Skateboarding

Skateboarding: An Understanding and History

Skateboarding is a sport of using a skateboard to move around. It can also be method of transportation, a sport, or just a hobby. In the last decade or so, while receiving some criticism from skaters, this has been marketed as an extreme sport. Complimenting the population growth in the state of California in the 1950s, the world of skateboards was created during this time. As word began to spread about this skating on boards, by sometime in the 1960s, it had developed itself into a craze. Surf board creators decided to get into this craze and became the world of skateboarding in this time. However, all was not always well within the skateboard community. There have been generations of this sport that have come and gone routinely. There have been deaths and rebirths in the world of skating throughout the last 50 years.

It was not until the 1970s when skateboards were first made using the material of polyurethane. During this time when skateboards were being mass produced, they were still being created for less creative typing of boarding. It was not until the Z-boys in Venice Beach, California in the mid 1970s until the modern views of skateboarding became reality. The Z-boys were teenagers, mostly surfers, who decided to take skateboarding to empty pools and drains that were dried out thanks to a drought in the area. This would then create some of the more high risk moves that we all know today in terms of skating. At this point, it created increased liability for skate park owners and creators. They then would go out of business and get torn down, and by the early 1980s skateboarding essentially died.

Skating companies decided not to let this continue, and begin to market their craft using bigger ramps and jumps. The biggest name in the history of skateboarding came along at this time, Tony Hawk, who was one of the few individuals that made a living as a skate boarder. Even though there were those making a living at this and companies were marketing this sport, the remaining skate parks were still being torn down. What this creates was more street skaters who would just skate where they could. Skateboarding did not diet this time, it kind of went underground until the version of it that we know today came out.

Boards are now being made to incorporate the surfaces that will be used in street skating. This means the wheels are being made in order to make a person go faster on a street while still allowing the wanted tricks to be landed. The current design of skateboards has remained the same, with the exception of tweaks in the materials used, since the 1980s. This is not a coincidence as this is the time that witnessed the emergence of street skating as the most popular form.