411VM 30-ish-Year Anniversary
I drove down past the Orange Curtain today to check out the 30-ish-year anniversary celebration of skateboarding’s original video magazine, 411. ‘30-ish’ because the first issue with Jeremy Wray on the cover was released 31 years ago in the summer of ’93. However, the operation—which later spawned On Video, 411 Snow, 411 Surf and at its peak had nearly 200 employees and a worldwide team of contributors—wasn’t really fully functional until early ’94.
I was invited down by Steve Douglas. Steve launched 411 in ’93 with Josh Friedberg, Paul Schmitt, and Chris Ortiz whilst running New Deal, Underworld Element, and Mad Circle; he also recently unveiled Sidewalk Distribution, born from the ashes of Dwindle’s collapse. enjoi has been revamped as Jacuzzi Unlimited; Bill Weiss’ Madness is now Opera; and Slappy Trucks are in there, too. Sidewalk also just announced the return of Steve Rocco to the skate industry, joining Douglas, Bod Boyle, Weiss, and Louie Barletta at their fledgling distribution project. Having made a small career for myself writing about Rocco through the years, Douglas lured me down to Costa Mesa with the promise of the new Sidewalk ‘SWD’ t-shirt, which is a knock-off of SMA’s old Rocco Division logo.
The day kicked off with a skate session at Costa Mesa Skatepark (formerly known as the Volcom Park) from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Having never skated the park, I took the opportunity to beat traffic and get there early. It offers your standard array of banks, bowls, and ledges; but the one tight-and-wide “Blender” (aka Neil) quarterpipe tucked in the park’s corner was immediately my hit of choice and a trip there is worth your time for that quarter alone.
Pivot fakie on the ‘Blender’ quarter by yours truly.
By 4:30, 411 founders, employees, stars, and affiliates began filtering in. Vern Laird arrived with Dan Corrigan, Chris Hiett and much of the Powell team in tow; Kevin Marks rolled up in the Lookbacklibrary van; Jeremy Wray and Pat Channita started skating the Euro Gap with a still impressive Ron Resurrection; Josh Friedberg rolled up and promptly heelflipped the gap. Meanwhile, Steve Douglas, Paul Schmitt, Bod Boyle, and Bill Weiss sauntered in and conversed with Steve Caballero, Miki Vukovich and Chris Ortiz in a patch of sun by the big bowl. I noticed a bearded gentleman with a hoody and sunglasses mingling with them too. Lookbacklibrary Kevin later clued me in to the fact that it was none other than Jeremy Henderson—SHUT NYC/London skate godfather and ‘70s/’80s legend.
By 6:30 we headed to Skullcandy’s offices a few blocks away (and near the location of the original 411 offices) to find a museum trove of artifacts and ephemera on display from the video magazine’s two-decade run—classic VHS boxes, ¾ tape editing bays, VX cameras, 411 and On Video T-shirts and merchandise, and every cover of every issue hung in chronological order around the room.
Douglas, Ortiz, Friedberg, and Schmitt then sat for a Q&A moderated by Rob Brink. Skate nerd highlights: Mark Gonzales was supposed to be the cover boy and featured part for the first issue, but decided against it at the last minute as he wasn’t sure about video magazines yet. J-Wray stepped in as his replacement and the rest is history. (Gonz later appeared on the cover of Issue 6.)
Chris Ortiz also shared that it was through his aunt that worked at MCA Records that they got rights to near-endless free music. 411 soundtracks were extremely influential, with Guru’s Jazzmatazz; Souls of Mischief’s “93 ‘til Infinity” in the Back to the City contest segment; Paul Simon’s “Obvious Child” in that one South Africa éS tour; or even Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream” in On Video’s opening montage. Hearing about Ortiz’s back door to the music industry explained how they got the rights to those kinds of hits.
Of course, there can be no mention of music and 411 without bringing up the opening “dun dun dun dun…” jingle that every skater on the planet hoped to get a slow-motion clip to. Josh Friedberg explained, “You can blame me or thank me for that.”
After Douglas told Josh he wanted a “Cheers” like song to start each video, Josh had randomly received a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) from one of the sales guys at New Deal (Ken Wood) who’s band called Sol had recorded a song called “The Boxcar”. Josh laid the percussion/horns intro to that song over the very first openers in Issue 1 and the formula was set.
Josh Friedberg explains how the 411 intro song came to be.
As far as the rationale for starting 411, Douglas explained that he was in a London pub one day in ’93 with former R.A.D. Magazine editor Tim Leighton-Boyce right as Big Brother was changing the print landscape with printed video grabs of the latest tricks instead of photo sequences. They looked at the video grabs and wondered, “What will Rocco do next?” TLB apparently became convinced Rocco had a plan to start a video magazine. Believing TLB’s prediction, Douglas decided they would beat Rocco to the punch and make one of their own.
After racing to devise 411, they ultimately realized Rocco hadn’t thought of that. But once everybody found out about 411, skate media quickly changed, with Thrasher (who went as far as firing Ortiz), Transworld, and later Digital, Logic, Progression, Puzzle, and Big Brother all creating video offerings, too.
411 also broke ground by showcasing international skate scenes—something some in the industry were not happy with; they felt it flooded the industry with “no-namers” and diluted the careful marketing of a select few California pros. With Steve Douglas coming from England and Josh Friedberg coming from Kansas, they both felt an obligation to shine a light back on those not fortunate enough to be in sunny CA. They went as far as sending VX cameras and death lenses—free of charge—to filmers around the planet, launching the careers of filmers like like French Fred, Ewan Bowman, Anthony Claraval, Colin Kennedy, and many more.
As the night wound down and I made chit-chat with many of the people I have been fortunate enough to spend the past two decades working with, I was struck by how deep a connection many of us have to 411. During my teenage years and early twenties, I must have watched these videos hundreds or even thousands of times. Thirty(ish) years after I bought Issue 1 at Skateworks in Santa Cruz on my summer vacation, I’d like to give heartfelt thanks to Steve, Josh, Ortiz, Paul, and everyone who ever worked on 411.
I also got the Sidewalk Distribution t-shirt Douglas promised me right before driving back up to LA. Now, let’s sit back and wait to see what the creators of 411 do when they’re actually on the same team as Rocco. “What will Rocco do next?” Go get your popcorn.
