Skateboarding involves riding and performing tricks on a skateboard. It originated in the 1940s-50s as surfers looked for something to do when waves were flat. Early skateboards were wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels. In the 1970s, new polyurethane wheels improved traction and performance, fueling skateboarding's popularity rise. By the 1990s, street skateboarding dominated as tricks focused on rails, stairs, and other urban terrain. Skateboarding continues to evolve and remains a popular recreational activity and sport for both youth and adults.

1. Skateboard

2. • Skateboarding is an action sport which
involves riding and performing tricks using
a skateboard. Skateboarding can also be
considered a recreational activity, an art form,
a job, or a method of transportation.
• Skateboarding has been shaped and
influenced by many skateboarders throughout
the years. A 2002 report found that there
were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world.
85 percent of skateboarders polled who had
used a board in the last year were under the
age of 18, and 74 percent were male.

3. • Since the 1970s, skateparks have been
constructed specifically for use by
skateboarders, Freestyle
BMXers, aggressive skaters, and very
recently, scooters.

4. • Skateboarding was probably born sometime in
the late 1940s or early 1950s when surfers
in California wanted something to surf when
the waves were flat. No one knows who made
the first board; it seems that several people
came up with similar ideas at around the
same time. These first skateboarders started
with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate
wheels attached to the bottom.

5. • In the early 1970s, Frank Nasworthy started to
develop a skateboard wheel made of
polyurethane, calling his company Cadillac
Wheels. Prior to this new material,
skateboards wheels were metal or "clay"
wheels. The improvement in traction and
performance was so immense that from the
wheel's release in 1972 the popularity of
skateboarding started to rise rapidly again,
causing companies to invest more in product
development.

6. • This period was fueled by skateboard
companies that were run by skateboarders.
The focus was initially on vert
ramp skateboarding. The invention of the no-hands
aerial (later known as the Ollie) by Alan
Gelfand in Florida in 1976, and the almost
parallel development of the grabbed aerial
by George Orton and Tony Alva in California,
made it possible for skaters to perform airs on
vertical ramps.

7. • Skateboarding during the 1990s became
dominated by street skateboarding. Most
boards are about 7 1⁄4 to 8 inches (180 to
200 mm) wide and 30 to 32 inches (760 to
810 mm) long. The wheels are made of an
extremely hard polyurethane, with hardness
(durometer) approximately 99A. The wheel
sizes are relatively small so that the boards are
lighter, and the wheels' inertia is overcome
quicker, thus making tricks more manageable.

8. • By 2001 skateboarding had gained in such
popularity, that more participants under the age
of 18 rode skateboards (10.6 million) than played
baseball (8.2 million), although traditional
organized team sports still dominated youth
programs overall. Skateboarding and skateparks
began to be viewed and used in a variety of new
ways to compliment academic lessons in schools,
including new non-traditional physical education
skateboarding programs, like Skatepass and
Skateistan that are used to encourage youth to
have better attendance, self-discipline and
confidence.

9. • With the evolution of skateparks and ramp
skating, the skateboard began to change. Early
skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional
freestyle manoeuvres like riding
on only two wheels ("wheelie" or "manual"),
spinning only on the back wheels (a "pivot"),
high jumping over a bar and landing on the
board again, also known as a "hippie jump",
long jumping from one board to another,
(often over small barrels or fearless
teenagers), or slalom. Another popular trick
was the Bertlemann slide, named after Larry
Bertelemann's surfing manoeuvres.

10. • Skateboarding was popularized by the 1986
skateboarding cult classic Thrashin'. Directed
by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin, it
features appearances from many famous skaters
such as Tony Alva, Tony Hawk, Christian
Hosoi and Steve Caballero. Thrashin' also had a
direct impact on Lords of Dogtown, as Catherine
Hardwicke, who directed Lords of Dogtown, was
hired by Winters to work on Thrashin' as
a production designer where she met, worked with
and befriended many famous skaters including the
real Tony Alva, Tony Hawk, Christian
Hosoi and Steve Caballero.

11. • Skateboarding was, at first, tied to the culture
of surfing. As skateboarding spread across
the United States to places unfamiliar with
surfing or surfing culture, it developed an
image of its own. For example, the classic film
short Video Days(1991) portrayed
skateboarders as reckless rebels.

12. • One of the early leading trends associated
with the sub-culture of skateboarding itself,
was the sticky sole "Slip-On" Skate shoe, most
popularized by Sean Penn's skateboarding
character from the film Fast Times at
Ridgemont High. Because early skateboarders
were actually surfers trying to emulate the
sport of surfing, at the time when skateboards
first came out on the market, many
skateboarded barefoot.

13. • But skaters often lacked traction, which led to
foot injuries. This necessitated the need for a
shoe that was specifically designed and
marketed for skateboarding, such as the
Randy "720", manufactured by the Randolph
Rubber Company, and Vans sneakers, which
eventually became cultural iconic signifiers for
skateboarders during the 70s & 80's as
skateboarding became more widespread.

14. • Skateboards, along with other small-wheeled
transportation such as in-line skates and
scooters, suffer a safety problem: riders may
easily be thrown from small cracks and
outcroppings in pavement, especially where
the cracks run across the direction of travel.
Hitting such an irregularity is the major cause
of falls and injuries. The risk may be reduced
at higher travel speeds.

15. • Transportation
• The use of skateboards solely as a form of
transportation is often associated with
the longboard. Depending on local laws, using
skateboards as a form of transportation
outside residential areas may or may not be
legal. Backers cite portability, exercise, and
environmental friendliness as some of the
benefits of skateboarding as an alternative to
automobiles.

16. • Military
• The United States Marine Corps tested the
usefulness of commercial off-the-shelf
skateboards during urban combat military
exercises in the late 1990s in a program called
Urban Warrior '99. Their special purpose was
"for maneuvering inside buildings in order to
detect tripwires and sniper fire.

17. • Trampboarding
• Trampboarding is a variant of skateboarding
that uses a board without the trucks and the
wheels on a trampoline. Using the bounce of
the trampoline gives height to perform tricks,
whereas in skateboarding you need to make
the height by performing an Ollie.
Trampboarding is seen on YouTube in
numerous videos.

18. • Swing boarding
• Swing boarding is the activity where a
skateboard deck is suspended from a pivot
point above the rider which allows the rider to
swing about that pivot point. The board
swings in an arc which is a similar movement
to riding a half pipe. The incorporation of a
harness and frame allows the rider to perform
turns spins all while flying though the air.

19. • Skateboarding is sometimes associated with
property damage to urban terrain features
such as curbs, benches, and ledges when
skateboarders perform tricks known as grinds
on these surfaces. Private industry has
responded to this perceived damage with
skate deterrent devices, such as
the Skatestopper, in an effort to mitigate
damage and discourage skateboarding on
these surfaces.