How did three new Olympic sports get their gear?
Tools of the Trade is the bonus film to World Debut, which I directed, for YouTube Originals and the Olympic Channel. Phil Hessler directed this one at Think Less. In twenty minutes it tells how skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing got their gear: the skateboard wheel, the surf fin and the climbing anchor, from mountaineering in 1865 to Waikiki in the early 1900s and Venice in the 1960s, with Tony Hawk, Pat O’Connell and Emily Harrington.
Tools of the Trade
World Debut’s companion film
It started in 2020 as a four-episode animated series and was recut into a single film. Narration and hand-drawn cut-out animation carry the history, around presenters shot in Vista, California in April 2021.
It came out on the Olympic Games YouTube channel in July 2021, for YouTube Premium. The reel here is our 52-second cut; the full film lives on YouTube.
A Think Less production
For YouTube Originals and the Olympic Channel
Directed by Phil Hessler
Written by Jack Hessler and Lauren Steele
Animation by John McColgan
With Tony Hawk, Pat O’Connell and Emily Harrington
Athletes featured in the series
Skateboarding, surfing and climbing enter the Olympics.
NextWorld
Debut
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