Introduction of Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and doing tricks on a skateboard. Skateboarding is considered a job, activity, and an art form too many people, but some people only use them as a way of transportation. Over the years skateboarding has been changed and molded into something other than what it used to be. In 2002 a report showed that there were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world, It was later shown that out of 100% of people who had rode a skateboard in the past year 85 % of them were under the age of 18, and 74% were male. Since the 1970s skate parks have been made specifically for the use of Skateboards, BMX (Bicycle MotorXross), aggressive skaters, and the most recent one, Scooters.
History of Skateboarding
Skateboarding was earliest recorded in the 1940s or the 1950s in California when surfers wanted to surf when waves had become flat. The first person who made the skateboard is unknown to this point because there were many people with the same ideas at the time. The first skateboards were made from wooden boxes and a pair of wheels removes from skates screwed into the bottom. An American W.A.C. (Woman Army Corp) named Betty Magnuson reported seeing French children skateboarding in the Montmartre section of Paris in late 1944 (Picture Below. The boxes soon turned into planks of wood, and then eventually companies started to produce layers of wood pressed together similar to the ones that we have today. Skateboarding was seen as something to do other than surfing and people began to call it “sidewalk surfing” and it was often done barefoot. The first skateboards were ordered in Los Angeles, California by Bill Richard. He had made a deal with a roller skating company in Chicago for them to send him sets of wheels, which they attached to the wooden boards. Crate Scooters came before skateboards and were built in a similar fashion. The only difference is that an apple crate was attached to the front of the board to act as handlebars (picture below).By the 1960’s a handful of manufactures in Southern California started making skateboards that resembled small surfboards and teams were sent out to promote this product. One of the first Skateboard tournaments was hosted by the founder of Makaha skateboards, Larry Stevenson, in 1963 and it was at a junior high school in Hermosa Beach, California. Some of the teams were featured on a TV show called “Surf’s up” hosted by Stan Richards in 1964 and it helped promote skateboarding as something new and fun to do. As skateboarding began top grow around the world “The Quarterly Skateboarder” was published and it was the first skateboarding magazine (also published in 1964), at the time the magazine only lasted four issues but made a return in 1975 with the new title “Skateboarder”. The first broadcasting of a skateboarding tournament was in 1965 and it was called the “1965 National Skateboarding Championships” and it was held in Anaheim, California and was aired on ABC’s World Wide Sports. Because skateboarding had just started out at the time there were only two different types of competitions, flatland free styling and downhill racing. Patti McGee (earliest sponsored skateboarder) was paid by “Hobie” and “Vita Pak” to travel around the world and host skateboarding tournaments and demonstrate safety tips for skateboarding. Patti McGee was on the cover of “Life” magazine in 1965 and soon began to get featured on many TV shows such as “The Michael Douglas Show”, “What’s My Line?”, and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”; this helped promote skateboarding even more. During the time of the growth of skateboarding you can see the increase of sales on sales figures for Makaha, which was said that they reached up to 10 million dollars worth of skateboard sales between 1963 and 1965. In 1966 many sources came out saying that skateboarding was dangerous, which resulted in a significant drop in sales and skateboarder magazine was stopped from being published. The population of the sport remained low until the early 1970’s. In the early 1970’s a man name Frank Nasworthy started to make a skateboard wheel made from polyurethane and he called his company Cadillac Wheels. The wheels improved performance which led to the sport rising rapidly from 1972 (the date the wheels were released); this made other companies invest in product development. Nasworthy hired artist Jim Evans to make a number of paintings promoting Cadillac Wheels. The pictures where featured in the resurrection of skateboard magazine it then became popular in promoting the new style of skateboarding. In the early 1970’s skate parks weren’t invented yet so skateboarders would meet up at places live “The Escondido” in San Diego, California. In 1975 skateboarding popularity had risen back high enough for one of there largest tournaments since the 1960’s, it was called the Del Mar National Championships, which was said to have up to 500 competitors. The competition lasted 2 days and was sponsored by Bahne Skateboards and Cadillac Wheels. In March of 1976, skateboard city skatepark in Port Orange, Florida and Carlsbad Skatepark in San Diego County, California were the first 2 skateparks to be opened to the public in just a week apart. They were the first of about 200 sakteparks to be built through 1982. Manufacturer’s started to try and experiment with other different metals and composites such as fiberglass and aluminum, but most skateboards were made of maple plywood. Skateboards started to take advantage the better handling of the skateboards and began to invent new tricks. This created the “vert” trend of skateboarding. Vert skateboarding is when skateboarders ride the vertical walls of swimming pools. The invention of the Ollie was in Florida of 1976 by Alan Gelfand.
Skateboard Tricks
Ollie- An Ollie is a jump where the front wheels leave the ground first.
Aerial- An aerial is when the board is floating in the air and the person is holding it with there hand below their feet.
Flip Tricks- Flip tricks are a subset of aerials based off of the Ollie
Slides and Grinds- Slides and grinds are when you get the board on some type of ledge while it’s moving.
Lip Tricks- Lip tricks are done on the coping of a pool/bowl or a skateboarding ramp.
Famous Skateboarders
Rodney Mullen
Paul Rodriguez
Stevie Williams
Tony Hawk
Eric Koston
Top Tournaments
Dew Tour- Located in Ocean city, Maryland from July 21- 24 with 150 competitors.
X-GAMES- Located in Staples center from July 28-31.
Volcom wild in the parks- For young and up-coming skaters.
Gatorade free flow tour- Only for amateurs and held at Local Park around the United States.
Mystic sk8 cup- Located in Prague, Czech Republic and the prize money is $30,000.
Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and doing tricks on a skateboard. Skateboarding is considered a job, activity, and an art form too many people, but some people only use them as a way of transportation. Over the years skateboarding has been changed and molded into something other than what it used to be. In 2002 a report showed that there were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world, It was later shown that out of 100% of people who had rode a skateboard in the past year 85 % of them were under the age of 18, and 74% were male. Since the 1970s skate parks have been made specifically for the use of Skateboards, BMX (Bicycle MotorXross), aggressive skaters, and the most recent one, Scooters.
History of Skateboarding
Skateboarding was earliest recorded in the 1940s or the 1950s in California when surfers wanted to surf when waves had become flat. The first person who made the skateboard is unknown to this point because there were many people with the same ideas at the time. The first skateboards were made from wooden boxes and a pair of wheels removes from skates screwed into the bottom. An American W.A.C. (Woman Army Corp) named Betty Magnuson reported seeing French children skateboarding in the Montmartre section of Paris in late 1944 (Picture Below. The boxes soon turned into planks of wood, and then eventually companies started to produce layers of wood pressed together similar to the ones that we have today. Skateboarding was seen as something to do other than surfing and people began to call it “sidewalk surfing” and it was often done barefoot. The first skateboards were ordered in Los Angeles, California by Bill Richard. He had made a deal with a roller skating company in Chicago for them to send him sets of wheels, which they attached to the wooden boards. Crate Scooters came before skateboards and were built in a similar fashion. The only difference is that an apple crate was attached to the front of the board to act as handlebars (picture below).By the 1960’s a handful of manufactures in Southern California started making skateboards that resembled small surfboards and teams were sent out to promote this product. One of the first Skateboard tournaments was hosted by the founder of Makaha skateboards, Larry Stevenson, in 1963 and it was at a junior high school in Hermosa Beach, California. Some of the teams were featured on a TV show called “Surf’s up” hosted by Stan Richards in 1964 and it helped promote skateboarding as something new and fun to do. As skateboarding began top grow around the world “The Quarterly Skateboarder” was published and it was the first skateboarding magazine (also published in 1964), at the time the magazine only lasted four issues but made a return in 1975 with the new title “Skateboarder”. The first broadcasting of a skateboarding tournament was in 1965 and it was called the “1965 National Skateboarding Championships” and it was held in Anaheim, California and was aired on ABC’s World Wide Sports. Because skateboarding had just started out at the time there were only two different types of competitions, flatland free styling and downhill racing. Patti McGee (earliest sponsored skateboarder) was paid by “Hobie” and “Vita Pak” to travel around the world and host skateboarding tournaments and demonstrate safety tips for skateboarding. Patti McGee was on the cover of “Life” magazine in 1965 and soon began to get featured on many TV shows such as “The Michael Douglas Show”, “What’s My Line?”, and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”; this helped promote skateboarding even more. During the time of the growth of skateboarding you can see the increase of sales on sales figures for Makaha, which was said that they reached up to 10 million dollars worth of skateboard sales between 1963 and 1965. In 1966 many sources came out saying that skateboarding was dangerous, which resulted in a significant drop in sales and skateboarder magazine was stopped from being published. The population of the sport remained low until the early 1970’s. In the early 1970’s a man name Frank Nasworthy started to make a skateboard wheel made from polyurethane and he called his company Cadillac Wheels. The wheels improved performance which led to the sport rising rapidly from 1972 (the date the wheels were released); this made other companies invest in product development. Nasworthy hired artist Jim Evans to make a number of paintings promoting Cadillac Wheels. The pictures where featured in the resurrection of skateboard magazine it then became popular in promoting the new style of skateboarding. In the early 1970’s skate parks weren’t invented yet so skateboarders would meet up at places live “The Escondido” in San Diego, California. In 1975 skateboarding popularity had risen back high enough for one of there largest tournaments since the 1960’s, it was called the Del Mar National Championships, which was said to have up to 500 competitors. The competition lasted 2 days and was sponsored by Bahne Skateboards and Cadillac Wheels. In March of 1976, skateboard city skatepark in Port Orange, Florida and Carlsbad Skatepark in San Diego County, California were the first 2 skateparks to be opened to the public in just a week apart. They were the first of about 200 sakteparks to be built through 1982. Manufacturer’s started to try and experiment with other different metals and composites such as fiberglass and aluminum, but most skateboards were made of maple plywood. Skateboards started to take advantage the better handling of the skateboards and began to invent new tricks. This created the “vert” trend of skateboarding. Vert skateboarding is when skateboarders ride the vertical walls of swimming pools. The invention of the Ollie was in Florida of 1976 by Alan Gelfand.
Skateboard Tricks
Ollie- An Ollie is a jump where the front wheels leave the ground first.
Aerial- An aerial is when the board is floating in the air and the person is holding it with there hand below their feet.
Flip Tricks- Flip tricks are a subset of aerials based off of the Ollie
Slides and Grinds- Slides and grinds are when you get the board on some type of ledge while it’s moving.
Lip Tricks- Lip tricks are done on the coping of a pool/bowl or a skateboarding ramp.
Famous Skateboarders
Rodney Mullen
Paul Rodriguez
Stevie Williams
Tony Hawk
Eric Koston
Top Tournaments
Dew Tour- Located in Ocean city, Maryland from July 21- 24 with 150 competitors.
X-GAMES- Located in Staples center from July 28-31.
Volcom wild in the parks- For young and up-coming skaters.
Gatorade free flow tour- Only for amateurs and held at Local Park around the United States.
Mystic sk8 cup- Located in Prague, Czech Republic and the prize money is $30,000.
Rodney Mullen
Paul Rodriguez
Apple Crate Scooters
Eric Koston
Tony Hawk