Tony Alva

More than 50 years ago, riders in California first put wheels on a plank, called it a skateboard and brought the sport of ocean surfing onto dry land. Then cheap foreign labor drove many builders overseas or out of business, leaving entrepreneurs such as Tod Swank wondering whether "made in California" would become a thing of the past. In 2005, Swank got a chance to slow the exodus. The former pro skater was selling his own brands of boards manufactured by San Diego-based Watson Laminates, one of the first of the "old school" manufacturers to move into laminated products from boards carved out of solid pieces of wood.

LAIRD (heart) GABBY Laird Hamilton, big-wave surfer, and Gabrielle Reece, former pro volleyball player When your daily life takes you from Malibu to Maui to follow the surf and the seasons, getting away from it all takes on a whole different meaning. Sports super-couple Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle Reece head to Tahiti for romance--and family fun. The husband and wife, who met in 1995 when Hamilton was a guest on Reece's cable talk show, "The Extremists," return often to the South Pacific outpost for its sense of remoteness.

Riding on a prayer and four spinning wheels, Tony Alva bombs a hill into traffic, perfectly timing his run into an intersection as the light turns green. Next comes Jay Adams, dropping from his roof into an alley before ramping up and riding over a parked car. Later, they'll join Stacy Peralta -- to skitch off the back of a bus and skate the smooth, curving concrete of drought-drained swimming pools.

Ahead of MOCA's sweeping "Art in the Streets" exhibition, opening April 17 at the Geffen Contemporary, The Times interviewed three street art pioneers from the show: Chaz Bojórquez, Craig Stecyk and Risk. A Q&A with Stecyk follows below; read the rest of the story here and here . Craig Stecyk helped define the surf-skate-punk-graffiti aesthetic of Venice and Santa Monica in the 1970s by publishing his photographs of Dogtown and Z-Boys skaters in various magazines.

Blood gleams on contestant No. 45's left shoulder and knee and stigmata-like from the palms of both hands after a slam onto the hot, gravelly blacktop. But Heidi Fitzgerald couldn't think of a better way to spend her 26th birthday than at the Vans All Girl Skate Jam last Sunday in San Diego. That's right, no boys allowed. Well, only to watch. And to judge and emcee. Skateboard legend Tony Alva co-hosted the event, declaring that "this is the future of skateboarding."

IT was hard to remember to look at faces. All eyes were busy scanning wrists, hands, necks and case upon case of deluxe bling. After all, this was the grand opening of the new Harry Winston flagship salon at 310 N. Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It's just a short walk from the original store at 371 N. Rodeo that has dazzled passersby and important collectors alike since 1986. For the Jan.

June 1977: With graceful aggression, skateboard legend Tony Alva flies the finger as he pivots a backside edger on the lip of a bone-dry swimming pool in Beverly Hills. August 1981: Sweating through tattered jeans, a bald Henry Rollins, neck veins bulging, moves to the crushing chords of fellow Black Flag band members Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski during a gig at Costa Mesa's infamous Cuckoo's Nest.

IF the Z-Boys didn't party too late or too hard the night before, Tony Alva would be up with the first hint of sunlight in his Venice beach studio in 1977, "networking" by phone for the best spots to surf. Although his legend is sealed in skateboarding -- as a dominating presence with rock star posturing and the hardest-core approach to the then-new terrain of empty swimming pools -- Alva's first love was always the waves.

Loose cannon, reckless renegade, skateboarding savant. These are all apt descriptions for Jay Adams, one of the prominent members of the Zephyr skateboarding team (the Z-Boys) featured in the coming-of-age flick "Lords of Dogtown." Charged with channeling the eccentric and self-destructive Adams is Emile Hirsch, who starred in last year's romantic comedy "The Girl Next Door" and who played a rebel of another sort in "The Emperor's Club" with Kevin Kline.