Skateboarding: Kiwi filmmaker captures legend's pilgrimage to US circuit

Being a large-framed, pale-skinned Maori with a bushy ginger beard immediately set Lee Ralph apart on the skate scene. Picture / Alex Dyer

Auckland independent filmmaker Alex Dyer is putting the finishing touches on a feature length documentary about reclusive and often forgotten New Zealand skateboarding legend Lee Ralph.

Barefoot - The Lee Ralph Story explains the 48-year-old's trail-blazing journey as one of the country's most respected and internationally renowned professional skateboarders through the mid-1980s, and what happened to him in the years after he fell out of public view in the early 1990s.

Auckland-born Ralph headed to the US in 1986, where he established himself as a professional alongside the biggest names in the business.

His mainstream success was fleeting, as he was deported two years later, just as his career was beginning to take off on the back of a sponsorship deal with industry giant Vision. He later spent time living in Europe and maintained a profile on the pro circuit before returning to relative anonymity in New Zealand where he is an artist.

Dyer hopes the project will uncover Ralph's influence on the country's skate scene to a new generation, and reveal his unique story to the masses.

"As a youngster in England, I had a poster of Lee on my wall and I met him when I came to New Zealand, when I was about 20," Dyer explains.

"At that point in the 80s, no one from outside America had made it and for someone from New Zealand to go over there and kick it with the big boys and get a pro model, when that was virtually unheard of, is just a beautiful thing.

"Real diehard skaters at least know that he existed, but the young ones, of course they don't, because he hasn't been around for so long."

More than two decades after Ralph carved a name for himself as a physically rugged and imposing character with a raw and innovative skating style to match, Dyer found Ralph's former peers were only too happy to pay tribute to his genuine personality and undeniable skating talent.

"Everyone I hit up to be in the documentary, the biggest names you could think of, everyone was super keen to do it," he said. "Tony Hawk, Mark Gonzales, Christian Hosoi, everyone was just like 'yep, sweet' straight away and they're all in the documentary talking about him, which is testament to the sort of human he is. He wasn't there that long but he made an impression and everyone remembers Lee in a really positive light."

Many of their recollections stem around Ralph being a gregarious character unconcerned with the commercial trends and bulging egos prominent within the skate scene. Being a large-framed, pale skinned Maori with a bushy ginger beard immediately set him apart and his individuality is what came to define him, both as a person and skater.

"Everyone was like, 'who's this big pig hunting sort of dude?' But then he skated and had real finesse and did really technical stuff.

"He also brought some fun to it. Everyone would be serious but he'd be having a joke, making friendships and having a laugh."

While for some there is an inherent sadness in Ralph's unfulfilled potential as a pro skater, Dyer is certain there is nothing tragic about his story.

"To be up there beating some of his idols in contests and being friends with them, he thinks he's the luckiest man alive. So there's not a speck of tragedy in it. He's got a very positive outlook."