Go Skateboard Day Skateboarder Art

Go Skateboarding Day. 

One of the great activities of the last 70 years is skateboarding.  And what better day than to relive the past is to dig out the skateboard buried in the basement or garage and head out to a nice concrete spot and celebrate Go Skateboard Day.

 I did some skateboarding when I was in my teens and early twenties.  Much later, after I was first married we had moved into our first home.  It was in my old neighborhood so some of the neighbors knew me.  But I was older now, married and settled down with a small child of my own.  One day there was a knock at the front door.  A kid about twelve from the group spoke up and asked, “Can John come out and play?”  They wanted me to come out and skateboard with them.  My wife turned to me and said, “Get your skateboard but be home by dark”.

About the Skateboarder Art

 And here is a piece of skateboarder art that I did a few years ago.  I live in a town of both surfers and skateboarders.  Only a few blocks from me is a promenade along where a couple of good surfing spots are located.  So the surfers gather in the parking lot and in between trips to the water some will break out their skateboards.  Others are just skaters coming down to watch the surfers and skate. In the case of this skateboarder, she was standing on the promenade looking out at the surf at Ventura Point in Ventura, Ca.

Surfer Jeff Ho Portrait Sports Art Surfing

Surfer Jeff Ho portrait

Painting by sports artist John Robertson

50” x 72” acrylic on unstretched canvas

Surfer art Jeff Ho, Z-Boys

Jeff Ho was one of the original Z-Boys of skateboard and surfing fame.  Z-Boys were a group of skateboarders in the 1970's from South Santa Monica and Venice, California who are credited with inventing modern skateboarding.  Jeff had started a local surf team and later a skate team named Zepher Surf Team and Zephyr

Skate team which is how the they became to be known as Z-Boys.  Jeff Ho opened Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions, a surf shop in the Venice Beach area in 1971 and closed it in 1976.  By the way, Jeff still shapes boards and they are still available on line along with other surf and skate products. A bit of Jeff’s story was told, along with his team in the the 2001 documentary film, Dogtown and Z-Boys, and a 2005 biographical film, Lords of Dogtown.

Opportunity to Paint Portrait of surfer Jeff Ho

I first met Jeff Ho in Venice around 2000 when visiting my future wife in Venice, Ca.  One of my wife’s best friend lived next door to her in Venice and she happened to be Jeff Ho’s girlfriend during the Z-Boys days in Venice.  They were still good friends and sometime surfing partner’s to her husband.  He came around regularly to their house and I would speak with him, not knowing his past history.  I just always admired the surfboards he usually had hanging on his car.  They were beautifully painted and shaped.  Because he had an interesting face I asked him if he minded that I paint his portrait.  Being the great guy he is, he agreed.  Only after a few months after completing the painting did I ever find out who we was and his history.   

The skateboard you see photographed is one I made for a skateboard auction fundraiser.  It seemed appropriate to create the surf deck with the image of Jeff on it.