Vans Premieres Jeff Grosso’s Loveletter: The Tony Alva Story
Vans’ award-winning feature length documentary ‘The Tony Alva Story’ has been released for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Filmed as part of the late Jeff Grosso’s ‘Love Letters to Skateboarding’, ‘The Tony Alva Story’ shows how Tony helped shape what skateboarding is today by transforming the sport in the 70s.
Press Release:
VANS PRESENTS THE TONY ALVA STORY
Written and Directed by Coan “Buddy” Nichols & Rick Charnoski from Six Stair Productions
*All archival imagery courtesy of Six Stair Productions/Wynn Miller
The year-long wait is finally over! Skateboarding critics and fans worldwide can rejoice today, as Vans, the original action sports footwear and apparel brand, premieres the highly anticipated full-length Loveletters to Skateboarding feature documentary on the legendary “Godfather of Skateboarding”, Tony Alva.
Skateboarding did not start out as a rebellious, anti-authority lifestyle activity. One of the key figures in the early evolution of skateboarding from a wholesome, contest-based “sport” into the freewheeling art form that it is today was none other than the young and ambitious Tony Alva.
The Tony Alva Story is the first-ever feature-length film from the long-running, groundbreaking Vans series, Jeff Grosso’s Loveletters to Skateboarding. The film chronicles T.A.’s humble beginnings on the streets of Santa Monica to his rise to superstardom as part of the legendary Z-Boys. The provoking journey of skateboarding’s original bad boy conveys Alva’s inevitable drug-induced implosion to his ultimate rise from the ashes to accept his rightful place as a beacon of hope and inspiration for generations of skateboarders the world over.
The release of this very special Loveletter to Tony Alva is bittersweet in light of the recent passing of beloved Vans family skate patriarch, Jeff Grosso. Jeff and the Six Stair team worked tirelessly on this film for years. Grosso’s love for Alva was immense as detailed in the emotional final scene of The Tony Alva Story. In this film, we see Grosso more open, emotional and vulnerable than ever before. Grosso regarded Alva, the first skater to catch an air in a pool, as, “the person who taught us we could fly.” When Jeff professes, “I owe my whole life to skateboarding and to you [Tony Alva],” it truly is an indelible moment of pure adoration cemented in time.
Today, 63-year-old Alva is the oldest professional, skateboarder in the world and is considered by many to be the godfather of modern-day skateboarding. Alva’s brand of aggression and bravado in the 70’s set the stage for the way skateboarding would be forever defined.
The Tony Alva Story has won a handful film festival accolades including Best Film and Original Soundtrack at the Oceanside Film Fest, and Audience Awards at the Santa Monica Film Festival and San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Visit Vans.com/tonyalvastory to learn more and view exclusive content from the film’s festival tour over the last year. Read more about Alva’s historic life and official biography here.
