History of the Skateboard

The skateboard, popular as it is today, was once nothing more than an idea. Although there is no exact information on who invented it or when it was invented, the skateboard is believed to have come into being sometime during the 1950?s after surfers thought it would be great to ?surf? the streets.

So, the first skateboards were invented – most of which were nothing more than wooden boxes with roller skate wheels on the bottom. As you can imagine, a number of would-be skateboarders got hurt on these first generation skateboards. Fortunately, the wooden boxes were replaced by planks and eventually decks of pressed layers of wood being manufactured by companies to make skateboards.

Impressively, skateboards peaked in popularity in the early 1960?s and there were even competitions being held for skateboarders to show off their skills. Sadly, by 1965, skateboarding crashed in popularity which many believed was due to the fact that it was nothing more than a fad (like the hoola hoop). This caused many skateboard manufacturers to close and forced loyal skateboarders to make their own boards from scratch once again.

These skaters used what was available to them including clay wheel which were extremely hard to control and dangerous. Frank Nasworthy changed this when he introduced urethane skateboard wheels, which are very similar to wheels skateboards use today, in 1972. This sparked a new wave of interest skateboarding.

A few years later in 1975, an evolutionary turn was in store for skateboarding when a freestyle competition was held in California at the Ocean Festival. On that day, the Zephyr team opened the eyes of the world to what skateboarding could be as they rode their skateboards in such a way that no one had ever seen ? low and smooth. Skateboarding was shifted from being nothing more than a hobby to something more serious and undeniably exciting.

Later, in 1978, Alan Gelfand whose nickname was Ollie invented a move that caused another evolutionary jump where he slammed his foot down on the tail of his board thus popping the board (and himself) into the air. Countless of tricks are now based on this move he invented, now known as an ollie.

Unfortunately, by the end of the 1970?s, the popularity of skateboarding once again crashed. Through the 1980?s, though there were still skaters ? the greatest impact made was by the ?Bones Brigade? which was a talented skateboard team of whom videos and films were circulated thus influencing clothes, music and culture. Then, once more, skateboarding took another dive in popularity.

When skateboarding re-emerged once more in the 1990?s, it came with an edgier, more dangerous attitude. This re-emergence coincides was with the popularity of angry punk music.

Then in 1995, the first Extreme Games was held by ESPN in Rhode Island helped pull skateboarding to the mainstream and re-introduced it to the public. Though there are skaters who resent the fact that skating is being moved from ?underground? to mainstream, it is admitted that ESPN helped bring back vert skateboarding and is now a much loved spectator sport.

Since then, skateboarding has stayed in the mainstream and has not truly diminished in popularity as it has done again and again throughout history (Thank you ESPN) and continues to flourish with new and improved products being released regularly. However, no one can truly say where it may go from here as skateboarding has obviously had a long and erratic history. Only one thing is for sure, it is the skateboarders who will continue to ensure the popularity and continued evolution of the skateboard.

SKATEBOARDING/History of the Skateboard.txt