The production of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now” was so plagued with disaster that it had a separate documentary, “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse”, made about it in 1991.

Severe weather destroyed sets, skyrocketing the budget, and Coppola clashed with actor Marlon Brando, who frequently forgot his lines and put on so much weight that the production wanted to fire him. The film then came close to shutting down after its other leading actor, Martin Sheen, suffered a near-fatal heart attack.

Over the last ten years, anyone who patiently waited (and waited) for Alex Dyer’s self-produced “BAREFOOT” — an eight-part documentary about Lee Ralph’s intriguing skateboarding journey — could have been led to believe that it too was marred by the similar headaches of “Apocalypse Now”.

Barefoot’s 2015–2025 production timeline was both puzzling and frustrating, yet when it unexpectedly released earlier this year, entirely out of the blue, no one was left disappointed. It proved itself to be a star-studded, heart-warming and comprehensive look into Lee’s rise to late 80s skateboarding fame, leaving no stone unturned.

So why did it take so long? I took a punt and reached out to Alex.

Hey Alex, congrats on releasing the doco. I absolutely loved it. Piecing together such an epic story and giving it the respect Lee deserves, with zero budget or financial backing, is quite an accolade.

Thank you, Daz. Yeah, I’m fuckin’ stoked on how it turned out, even if it took me a third of my entire life to finish it! You know what they say — good things take time… and average things take even longer!

I need to add something here, though. The real man of the match was Lindsay Knight, my oldest friend and utter legend, without him, I doubt this would ever have got over the line. He’s still a knobhead though.

(Laughs) Well, shout out to Lindsay!

Lee Ralph, Paraparaumu Demo. Photo by Craig Harris.

How was Lee to work with? I imagine he’s a hard-to-pin-down character. Were you trying to shoot as much as you could with him when you did link up? Or was it quite the opposite?

Lee is the greatest and friendliest person ever, as I am sure everyone reading this knows. Plus, he loves to talk, even more so when it’s about himself! These attributes together make Lee the perfect interview subject. The man is absolutely ridiculous to be honest, in the best possible way of course – there he was, sinking hundreds of beers, talking endless amounts of shit and having a laugh with us (myself, Johnny Agnew and Eddy Fifield were the original team on the filming days) but as soon as the cameras turned on and I started asking questions, Lee instantly clicked into hyper skate mode and spoke with passion and a memory that I can only describe as extraordinary. Events that happened 30 to 40 years ago were retold as if they had happened last week, with intricate details and the utmost respect for skateboarding. At times, I will admit that I thought he was exaggerating or making stuff up, but every single time, without exception, each and every story was backed up by someone else. We initally had the idea of doing a one-off 5-minute video, but things evolved into this 8-part series when I realised how much Lee had to say, meaning the amount we filmed and how it was structured evolved as the process went on. Lee would talk forever if we let him, which is fantastic – but quite often I would think to myself ‘what on earth is this fella on about?!’ when he was saying stuff that didn’t relate to the question… but, in typical Lee fashion it was always a long-winded, super-detailed story that was leading towards an excellent answer. Lee’s way of speaking is one of the many reasons that he is so interesting and loved by everybody.

As for pinning him down though – yeah, Lee doesn’t care about phones or the internet or any of that shit, so I would make calls to landlines of sort-of-flatmates (Lee lived in a caravan outside a house) or message Lee’s girlfriend Tania to try and organise filming days — “Lee is down, come tomorrow sometime, bring a box.” Thanks for everything, Tans!

Lee Ralph, Slob Fastplant in Jordan 1s. Photo by Kevin Thatcher.

Nice! A box of beer for verbal lubrication!

It seems everything needs a “build-up” these days, but you went totally off-piste and surprised the world by releasing the first two episodes with zero warning. Any reason why?

Honestly, after all the Spittle death threats, “Waiting for Barefoot” memes with bored skeletons, and about 300 messages over the years asking where the damn doco was, I realised that my extremely early “coming soon” promotion was a huge, huge mistake. I was editing with both Eddy and Johnny for a while, and I foolishly thought I could get it finished much quicker than was humanly possible. However, due to everyone’s real-life commitments and actual paid work taking priority, it just wasn’t happening. I then moved from New Zealand back to England, which could have been the final nail in the coffin — but luckily, I convinced Lindsay to work on it with me. Rather than constant updates and build-up bullshit, we instead worked away in complete silence to finally finish the bastard thing!
Plus, you know, dropping something completely out of the blue is so much sicker like a skate video coming out that you weren’t expecting or something.

