it was
their only chance. Or they emigrated.

580
01:10:30,220 --> 01:10:33,220
So, is this normal? It’s not normal.

581
01:10:41,420 --> 01:10:45,100
We left this country knowing
we could never come back.

582
01:10:45,180 --> 01:10:49,540
So we said goodbye to a part
of our family, others were unaware

583
01:10:49,620 --> 01:10:52,620
because we didn’t know
how they’d react.

584
01:10:52,700 --> 01:10:57,140
I met a few friends before I left
and it was clear I’d never come back

585
01:10:57,220 --> 01:10:59,740
but it was a very weird secret.

586
01:11:00,540 --> 01:11:03,220
My brother was at the farewell party.

587
01:11:03,300 --> 01:11:10,220
My mum knew about me and dad didn’t.
Dad knew about Simon but mum didn’t.

588
01:11:10,300 --> 01:11:16,740
So, you go on the very last date
with your girl and you cannot tell her.

589
01:11:24,780 --> 01:11:27,340
Let’s get to the nicer aspects of sport.

590
01:11:27,420 --> 01:11:30,340
Prague is the first socialist capital

591
01:11:30,420 --> 01:11:37,620
to host the best European
skateboarders at Euroskate 1988.

592
01:11:37,820 --> 01:11:42,340
Euroskate was put together
by me and Martin Kopecký.

593
01:11:42,500 --> 01:11:46,180
We went for a beer and came up
with an idea of a big event here.

594
01:11:46,260 --> 01:11:50,940
Today’s programme of the unofficial
European Cup had 8000 spectators.

595
01:12:04,900 --> 01:12:08,100
Our contestants rank well in Europe.

596
01:12:08,180 --> 01:12:10,340
Especially in slalom, in free style.

597
01:12:10,420 --> 01:12:13,500
Halfpipe isn’t so good
but hopefully we’ll make it there, too.

598
01:12:13,580 --> 01:12:16,740
It’s a well-known fact
that we excel in high jump.

599
01:12:16,820 --> 01:12:23,300
Nothing is definite yet,
Luděk Váša has the last attempt.

600
01:12:32,140 --> 01:12:34,100
I’m just so happy that

601
01:12:34,180 --> 01:12:36,740
the event here in Prague went well,

602
01:12:36,820 --> 01:12:41,500
that despite the organizational chaos
and running around this hall

603
01:12:41,580 --> 01:12:46,500
it came down to this success
in front of the audience here.

604
01:12:53,060 --> 01:12:55,260
The event really was a success.

605
01:12:55,340 --> 01:12:58,980
Even people from Western
Europe were very appreciative

606
01:12:59,060 --> 01:13:03,140
of the organization, size
and functionality of all aspects.

607
01:13:03,220 --> 01:13:09,340
Plus, it was broadcast live on TV.
Unlike the Western-European events.

608
01:13:32,540 --> 01:13:36,100
Finally! Finally! Finally! Finally!

609
01:14:00,060 --> 01:14:03,980
After the Velvet Revolution
many things changed,

610
01:14:04,060 --> 01:14:09,180
skateboarding goods
were imported to Czechoslovakia.

611
01:14:09,740 --> 01:14:14,700
I started to leave this commune
and turned toward snowboarding

612
01:14:14,780 --> 01:14:20,420
because each sport starts as fun
but once money gets involved

613
01:14:21,580 --> 01:14:23,820
all the fun disappears.

614
01:14:24,140 --> 01:14:28,860
The friendships are gone,
it’s all about money and things get bad.

615
01:14:28,940 --> 01:14:33,140
Everyone wanted to make money
because it was possible

616
01:14:33,220 --> 01:14:37,620
but they forgot about the spirit,
about the feeling of freedom.

617
01:14:37,700 --> 01:14:43,020
Skateboarding is freedom,
not hard work and big money

618
01:14:43,300 --> 01:14:47,540
and once you have the money
you become friends with moneybags

619
01:14:47,620 --> 01:14:49,420
to be even better.

620
01:14:49,660 --> 01:14:55,980
In the 1980’s we were free but in 1990’s
we couldn’t bear the weight of freedom.

621
01:14:56,460 --> 01:14:59,620
The freedom was too much to handle.

622
01:14:59,740 --> 01:15:05,060
Some people just couldn’t deal with it.
I think I’m one of them.

623
01:17:09,940 --> 01:17:17,860
DEDICATED TO ROMAN BAGIN (1986)
AND MARTIN KOPECKÝ (2013)