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George Powell and Stacy Peralta’s Bones Brigade dominated the mid-eighties skate world. Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, and Tommy Guererro were the top team with both street and vert talent. They also had two top selling and massively influential skate videos on the market. Stacy and Cab decided that for their third video they should attempt to create a real film, complete with a story line and acting (well, as close to acting as they could get). In 1987 Powell-Peralta launched their third video, The Search For Animal Chin.
If you’ve read this far I’m assuming you skate. And as a skater you are required to already own this video and know every frame by heart. Every line, every scene, every trick…dialed. If you don’t have a copy shut down your computer right now and get to a skate shop. I’m serious. And even if you do have a copy, you’ll be buying this special addition set anyway. If any skate DVD is worth having, this is it. These two discs are filled with extras I used to only dream about.
Let’s start with the first disc. Having watched the original video hundreds of times you’ll skip the regular film and go straight to the commentary version. Here we have all the original Brigade members (Stacy included) giving you a scene for scene account of the movie making process. This is just pure gold. Tommy G’s commentary alone is worth the price of the disc. I won’t give anything away, but the stories here are just amazing. Also included on this disc are 26 music tracks from the Bones Brigade Video Tunes CD which features music from the first three Bones videos. The music ranges from instrumental soundtrack jams to the vocal stylings of Johnny Rad (yup, Skate & Create is included).
The second disc contains a 44-minute documentary as well as a lengthy section of deleted scenes and outtakes. The documentary takes the commentary a step further and goes into the details of the film with the Stacy and the Brigade but also includes insights from skaters and influencers like Grant Brittain, Miki Vuckovich, Sean Mortimer, Jake Phelps and many others. There is also some great footage from the original Chin premiere and great inside information like the origin of Johnny Rad.
“And if we don’t find him that’s OK cause we had a rad time anyway…” – Tommy G, the Cadillac rap.
Even after almost 20 years, the main message of Chin remains the same…skateboarding is much more than contests, sponsorship, money, or even neon T-shirts and head gaskets. It’s about having a good time with your friends and not taking yourself, or your skating, too seriously. I think too many skaters (and companies) have forgotten this as of late. Watch this DVD and get refueled.
Check out Powell-Peralta’s Chin page and trailer.
- Chris

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