Skateboard Heroes, The Bicentennial, and Rock and Roll! 1976 to 1981 Kicked Ass for Us Kids!

The Legend. Jay Adams in a West Los Angeles swimming pool in 1976.Credit…Glen E. Friedman, all rights reserved

To skateboarders, Adams was an evolutionary figure. He came from a generation of surfers for whom skateboarding was sidewalk surfing. They infused it with aggression and attitude…“Jay embodied our culture and our lifestyle all in one,” said Christian Hosoi, a professional skater and a friend of Adams’s.”

The Day I Chose Rebellion: Chapter Two

Summer of 1976 was an explosively beautiful and symbolic parade of pageantry. Especially for a boy so amazed with life, and who’d not yet learned that every kid’s world isn’t like mine. I return there often, if only for the bliss that childishness brings, and then leaves. Sometimes I’m aware of it — a song will trigger a memory of the smell of charcoal grills and chlorinated water. It’s reminiscently amniotic: the temperature of pool water on a July night, the colors and muffled, underwater sounds of outdoor speakers blaring Wings, and The Starland…