- [white noise] - Ta dum!
[kids laughing]
- [upbeat rock music plays] - [kids yell]
Hi. I'm Zelda, and welcome to City of Ghosts.
On our show, we, the Ghost Club,
look for ghosts around the city to tell us their stories.
Here to bring you today's story is Thomas.
I brought a microphone. You don't have to talk to your hairbrush.
Oh, I like talking to my hairbrush.
Here, you can try.
My name is Thomas. I use "they" and "them" for my pronouns.
I'm the Ghost Club artifact specialist.
- Also, I love to skateboard. - [music plays]
Today, we introduce Sam, from Venice, California.
I already know her because we met at the skate park.
She's kinda like us 'cause we hang out with ghosts.
Maybe something happened to make the ghost show up.
I'll let… I'll let Sam tell the story.
- [moody electronic music plays] - My name is Sam.
I'm eight years old.
I live in Venice, California.
I have a lot of family, but they mostly don't live here anymore.
I stay with my grandma a few blocks from here.
Sometimes I help out at the skate shop, and that's how I got my first board.
[Zelda's brother] How did you learn how to skate?
I learned to skate with my dad holding me,
holding my hands, and he rode me down the… the hills.
The little, like, hills on the ramps. We called it "roller baby bowling."
[laughing]
[Zelda's brother] What are your favorite tricks?
My favorite tricks are shove-it, disaster…
Sometimes, I like doing a 180 off boxes and frontside axle stall.
[Zelda's brother] So is skating, like, your favorite thing?
Yeah. I love it.
Working in a skate, surf, snow shop is really, really fun.
- [rock music plays] - Um…
You know, everyone's, uh…
just got this great amount of energy
because of that pursuit,
because of that hobby.
Um… You know, it's physical, it's outdoors,
so that attracts a certain kind of personality.
So generally, everyone is pretty positive.
Whatever amount of skateboards you saw on the street
in the '90s and early aughts,
uh, that number's, like, shifting more to scooters,
electric scooters, and Birds, and stuff like that.
I've known Sam's family for a while now. Her cousin's a good friend of mine.
Yeah, weirdly,
we used to all work here together back in the'90s.
And Sam's great.
Uh, she does her own thing.
She's got her own style, but I don't know. Lately, I don't see her skating as much.
I'm definitely trying to encourage her
'cause I think she's really good at skating.
But it's not just that. Um…
I wanna see her have fun with other kids.
[moody music plays]
I don't know if she's getting picked on or... or what.
She says she's been hanging out with a ghost.
Not quite sure what to make of that. I don't know.
I thought you guys could maybe hang out with Sam
and talk about ghost stuff.
So, when was the last time you saw the ghost?
Yesterday? I only see him early in the mornings.
- Does he do any ghosty things? - [children chatter]
Well, he's really good at skating, and he's always making up new tricks.
Plus, he can float.
We call it "cloud style."
The other day, he showed me this thing, like…
Who are those guys?
The skate academy kids. There's a lot of them around now.
That's Colton.
[skateboarding]
- Um… Maybe I'll show you later. - [moody music plays]
I feel weird skating in front of all of these strangers.
[children laughing]
My name is Colton.
I moved to Venice last year.
- [seagulls squawk] - [Thomas] You skate a lot, right?
I skate literally every day.
[Thomas] Whoa, you must be really into it.
I mean, I guess.
It's, like, really important.
Go, Colton!
- Awesome! That was killer! - You got it! That's it!
[moody music plays]
Yeah…
But actually, I'm way more into photography.
- What kind of camera is that? - [Zelda's brother] It's a Phantom Cam Z.
So, what about you guys?
Are you skateboard detectives or something?
Actually, we're from the Ghost Club.
We're checking out the area for any ghosts.
Wait, seriously?
[seagulls squawk]
- Meet me at the benches. - [Thomas] Okay. When?
Now.
[mysterious music plays]
[children chatter]
- [Colton] Take a look at these. - [Thomas] Whoa, is that a Furr-ble?
