On wheels or waves, it’s all about the board
Long before Hawk took flight, another Tony was skateboarding’s biggest star. His last name is Alva, and aside from catching air, he’s caught some screen time. He starred alongside Leif Garrett in the 1978 skatesploitation flick “Skateboard,” tore it up in 1986’s “Thrashin’ ” and was documented alongside his fellow Zephyr team members in 2001’s “Dogtown and Z-Boys.” The same crew now has its past fictionalized in the film “Lords of Dogtown,” which opens on Friday.
Alva, 47, who’s relocated from Santa Monica to San Clemente, still runs Alva Skateboards, the company he launched when he was 19. His weekends begin Friday evening when he closes up his shop in Oceanside and grabs his board.
Friday night skate
We’ll go skate a pool or a drainage ditch or maybe a skate park depending on what is new and happening. We’re usually skating backyard-style stuff because that’s the most fun. I’d rather have something that’s not built for skateboarding -- the side of a building, an empty swimming pool, a drainage ditch, a sewer pipe, maybe a smooth long downhill, whatever is skate-able. When I’m in Santa Monica, I skate Bicknell Hill, Ocean Park and Paul Revere [school]. In the evening, we’re usually playing music, because a lot of us are musicians and DJs. We have a studio behind my shop where we record music.
Surfing’s like yoga
On Saturdays we usually go to Antoine’s in San Clemente. We meet there, have coffee and check the surf. They have killer poached eggs.
Every day is surfing no matter what. It’s like yoga. First thing in the morning, that kind of tunes you up, gets the biorhythms straight and flexibility in the muscles. I usually surf at Trestles, which is one of the most famous surf spots in the world.
After that, we usually skate. We’ll take the little kids with us, like my son, who’s 10. We’ll go to San Clemente skate park and skate with them there. Usually for lunch we’ll go to this coffee shop near my shop called the Hill Street Cafe. The best thing for the middle of the day is the tuna torte. If you go there, you’ve got to have it.
For dinner there’s a really good Italian place called Sonny’s. There’s always a wait to get in, but it’s worth it because it’s the most affordable and best place to eat in San Clemente. It’s kind of like a meeting place with a really cool atmosphere. The stuffed shells are to die for. They’re like, the bomb. The other thing that is really good is the Margherita pizza, but we add sausage or pepperoni to it. That’s unbelievably good because of the sauce, the garlic and the combination of the basil. There’s nothing like it.
Southwest fiesta
Sundays are a good day to surf because people are hung over and partied out, and they don’t like to get up early in the morning, so if you’re on top of it you can get some uncrowded quality waves.
After that, we all get together and make our own deal. A lot of my friends are from the Southwest, and they all cook. They’re not like hackers, bachelors, just throwing garbage in a frying pan. They really know green chiles and red chiles and Southwest-style cooking. So we all get together and make barbecue and tacos and have like a big fiesta.
-- Craig Rosen