1975 saw the Zephyr skate team from Santa Monica (better known as the specific area of Dogtown), California competing in the Del Mar national Skateboarding competition.
The "Zephyr surfboard production" surf shop was an integral part of the local surf culture, and had branched out into skateboard production, coinciding with the invention of urethane wheels. Kent Sherwood (Jay Adam's step-father) who owned a fiberglass shop, was approached by Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk of Zephyr Surf Shop to create a Zephyr skateboard.
Riding low, fast and hard, the Zephyr team took the existing version of gymnastic, handstand based skateboarding, fueled it with the aggression of the streets, and things would never be the same again.
At first an alternative to surfing when the waves were flat, skateboarding soon took priority for a group of skate/surfers eager to prove themselves. Hitting the local schools in an attempt to mimic the big wave surf styles of their idols, the Zephyr team, or Z-Boyz as they came to be known, quickly developed into a phenomenon in their own right.
The phenomenon continued as California found itself in the grip of record droughts, causing many residents to empty their swimming pools. The Z-Boyz saw opportunity, and dove right in to these newly exposed playgrounds, sneaking into people's back yards, skating as long as they could, and then running to avoid the inevitable police presence. The embodiment of an opportunistic, anti-establishment sentiment that remains evident in skateboarding to this day.
The finest example of this being Jay Adams, not only a 1st generation Z-Boy, but regarded as one of the best skateboarders ever, due in large part to his carefree aggressive style of attacking pools and streets.
The nature of skateboarding eventually took it's toll on some of the Zephyr team- and in 1976 Kent Sherwood, Jay Adams' step-dad, broke away from Zephyr and started EZ-RYDER with half of the original Zephyr skaters including Jay Adams, Tony Alva and Jim Muir.
6 months later EZ-RYDER changed it's name to Z-Flex.
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