It's worth noting that surfer Mickey Dora was probably the originator of putting a swastika on a board, and that he did it in part to curtail people taking pictures of his surfing without his permission, since he wisely surmised newspapers wouldn't print (or pay for) them. The Black Knight wanted his cut of the profits! That doesn't excuse the insensitivity of the act but does speak to the origins. The idea of "I'm a surf nazi" was that someone could be fanatically devoted to the activity and as such also want to set themselves completely apart from "straight" society by branding yourself as an outlaw that way. As you can see in the photo, this kid is too young to know better and he's also skating with his mixed-race crew rather harmoniously. Skateboarding, especially in pools was a completely unsanctioned activity that took a certain fanatical devotion to master. It's the most disorganized "Sport" ever, and somewhat intentionally so. "It's not a sport, it's a disease" is something we used to hear a lot. If people looked upon you and treated you like scum, you had a tendency to identify with that, and "lean in." I never put a Nazi symbol on my board but I understood the gesture. Also, google Pacific Home Systems, an early surfboard maker who had a pre-nazi swastika logo that may have had some influence on Dora, hard to say. Note the other graffiti on this board - the Venice rat or pig with the cross-bones style. It's a pirate gesture, embracing the wilingness to face death and to remain on the outside of anything organized. You play organized sports, you play tennis, play football, play golf. You don't play skateboarding. You skateboard. It's what's always set skaters apart from the crowd. It wasn't an activity, it was an identity.
Guest
10-Nov-2012 18:36
yeah i never understood the late 60s/70s fascination with it, i guess the biker culture maybe dunno. Its upsetting im from NY and lately its on the horizon again. It pains me to see but i can assume he knew no better
I gave Rex a hard time for the swastika on his board, and I don't much like seeing it here again. It probably didn't mean much to him, but Venice had a sizable aged Jewish community at that time, people from back East who had retired to California and perhaps not expected to live quite so long. Some had numbers on their arms.....