Follow the piles. You'll find what you're lookin' for.
[mysterious music plays]
I just got some sick clues.
Where did you get these from?
My secret informant. Do you recognize any of this?
Yeah, but I thought I was the only one that knew about it.
Knew about what?
The creature's cave.
Come on. I'll show you.
[seagulls squawk]
If you look up here, it's just a heap of old stuff.
But then,
when you're down here,
you can see the creature.
- [electronic music plays] - This is the jackpot!
Look at all this ancient stuff.
It's at least, like, 20 years old.
A flip phone. It still flips.
This is definitely ghost stuff.
They love to leave stuff when they show up so you know they're around.
[Thomas] And it's always important.
[birds chirp]
Oh. Like the creature's snack box?
- What's that? - Here, look.
Sometimes my ghost friend leaves important things in here.
- [clanking] - Oh, man!
It's a VHS tape.
It's, like, full of YouTubes.
[seagulls squawk]
Oh!
- It has your name on it. - Cool.
I know someone who can help us open this.
[laughing]
That's a videotape,
- also known as a VHS tape. - [light rock music plays]
That's pretty cool.
We would have nights where we would just watch, um, tape after tape after tape
and just really break down a lot of the tricks or sequences.
[clicking]
[Sam] Whoa!
It's eating the tape.
[Sam laughs]
And just really have a great time
sitting in front of the TV, rewinding the VCR over and over again.
[white noise]
[Sam] Whoa! How did they do that?
[Thomas] That was so awesome!
[Sam] Oh, my gosh. That was so cool.
[Thomas] No way!
[boy's voice] My favorite dinosaur is stegosaurus.
I love him.
I can draw him all day.
Hey, that's my ghost friend.
Whoa!
Big, big fan of his.
My parents bought me one skateboard, and I was so excited.
And two weeks later, it got stolen at a donut shop.
And I don't know why I like donuts so much still.
Hmm. Donuts.
I got an idea.
I got, like, every kind of donut.
- I hope he's hungry. - [birds chirp]
Where's this creature you guys keep talking about?
Oh.
It's, uh… It's trash.
You have to get down, like this.
[mysterious music plays]
[laughing]
Oh! Okay. That's awesome.
All right. What now?
Hello! We got donuts!
[mysterious music plays]
[bushes rustle]
Yeah! What?
Colton?
Oh, no.
I heard you guys saying, "donuts."
Can I have one?
[Colton] Hmm. You don't have my favorite, so I guess I'll have the glazed.
I like to come here really early in the morning.
The light's killer for taking pictures.
[camera click]
And then this super cool stuff started showing up
- and turned into the creature. - [music plays]
[Colton] And someone's been adding to it, and it keeps growing,
so I come back and take photos.
That's how I met Bagel.
He's been helping me 'cause he's really good at photography.
[John] Uh, who's Bagel?
He's over there.
[reverberating tone]
Uh… Hang on a sec.
Hey, Bagel. These are my friends. You wanna meet them?
[reverberating ringing]
[birds chirp]
My name is Bagel. I'm from Venice.
So, what's this interview for?
It's for our club.
We try to talk to every ghost we meet on the record.
That's awesome. Very cool.
[Thomas] So, what was it like growing up here?
Skateboarding was a huge part of
mine and my friends' identities growing up
in Venice, skateboarding and surfing.
Venice was the mecca back in the day.
- It was very chaotic. - [breezy music plays]
It was extremely volatile, and it was very fun.
The people that I grew up with were artists in some way,
whether they were photographers, or people that drew or painted,
and/or all of the above, you know?
Or wrote poetry or songs and played music.
We all very much were that way because of the freedom that we had.
Definitely. It... it definitely plays a giant part.
If you constrict someone,
you're not gonna get the best of that person.
Totally.
- Are there still artists in Venice? - There'll always be artists in Venice.
The whole community is based off of art, for the most part,
and the kids,
the new generation, they're following in our footsteps,
and they're carrying on that tradition.
