Talk:Skaterdater

Comments by Michael Mel
(he played the main character) on the "Images of the Week" article.

Subject: Hi from a guy in the movie SkaterDater (1965) Date: Sat, 22 May 2004

Hi. A friend sent me a reference to your short article about the movie SkaterDater. I was the main character (the kid who fell for the girl and was ostracized from the rest of the "gang"). Your article is right on target on just about everything. We ALWAYS skateboarded bare foot and did just about everything else that way too. One minor inaccuracy in the article states that the director (Noel Black) picked us up off the street. Not true. We had a skateboard club called the "Imperials", named for the brand of spray paint we happened to be painting our boards with when the idea of a club struck. We were all entered in the 1965 National Skateboard Championship in Santa Monica, CA. I happened to win, although I and my buddies all agreed that my good friend Gary Hill had out skated me and deserved the trophy. Anyway, Noel Black and his friend Marshall Backlar had just graduated with Master Degrees from UCLA film school and approached us to be in a documentary about skateboarding. Somehow, it evolved into the little 18 minute drama that was Skaterdater.

Anyway, back to the barefoot part of the story...We were all budding surfers and of course that's always done barefoot. In those days, you paddled boards on your knees and as a result, you got huge calluses on the top of your feet and below the kneecaps. These were known as "surf knots" and were a source of pride to the hard core surfers of the day. Going barefoot was both comfortable and allowed one to exhibit the size of one's surf knots!

Thanks to the author and I hope you find this background entertaining!

Michael Mel —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oakshade (talk • contribs) 14:59, 6 October 2007 (UTC)  (Comment by Oakshade - the preceding section was not written by me, but an anon (probably Michael Mel) in the article, but then it was moved here by me. --Oakshade 15:05, 6 October 2007 (UTC))