The DIY video era of skateboarding finds its way into a museum exhibition

Before the GoPro and the cell phone camera, there was the handheld video recorder, and it was a revelation for the DIY world of skateboarding.

By the late 1980s, VCRs were smaller and more affordable than ever, and the VHS-format videos they produced were both artful projections of a burgeoning subculture (long before its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics) and instructional guides for aspiring skaters. Circulated freely among competitors and sold in skate shops, these shaky, crudely edited videos shot with fisheye lenses defined the style of an entire generation.

For the first time, the cultural, technical and historical significance of these tapes has been put at the center of an exhibition taking place at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York. “Recording the Ride: The Rise of Street-Style Videos” brings together seminal examples from the late '80s and '90s alongside objects that tell the story.

It may seem counterintuitive to collect artifacts from a cultural movement that was spontaneous and chaotic, and whose representatives probably never expected to be catalogued in a museum. But there is plenty on offer: skateboards (attached to the ceiling, no less), Polaroid photos by celebrated photographer and filmmaker Spike Jonze, VCRs, contemporary notes on scraps of paper, and, of course, plenty of audiotapes.

RB Umali and Danny Supa, 1997. Photo: Sammy Glucksman.

That ingenuity is thanks in part to the well-connected couple who initiated the exhibition: Jacob Rosenberg, a West Coast filmmaker who has made videos for the influential skateboard company Plan B, and Michaela Ternasky-Holland, the daughter of Plan B founder Mike Ternasky. The exhibition was intended to mark the 30th anniversary of Ternasky's death, but the museum saw it as an opportunity to go even bigger.

“The impact of skate video extends beyond the skateboarding community to art, fashion, sports, music, film, and more,” said Barbara Miller, the museum's deputy director of curatorial affairs, in press materials. “With our comprehensive view of the moving image as a reflection and building block of popular culture, MoMI is the ideal cultural institution to explore the origins of this important genre.”

Filming The questionable video (1992). Photo courtesy of Sean Sheffey and Jacob Rosenberg.

While Recording the Ride includes footage from a number of skateboarding groups such as H-Street, World Industries, Birdhouse, 411 and Zoo York, Plan B is prominently featured. There are behind-the-scenes footage of Video Days (1991) and a wealth of artifacts related to The questionable video (1992) and Virtual reality (1993), which are considered to be formative for the genre.

A highlight is The questionable videothe first film Ternasky made after leaving skateboard brand H-Street. It features some of the era's most famous figures, including Rodney Mullen, Mike Carroll and Danny Way, skating to the music of the Beastie Boys, Louis Armstrong and the Doors. As the opening montage wryly puts it, “You have no idea what's going to happen.”

“Recording the Ride: The Rise of Street-Style Videos” is on display at the Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, New York, through January 26, 2025.