About Skateboarding
Skateboarding has grown over the years from complete obscurity to mainstream. The action sport involves riding on wheels and for the talented- performing tricks while on the skateboard. Skateboarders as the users are called by outsiders and skater to insiders have become more daring each year. Skateboarding involves many different activities. There are those that use skateboards as means of transportation, those that use is as a recreational activity and those that think of it as an art form, while others skateboard as a career.
There have been a number of people that have influenced skateboarding over the years. A report in 2002 said that there were over 18 million skateboarders throughout the world with 85% of them that skated in the last twelve months less than 18 years and three quarters of them male. Skateboarding is a modern sport compared to many others as moves have been developed since the early 1970s when the half-pipe move Ollie was named for Alan Gelfand.
The thought is the sport was born in the late 1940s when California surfers wanted an activity when the waves were not big enough. When or who made the first board is still unknown today but it is thought that the idea was thought of by many. Wooden boxes were used in the beginning with roller skate wheels, then the boxes were changed out for planks and then pressed layers of wood were made by companies to change out the planks. Many referred to it at that time as Sidewalk Surfing since it is an activity to compensate for the lack of waves.
A surf shop in Los Angeles ordered the very first skateboard that was manufactured. The shop's owner entered into a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to make skate wheels that were attached to square boards. Early skateboarders, since they were surfers, emulated the surfing stance and style. A magazine, Skateboarder Magazine was born in 1965 and international championships were even broadcasted on television. The industry's growth could be seen through the $10 million in sales increase for one company from 1963 to 1965. Sales after that plummeted and the sport's popularity did as well until the mid-1970s.
Over the years the skateboard has changed in design and the wheels have become better and the boards stronger yet lighter. Competitions have been held year in year out and the X Games have helped to bring skateboarding into the mainstream. There are a number of skateboarding parks in cities and towns throughout the US and the world.
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