Earlier this year, the Tempe History Museum opened an exhibit called “Dry Surf.” It’s a wide-ranging look at metro Phoenix's long relationship with skateboarding.
The exhibit tells the story of this long-misunderstood sport, showing the birth and evolution of the boards themselves, photographs and videos of historic skaters and skate locations, and Phoenix’s unique role in establishing skateboarding as a cultural mainstay in music, fashion and art.
Two of the exhibition’s organizers, Josh Roffler, curator at the Tempe History Museum, and Rob Locker, a longtime skater and graphic designer, joined The Show to talk about it.
Roffler said that the name of the exhibition, "Dry Surf," is a reference to Tempe’s status as one of the origin points of the American skateboarding scene.
Full conversation
JOSH ROFFLER: I was contacted by an out of state researcher who was looking into the history of skate parks in the United States, and he was going back and trying to figure out what the earliest ones were, and he found reference to this "dry surf" skate park that was in Tempe that opened in early June of 1965, and he had become convinced that it was the first one that technically opened its doors to the public.
We looked into it, we were able to find some references to it, in the local newspaper, there's an Arizona Republic article in 1965, and they actually advertised it as the “first in the nation attraction opens in Tempe,” and they called it the Dry Surf Skate Board Rink. It looked like it had rolling hills, it had some bank turns to it. There was a freestyle area. And so we named our exhibit "Dry Surf," just a sort of a reference and a tribute to that first in the nation skate park that we think we had in Tempe.
SAM DINGMAN: And where did the idea to do an exhibition built around skating come from?
ROFFLER: I felt that there was a really strong community. It was clear that there were people who had, spent their lives skateboarding, that had raised their children skateboarding. You know, skateboarding, it's been around for over 60 years now in Arizona, and so it's high time to really take this seriously as a historic subject.
DINGMAN: So, speaking of that, Rob, let me ask you, as I understand it, you've been skating since you were 10 years old.
ROB LOCKER: Got my first skateboard at the swap meet when I was 10, yes.
DINGMAN: So you don't have to give your exact age if you don't want to, but how long have you been skating?
LOCKER: I'm 58.
DINGMAN: OK, there we go. So, call it 48 years.
LOCKER: Yeah, I mean, I really, really got into it in about 1984, 1985, my junior, senior year of high school. I noticed some other kids doing it in my school. They were open enough to bring me in and show me the ropes, and I'm still friends with those dudes today. It's the one thing I never quit. My parents couldn't believe it. The one thing I just kept doing was that, skateboarding.
DINGMAN: When you saw these other guys doing it, what made you curious about it? Like, what did you like about it?
LOCKER: Oh, it just looks like the funnest thing ever. Just gliding around on skateboards, going up transitions and full pipes and just having a blast and hanging out, it just looks so much fun. I just, something I just really wanted to do.
DINGMAN: Yeah, totally, totally. So am I right though that, you know, we're talking today because, among other things of this very interesting discovery Josh was just telling about dry surf. But if I'm not mistaken, in the ’80s, there weren't a lot of skate parks. The community was a little bit more ad hoc in terms of finding places to skate. Is that right?
LOCKER: Absolutely. We started building our own stuff, ramps, half pipes, empty swimming pools were always an option. I mean, this is the land of swimming pools and —
DINGMAN: Although probably hard to find an empty one, I would think.
LOCKER: No, not at all. I mean, we didn't have Google Maps back then, but we could tell when a house was being renovated or moved out on or abandoned or whatnot. I've had some friends that have actually rented a small plane back then and with a map and flown over Phoenix and found some spots. I'm not naming any names, but you know who you are.
DINGMAN: Wait, so tell me what happens after that. Do they then come to you guys like with a literal printout and like Xs and and circles on it?
LOCKER: No, it was very, very underground then. Back then, a pool could come and go within a day or hours, so we kind of kept things hush. It was not really favorable amongst the neighbors and the local authorities, so it's technically trespassing and vandalism, whatnot, even though the pool, when we would get them, they would be in such a state of disrepair, they'd have to be totally redone anyway. So that was our philosophy.