Lee Ralph, Smith Grind. Photo by Steve Gourlay.

I saw a lot of very confused “Whaaaaaat?!!” jaw-dropped comments online when it released. (Laughs)

Is there a reason you didn’t approach potential investors or use the many crowdfunding options out there to get it out sooner? Didn’t Globe Shoes approach you at one stage?

Honestly, I just wanted to do it my way. I have worked in many advertising agencies and had experience with MuckMouth magazine which both taught me that as soon as other people are involved, they get to have a say — “don’t swear”, “make our logo bigger”, “I’d rather it was like this”… no, no, no! Lee is an absolute legend, and I wanted the doco to be as raw and Lee-like as possible.

I had one rule from the start — “I want skateboarders to like this” and that was all I focused on. If regular shitmunchers liked it too, cool, that’s a bonus, but knowing that Neil Blender watched and enjoyed every episode means so much more to me than 1.7 million views from non-skating idiots.

Crowdfunding just seems embarrassing to me, I understand it if your house burnt down or whatever, but for stuff like this it comes across as desperate/begging. As for Globe, they loved the project from the start, of course, and would have helped distribute the DVDs if I’d got it made before they became obsolete.

That said, money would definitely have made things easier, and next time, instead of undertaking something this large-scale for favours and high-fives, I will try to secure a few million dollars, as long as I have absolute final cut with no notes from whoever is dishing out the cash.

Lee Ralph, Madonna, Mona Vale, New South Wales, Australia. Photo by Scott Needham.

You managed to get a healthy lineup of pros from Lee’s era to talk about their personal experiences with him. How was the process for this, and was there anyone else you wish you had in there?

I am persistent if nothing else (and there is nothing else!), so I simply hit people up via email, Facebook, Instagram, or through other pros that had accepted. Everyone loves Lee, so it actually wasn’t that hard at all, but doing interviews in Australia and America remotely made things a bit trickier, for sure. So many people helped out and filmed for me; it’s insane. Socrates Leal filmed all the Dwindle guys, Bill Strobeck filmed Gonz, and many other favours went down, like Swindon Tom grabbing a clip of Hosoi as he was passing through California. Thanks so much to everyone who helped! As for the people who didn’t make it, some just flaked, of course, but the real bummer was Grosso, as I was texting with him about doing an interview a few days before he died. He was really into it, too. R.I.P. Jeff!

The infamous channel ollie at Visalia Skate Camp. (As featured in Episode Six.)

Most of the archival footage you gathered had never been seen by the masses before. The Skate Camp channel ollie story is a personal favourite. Was the footage easy to obtain?

There is one advantage about taking 15 years to complete something — you can seek out and gather footage along the way! That said, Lee simply doesn’t have that much footy out there. I kept posting online requesting Lee clips of any description, and occasionally I would get something (thanks so much to everyone who donated their videos!), but yeah, that Skate Camp ollie stuff had never been seen, so that was amazing.

Socrates was the catalyst for that too — as after he filmed Bod, Steve, Lance and the Hill Brothers, I asked him if he’d go see Bobby G, who ran Skate Camp, whom I’d been talking to on Facebook. Bobby came through with an interview and also dusted off a tape of unseen footy for the world to witness. Legend. There was also a drive from San Diego to LA for that. I’m so grateful to everyone, man — maybe I didn’t do anything at all in this project! (Laughs)

How has the overall response been to BAREFOOT and, in particular, Lee’s thoughts on the finished product?

Regarding Lee first; well, obviously him liking it was my main objective, so I had a fair few sleepless nights at the start when the episodes were dropping, as I was getting messages from everyone on earth — apart from Lee (see above regarding his nonchalant way of life without much time spent on phones or the internet), so it was such a relief when I got a voice note from Tania saying that Lee had watched and enjoyed all the eps — Lee said “Hats off to you guys, job well done. Next time he sees you – the beers are on you!”, so yeah, I got you next time I am in New Zealand, Ralphie!

As for everyone else, the response has been phenomenal – so much great feedback! I have received some really complimentary comments from people who have never said a nice thing to me in their life before, others from complete strangers, some from non-skaters, and many, many props from pros and industry heads alike. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better response.

As I said, Lee being hyped on it was the primary concern, then skateboarders — everyone else is just a bonus.

All eight, gloriously real and raw eps of “BAREFOOT — The Lee Ralph Story” can be found on Muckmouth’s YouTube channel for absolutely free. To see an extensive archive of Lee’s skateboarding journey, follow @barefoot_theleeralphstory on IG.