Deep Winter Book Review: ‘Skateboard Culture’ by Morgan Bouvant and Sébastien Carayol

🔑 Words by Adam Abada

QS staff meateorologist Matthew Perez informs us that 18 inches of snow is coming to New York on Sunday. Sounds like a good time to crack a book. Here’s a review of the newest and biggest skateboard book I know of.

Skateboard Culture is beautifully printed – you notice this immediately. It feels like a relic; a literal tome of knowledge. Authors Morgan Bouvant and Sébastien Carayol have curated a careful chronological assessment of skateboarding in a form worthy of both Phaidon and Britannica. (Though it’s printed through 10 Speed Press.) The subtitle “Skateboarding From the 1970s to Today” adds to its encyclopedic look and feel, but opening and reading Skateboard Culture feels more like an art book crossed with a magazine. It stakes a vast claim, beginning with figures looming large in general culture: a philosophical forward and preface 1-2 punch by Spike Jonze and Busy P, former manager turned producer/record label owner.

Turning pages farther feels like entering a contemporary museum, something Betsy Gordon at the Smithsonian might want to produce in brick and mortar form should they give her the green light. The book is history, how-to guide, and scrapbook all in one. While dense in knowledge, Skateboard Culture works as a beautiful and easy-to-peruse coffee table art book, with bite-size sections guiding your eye around the page. It acts more like a 90s kids magazine’s bonus activity book in the best way – something a pre-internet cool parent would knowingly get for a child with a burgeoning interest. Do you remember Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life? It’s a little like that, but bigger.

Like its name suggests, Skateboard Culture encourages you to leaf around and take in the culture of skateboarding from any given year. Rather than trying to cram every yearly detail into the book’s chronological structure, the story of skateboarding unfolds from different viewpoints, allowing for varying through-lines. One could go from Dogtown in the 70s to a chronicling of New York City in the 80s, to hip-hop in the 90s, to Piss Drunx in the 2000s. The writing is informative, simple and clear. It successfully pulls off the textbook trick of distilling a whole other book’s worth of information on a topic into a few paragraphs. Pulling a year like 2005 reveals sections on mega ramps and women gaining mainstream entry into the competition angle of skating. Any other year may feature interviews with legendary pros from Tony Alva and Lizzie Armanto, skater-penned top 5 lists, mixtapes, looks into sticker drawers, skateboarding’s best cinematic moments, an ode to small wheels, and analysis of fashion and music trends. They all combine to cover the ground of the top cultural contributions and biggest historical takeaways from each year.

Bouvant and Carayol have the balance of historians, attempting to give credit to people who may not have received their dues in their moment. A good amount of national locales are covered and I was especially interested in all the European details that the French authors included. The gorgeous printed and nuanced selection of photography makes this book stand alone even among photo books. A random flip to any page may yield a full bleed photo I’ve never seen — like a Ron Allen gap ollie in Le Grand-Bornard from 1991 or a varial heel from Mike Carroll at EMB. There’s also features like the most high-res artwork I’ve personally seen for Santa Cruz’s Streets of Fire, and a reprinting of Clark Hassler in a hot tub on that unforgettable orange background making a lewd crack about the reader’s sister. The latter led me right into a quick five-page segment about skateboarding’s ad culture as exhibited by enjoi.

This is one of the book’s cleverest hooks: it can lead you to knowledge by its pinpoint editing and impressive design. It works as a history lesson that is informative for newcomers, helpful for the middle, and deeply nostalgic for aesthetes. Bouvant and Carayol have taken a colossal endeavor and tidily summed up its fifty years worth of parts in a sturdy package that they put their hearts into.

Previously: Spring Reading Round-Up: ‘Pray For Pigeons,’ ‘Laser Quit Smoke Massage’ & ‘Chipped’ + Holiday Book Review (& Excerpt!) — ‘Right, Down + Circle: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’ by Cole Nowicki