And every pool was different so it was like, everything, you just wanted to try everything you could because you got a hunger for it. It was almost like an addiction. It was the thrill of the hunt and the find, and the thrill of not getting busted and going to skate another day.
DINGMAN: So, skateboarding has always had this reputation of anarchy and lawlessness that's been associated with it. And I'm just curious what you make of that. I mean, was that something you were conscious of at the time? Did it feel like this taboo thing? I mean, now it's part of an exhibition at a history museum, which is, you know, doesn't necessarily connote this underground rogue community.
LOCKER: Well yeah, like during my time, like the mid-’80s, early mid-’80s, it was basically illegal almost everywhere, even skating down the street in some towns. So, yeah, there was a rebel, anti-establishment part of it. But, the drive to want to skate was so bad that you would risk it, but we would always be looking behind our backs, you know, like pools, we, we hit a pool and we'd only like be a 10 minute rule before, in and out, get your runs in and get out before the neighbors call or the cops come.
DINGMAN: Skateboarding is thought of now as kind of awesome.
LOCKER: It's really mainstream now and we have all these awesome parks that me and my friends worked for and lobbied for for many years to get the municipalities to start building them, which is amazing. So I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore, really. And it's it, yeah, it's been accepted as a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multiracial kind of activity that all are welcome to and my kids skate. He skates with all my friends' kids who skate.
DINGMAN: Yeah. Josh, how much was that like reputation, something that you guys thought about in putting the exhibition together, cause I imagine there are still some people who look sort of askance at skating, for better or for worse.
ROFFLER: Yeah, I think that's right. And I think that one of the things that we wanted to do with the exhibit is to maybe get people to know the skateboarding community a little bit more.
DINGMAN: What was the perceived nuisance? Was it like the noise of the skateboard? What was it that people were worried about?
ROFFLER: You know, I think, I think they were worried about being run down on the sidewalk. I mean, I think they saw, you know, kids going fast out of control, where they're trying to to walk their dog or something, and, you know, maybe maybe being spooked by that. So I think that was that. I think it was sort of a lack of understanding and then sort of a risk to bodily harm is why. And then and then the fact that there was really no, safe or legal, place to do it for a long time. So, any place you're skating, you're not supposed to be doing that.
DINGMAN: Was any of the ethos, Rob, for you around skating political? Because I know that a lot of skate culture, speaking very generally, has really embraced punk rock, a kind of anti-establishment sort of energy, and I have to imagine that in being a skater, you were exposed to that kind of music, exposed to people who were parts of those movements. Was that part of any of the appeal for you?
LOCKER: I wasn't politically motivated to skateboard, but the ethos behind it is actually, yeah, with punk rock, but the ethos is “Do it yourself, do everything yourself, figure it all out on your own and things will happen.” I mean, sure, some of our favorite bands, Jodie Foster's Army, sounds politically motivated, but, it's kind of just a tongue-in-cheek kind of thing at first. But yeah, it really stirred up a lot of people and Placebo Records eventually got investigated by the FBI for some of their “racy graphics” they put on their skateboards because of Jodie Foster's Army.
DINGMAN: So that's the band, JFA. You're wearing a JFA hat, and Yeah, Jodie Foster's Army was what, a reference to Hinckley, is that right?
LOCKER: It was a reference to John Hinckley attempting to assassinate the president, and, and, you know, it wasn't really about hurting someone or killing someone. It was just about taking down the whole establishment and getting to skate wherever you want.
DINGMAN: So, talk a little bit about JFA's role in popularizing skate culture. They literally have a song called “Skateboard Anarchy,” and the line that really stuck out to me is, “They don't see the possibilities.”
LOCKER: He's saying, ”You don't see the possibilities we have,” and that related to whatever career path a lot of us chose, and a lot of us just became really successful at whatever we did because of skateboarding, and we'll all blame skateboarding for it.
DINGMAN: How is that taking shape in your life?
LOCKER: I always loved skateboarding graphics and the culture and the whole look of things. One thing led to another and I started doing my own graphics, because I learned how on my own. And here I am now. I get to design my own rock albums now, you know, so it's just something I kind of naturally grew into.
