DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys

"Zack Raffin: I’ve definitely been pushed by my personal involvement in these stories and have even found myself envious of just how free some of them are within a world that can be so confining. I’d be lying if I hadn’t been scrolling online for used Vans more than once throughout this process… As opposed to working for a title or media outlet where you’re trying to push a specific narrative, I started each interview of Into The Wild with the banner of ‘there is no agenda here, whatever you want to share you can.’ That was incredibly refreshing. MB: I absolutely love the original film Dogtown and Z-Boys ! It helped me to have a deep insight into the history of Venice Beach and how the surf and skate culture is completely intertwined in this particular melting pot – I would say Venice is the center of the world for the marriage of surf and skate culture with all the grittiness and grunge that comes along with it. “The light in California is totally unique.” All of the characters in my book are surfers but have a skate background. Most of them started as skate kids and branched into surfing when they moved to the California coast or got injured skating. They had to find an activity that was less harsh on their bodies so they chose the waves over the concrete skateparks. One of the van guys told me that surfing is like skating only the slopes are constantly changing – I thought that was a beautiful analogy."