Long before Dogtown and Z-Boys or Disney Channel's Brink there was this 1978 classic of wonderfulness. What made the film mostly spectacular though? The skateboarding really took second fiddle to the fact that this was a movie STARRING Allen Garfield, he wasn't just some secondary character, he was the star. There's this great scene where there's closeups of his big bald head with his hair all out of place and and it pans out and his belly is not being hidden in any way, not even an attempt and he's just in this awkward position for about two minutes, talking on the phone to Tony Carbone. That is just a wonderful thing. The fact that he's also some asshole who owes money to the mob and is a con-man for the most part makes this what is supposed to be an innocent film about the California skateboarding circuit in the late 70's (which may or may have not really been as big as proposed here... a $20,000 prize to the winning team and TV's Orson Bean as the event host/MC) so much fun. Added enjoyment for the film includes the fact that two members of the team, "L.A. Wheels" who play Leif's friends are Steve Monahan who was featured in Freewheelin, and Tony Alva who went on to be in Thrashin'... these guys lives are skateboarding... like I said, fuck Tony Hawk. Best part of the film though is that Allen makes out with Kathleen Lloyd, who some may know as Magnum P.I.'s main love interest/female best friend ADA Carol Baldwin on Magnum, P.I., that is just a weird, weird sight. I also like that Sol's (Carbone) hitman/main second hand guy happens to be black... that is sooooo 70's. I almost thought this was actually an 80's film, then I remembered, rollerblading was much more in in the 80's. Yeah, there was Gleaming the Cube and Thrashin and the Back to the Future sequence... but man... who can ever forget Prayer of the Rollerboys... oh wait... nevermind... that was soooo 90's... well, 90's with a 80's twist. Fuck, pop culture can be soo messed up.