Photographic postcard
Everybody is Doing It, Even the Horses Ride at the Round-Up
Walter S. Bowman, Pendleton, Oregon, 1913
Photographic Study Collection, 2005.190.3

The best broncs are considered "outlaws" and viewed as rebels against society with an image of unpredictability. The best ones are mean and tough. The International Rodeo Association conveyed through a publicity information sheet that "power, violence, and rebellion" are "terms of pride" when applied to broncs. Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence writes that "the bronc, central symbol of rodeo, seems to represent an outlaw, a force of resistance to conventional society. Rodeo people believe that its rebelliousness is genetic and cannot be taught. Something within a particular animal causes this behavior, and makes it incorrigible, even though the horse may appear docile at times and go through stages of its life when it appears to have been tamed . . . The unpredictability of a bronc is a key quality, and one which expresses the essence of rodeo itself." It would seem that broncs and skateboarders have similar "outlaw" auras, one naturally derived, the other effectively studied.

Skateboarders listen to punk rock groups such as the Dead Kennedys, Goldfinger, Primus, and Jody Foster's Army (JFA). Lyrics reflect their sense of non-conformity and, in some instances, utilize imagery evoked from their jargon, especially drawing from their glossary of skateboarding tricks. The JFA song, "Skateboard," is an example.

Frontside air--you beef
backside air--you beef
ollie* pop--you beef
can't get up--you bleed

skateboard is all I do
skateboard I'm better than you
ollie in the deep end
backside air over your chin
frontside air--six feet
backside air--six feet
ollie pop--six feet
contorted andrecht** contest sweep

*In 1978 Alan "Ollie" Gelfand revolutionized skateboarding by perfecting what became known as the Ollie. While riding, he pushed downward with his back foot, causing the front of the board to rise. Then jumping with the board, he caused both the board and himself to lift into the air about five inches.

**For those big-air snowboarding aficionados, an Andrecht is a rear handed backside handplant with a front handed grab.

Photographic postcard
Riding Straight-Up
Ralph R. Doubleday, Rock Springs, Wyoming, 1915
Edith Jones Waldo Bliss Collection, R.241.205

Jimmie Ramsay is shown here winning second money at Pinedale, Wyoming rodeo of 1915. Ramsay was one of many unassuming, oftentimes unheralded cowboys who participated in local contests during an era of rodeo infancy which preceded the current times of professionalism, big business and commercialism. Similarly, the sport of skateboarding, from its scooter origins through parts of a roller skate nailed to a board to its clay-wheeled skateboard in the 1950s, had non-commercial, recreational beginnings. Justin Regan writes, "Despite being a relatively new phenomenon, skateboarding . . . has its own rich history of nonconformists, free spirits, and rebels. A segment of the nation's youth reacting against an intolerant stiffening of society's moral fabric as the population at large desperately tries to cope with world events. These . . . , outcasts, and hopeless ne'er-do-wells don't have agents, and you won't see their shiny faces on TV hawking Mountain Dew or Right Guard. But they're still here and they comprise the pure essence and the backbone of what this industry has been built upon."

Photographic postcard
Tex Crockett on "South Dakota," Cheyenne, Wyo
Ralph R. Doubleday, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1919
Edith Jones Waldo Bliss Collection, R.241.248

Two or more mounted hazers kept the bronc from bucking into the crowd, trees, creeks, rocks, cactus, corral, fences, and other obstacles. They would then catch the horse to retrieve the rider (if he was still there) and the saddle. The role of the hazers evolved from one of salutary guidance into that of pick-up men.

In a December 2005 article in The Skateboarding Mag, Justin Regan could have been writing about these early rodeo participants, "The freedom of the individual is alive and well within these rambunctious personalities, living on their own terms and never thinking to ask permission first. This is what gives skateboarding its outlaw bent and its resistance to authority. From here springs defiance and true innovation. This is what makes us, as skateboarders, intrinsically different from the mainstream population. And this is why an outsider will never fully understand or accept some of the things we all take for granted."