[Thomas] Is there anything else you wanna tell people?
Don't try to change what makes this city beautiful to begin with.
[Bagel] My friend gets up every morning at 3 a.m.
and drives down to the skate park and cleans it up.
And he made this promise
that he would do this once the park was built,
and he's kept that promise,
and he's made it a very safe, clean place for kids to come skateboard.
Really? For us?
That's really nice.
He's very cool.
Hey.
Come on!
[reverberating tone]
Uh… What is going on?
It's okay. It's just my friend.
[camera clicks]
[reverberating tone]
My name is D. I'm a pro skateboarder.
How did you get into skateboarding?
I just saw, one day, people skating,
and I just saw the excitement and the smiles and stuff like that.
I was a kid, and I was like, "Wow!"
Why did you come to Venice?
Um, a lot of the videos, in the beginning, were based around Venice.
And that was the hot spot,
like, of some of the best pros in the world that were there.
And they would put ramps up to the back of this wall,
and they had this place called the "Graffiti Pit."
[music plays]
They had round tables that only a few could actually ollie up to 'em,
and that wasalmost a testing ground.
Back then, there wasn't skate parks.
You had to be pretty privileged to get sent to a skate park.
We would skate curb cuts, go behind an alley,
go somewhere we wouldn't get kicked out, to a parking lot.
We would build launch ramps we could just fly off of
and push 'em around the streets
till we found a lot where we wouldn't get hassled.
I grew up in that era of, like, making whatever,
provide yourself with fun, build,
and find somewhere that's not provided for you.
And now, every corner I turn,
it's a new skate park, new skate park.
But it's beautiful. It's good.
And it's good for the new generation and the kids to enjoy that.
Now it's like there's a lot of pros that I grew up idolizing
that just hang out there.
I feelthese kids should do their history,
and they'll realize that they're standing next to some of these amazing legends.
You see some guy cleaning stuff,
he's probably an old pro that loved that place with all his heart,
treats it like a kid, and, um… you can learn a lot from that,
and they should go up to those guys and say thank you
'cause they help make that place happen.
- [birds chirp] - Any other questions?
Just one.
Who made the creature cave?
Well, me and Bagel were in the park and just found all this stuff
and trash that people left behind, and we made the creature cave.
I noticed Sam had kinda stopped skating, and I thought maybe it was
'cause she hadn't made friends with the kids.
So, I started skating with her early in the morning.
Then me and Bagel thought,
"Well, let's build this weird sculpture out of all the trash we found,
and then maybe the kids would all find it and get to know each other."
There's so many people at the skate park, I started feeling like I was in a zoo.
I guess I started feeling weird skating in front of so many strangers.
But skating with my ghost friend was way fun,
and I'd skate with Bagel or Colton too now.
[upbeat music plays]
Go, Sam!
- Whoo! - [cheering and applause]
Yeah, Sam!
- Yeah! Whoo! - Yo, that was sick!
Yeah, buddy.
[cheering and applause]
[laughing]
It's been really great.
The kids are all sharing stuff with each other.
Sam's totally coming out of her shell, skating and… and having fun.
I took this photo of her.
Check it out. She got, like, three feet above coping.
We're making a zine about our favorite things.
Colton's taking the pictures, and I'm the editor.
So, oh… so it's "zeen," not "zyne."
It's "zeen."
Like, you know, like "magazine."
Oh. I get it.
[Thomas] It's a photocopy machine from the 20th century.
And it still works.
[Sam] A zine's something you can make alone,
but it's a lot more fun doing it with friends.
[Sam] And D drew the cover.
JP talked to people in the neighborhood,
and they're gonna put our zines in their stores.
[upbeat music plays]
[D] I just think, appreciate it.
Soak it in.
Enjoy it, and, um, don't take it for granted.
And just go out there too and skate around.
Get out of the skate park. Go around that area.
You're rolling on some history.
[upbeat music playing]