Skateboarding takes a different kind of athlete. From balance and strength to intuition, skill and an ability are just basic attributes of what an individual needs to develop into a great skateboarder.

1. Skateboarding: The Extreme Sport
There is nothing extreme then the game of skateboarding. Skateboarding began by nailing
rolling skate wheels to a board of wood and has ever since developed into a universal
phenomenon and renowned intense sport. Skateboarding takes a different kind of athlete.
From balance and strength to intuition, skill and an ability are just basic attributes of what
an individual needs to develop into a great skateboarder. The skateboarding athletes of the
21st century are possibly the most talented athletes in the world.
Before the current skateboard revolution of the 90's, not many folks would have lumped
skateboarders into the category of athlete. They were often called thugs, trouble maker,
talented or maybe skilled, but never an athlete. However, now when you contrast the types
of tricks skateboarders are doing, and the astonishing things, they get their bodies to do is
just amazing. When they are fifteen feet in the air, then they land smoothly, just to hit air
seconds later to the stunts "typical" to skateboarding athletes, people actually say that
skateboarders are questionably more nimble, then what we know as a "typical" athlete.
Simply, the risk and complexity of skateboarding is enough to steer thousands of expectant
professional skaters away from the scene, but those that hang on through it all, know what
it took to get there. There are not many other sports that draw difference of intricacy to
skateboarding. Take this, you take off going extremely fast launch into the air, while you're
in the air you flip your body, rotate the board under your feet, catch the board with your
hand, put the board back under your feet, land on the board and keep riding... oh and do it
all with style. It is pretty amazing what skateboarders are able to do these days and very
fun to watch.
Furthermore, skateboarding is a way to sort of "go against the grain" when it comes to the
established culture. Even though skateboard decks have gained a strong foothold in
mainstream life, there is still a certain counterculture or rebellious attitude when it comes
to being a skateboarder. It's actually a funny dichotomy: all across the country, skateboard
parks and half-pipes are being built in public locations such as parks, thus providing a
testament to its popularity. At the same time, these popular and public locations are being
visited by people who are considered "rebels".
Luckily, the main stream skateboarding has caught on to this amazing sport and
competitions like X games and Gravity Games now highlights the skateboarding as one of
their main events. This gets the word out and shows the world that these guys are in the
most extreme sport and deserve to be called world class athletes.