It was at the height of skateboarding's popularity when the cult documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2001. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 were among PlayStation's top-selling games, the CKY crew were watched by 2.4 million viewers a week on MTV's Jackass, and for the first time in history, more American teenagers were riding boards than swinging baseball bats. Even the Red Hot Chili Peppers were name-checking Santa Monica’s Dogtown — the place where it all began — on 2002 single “By The Way”, which went twice-platinum in the USA.

It "documented a revolution," says Tony Alva, the global action sports icon and former Zephyr team poster boy now considered a godfather of modern skateboarding; "the birth of a sport," adds director and skater Stacy Peralta. The film won both Best Director and the Audience Award at Sundance 2001 and sold over a million copies on DVD. It was even adapted for Hollywood, as Heath Ledger vehicle Lords of Dogtown, in 2005.

With the Zephyr team now embracing their 60s, the role of skateboarding in their lives has, unsurprisingly, changed. “It’s an unpredictably aggressive form of sport," Tony says, "it's tough on the body." Wrist fractures, Surfer's ear, and cartilage injuries have transformed how Tony, Stacy and Peggy approach the sport they sensationalised in the 1970s today. "When God designed human knees, he just really fucked up," says Tony. "They're just not designed for what we want to do. We need giraffe knees."

Stacy went from founding skate company Powell-Peralta to cementing himself as a filmmaker, with critically-acclaimed documentaries Riding Giants, Crips and Bloods: Made In America, and Bones Brigade: An Autobiography all following Dogtown. He's still in pain from conducting "over 600 interviews" for the latter, but his passion remains unwavering. Having completed a film campaign focusing on clinical trials for a new HIV medication, he is now in post-production for a documentary on Gerry Lopez, the Hawaiian surfer widely-recognised as one of the best in the world.

For Stacy, focusing your attention on your dreams is the key to living a life that's fulfilling. "And this is coming from someone who was told over and over by school teachers that I wasn't paying attention!"

But perhaps Tony puts it best: "Skateboarding gives me that joy of life… but my job now is to guide, and be more of a teacher. My actions speak louder than anything I could ever, ever say. And I'm still taking baby steps, even at 63 years old, man."

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