The Z-Boys are back in town

Before there were X Games, before there were skate parks on every corner, miniature Tony Hawk figures in every Happy Meal, there was the myth of the Dogbowl -- an expanse of curved and flowing concrete that drew skateboarders like a mythical Siren. It was small, tight and dangerous -- an empty, kidney-shaped swimming pool at the back of a Santa Monica mansion. During the drought of '75, a scruffy band of Venice skateboarders stealthily began skating in empty swimming pools across Beverly Hills and into the Valley. The Dogbowl was one they could glide without worry -- however thrilling -- that the cops or the owners would show up.

On a breezy spring afternoon in Pasadena, the Dogbowl has reemerged, looking blue and shapely, enticing or pernicious depending on your point of view. Black Sabbath blares from speakers, and teenagers in '70s garb -- and men dressed as teenagers -- loll, chat, work, flirt. It's the last official day of shooting on "Lords of Dogtown," inspired by the true story of the renaissance of Southern California skateboard culture, and the set has the slightly loopy feel of a montage from a happy-go-lucky '70s film, all sunlight and breezy and slightly high.

On the rim of the pool lounge the film's leads: John Robinson ("Elephant"), with flowing blond hair, who plays Stacy Peralta; the behatted Victor Rasuk ("Raising Victor Vargas"), who plays alpha dog showboat and future world champion Tony Alva; and Emile Hirsch ("The Emperor's Club"), who's shaved his head and tattooed a zipper down the middle of his skull for his role as the self-destructive renegade Jay Adams. In this scene, they've come to hang out with Sid (Michael Angarano), a composite character who's ill and confined to a wheelchair.

Unlike the other three, Sid is a rich kid, and his dad has let him drain the pool, creating the Dogbowl. They look like they're just chilling, but it's actually a constructed tableau.

"I wish we could be in there," says Catherine Hardwicke, the director, pointing to the bottom of the pool, where she wants to station a crane. A tall, lean, blond Texan in shorts and a sleeveless flowered shirt, Hardwicke was an architect and then a well-known production designer before, at somewhere over age 40, turning into a writer-director with "Thirteen," a drama about out-of-control teenage girls in a destructive folie a deux.