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I would contribute but your "tits" posts are far below average. That last chick looks like she pissed/shit herself! Very disappointed Combat.
thanks fellas,
sorry to dissapoint bamboo, how about I amp it up a bit?
http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1362fl3.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1363qp5.jpg
http://img57.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1365oc2.jpg
i lol'ed at the last pic in the links above. Shes licking that other chicks ass
Skateboarding is the act of riding and performing tricks using a skateboard. A person who skateboards is most often referred to as a skateboarder or a skater.
Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an artform, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report by American Sports Data 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.
Skateboarding is relatively modern. A key skateboarding maneuver, the ollie, was developed in the late 1970s and in the early '80s freestyle skateboarder Rodney Mullen invented the ollie kickflip.
Contents
History
The 1940s-1960s
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, rather, 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. The boxes turned into planks, and eventually companies were producing decks of pressed layers of wood -- similar to the skateboard decks of today. During this time, skateboarding was seen as something to do for fun besides surfing, and was therefore often referred to as "Sidewalk Surfing".
The first manufactured skateboards were ordered by a Los Angeles, California surf shop, meant to be used by surfers in their downtime. The shop owner, Bill Richard, made a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to produce sets of skate wheels, which they attached to square wooden boards. Accordingly, skateboarding was originally denoted "sidewalk surfing" and early skaters emulated surfing style and maneuvers. Crate scooters preceded skateboards, and were borne of a similar concept, with the exception of having a wooden crate attached to the nose (front of the board), which formed rudimentary handlebars.
A number of surfing manufacturers such as Makaha started building skateboards that resembled small surfboards, and assembling teams to promote their products.Skaters used to use old computer parts as Boards,because of the rigidness. The popularity of skateboarding at this time spawned a national magazine, Skateboarder Magazine, and the 1965 international championships were broadcast on national television. The growth of the sport during this period can also be seen in sales figures for Makaha, which quoted $10 million worth of board sales between 1963 and 1965 (Weyland, 2002:28). Yet by 1966 the sales had dropped significantly (ibid) and Skateboarder Magazine had stopped publication. The popularity of skateboarding dropped and remained low until the early 1970s.
The 1970s
In the early 1970s, Frank Nasworthy started to develop a skateboard wheel made of polyurethane, calling it the 'Cadillac', as he hoped this would convey the fat ride it afforded the rider.[4] The improvement in traction and performance was so immense that from the wheel's release in 1974 the popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again, causing companies to invest more in product development. Many companies started to manufacture trucks (axles) especially designed for skateboarding, reached in 1976 by Tracker Trucks. As the equipment became more maneuverable, the decks started to get wider, reaching widths of 10 inches (250 mm) and over, thus giving the skateboarder even more control. Banana board is a term used to describe skateboards made of polypropylene that were skinny, flexible, with ribs on the underside for structural support and very popular during the mid-1970s. They were available in myriad colors, bright yellow probably being the most memorable, hence the name.
Manufacturers started to experiment with more exotic composites and metals, like fiberglass and aluminium, but the common skateboards were made of maple plywood. The skateboarders took advantage of the improved handling of their skateboards and started inventing new tricks. Skateboarders, most notably Ty Page, Bruce Logan, Bobby Piercy, Kevin Reed, and the Z-Boys (so-called because of their local Zephyr surf shop) started to skate the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought. This started the vert trend in skateboarding. With increased control, vert skaters could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks, such as slash grinds and frontside/backside airs. This caused liability concerns and increased insurance costs to skatepark owners, and the development (first by Norcon,then more successfully by Rector) of improved knee pads that had a hard sliding cap and strong strapping proved to be too-little-too-late. During this era, the "freestyle" movement in skateboarding began to splinter off and develop into a much more specialized discipline, characterized by the development of a wide assortment of flat-ground tricks.
As a result of the "vert" skating movement, skate parks had to contend with high-liability costs that led to many park closures. In response, vert skaters started making their own ramps, while freestyle skaters continued to evolve their flatland style. Thus by the beginning of the 1980s, skateboarding had once again fallen into obscurity.
The 1980s
This period was fuelled 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 in had made it possible for skaters to perform airs on vertical ramps. While this wave of skateboarding was sparked by commercialized vert ramp skating, a majority of people who skateboarded during this period never rode vert ramps. Because most people couldn't afford to build vert ramps or didn't have access to nearby ramps, street skating gained popularity. Freestyle skating remained healthy throughout this period with pioneers such as Rodney Mullen inventing the many of the basic tricks of modern street skating such as the flat ground ollie and the kickflip. The influence freestyle had on street skating became apparent during the mid-eighties, but street skating was still performed on wide vert boards with short noses, slide rails, and large soft wheels. Skateboarding, however, evolved quickly in the late 1980s to accommodate the street skater. Since few skateparks were available to skaters at this time, street skating pushed skaters to seek out shopping centres and public and private property as their "spot" to skate. Public opposition, and the threat of lawsuits, forced businesses and property owners to ban skateboarding on their property[citation needed]. By 1992, only a small fraction of skateboarders remained as a highly technical version of street skating, combined with the decline of vert skating, produced a sport that lacked the mainstream appeal to attract new skaters.
The 1990s to Present
The current generation of skateboards is dominated by street skating. Most boards are about 7¼ to 8 inches wide and 30 to 32 inches 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 wheel's inertia is overcome quicker, thus making tricks more manageable. Board styles have changed dramatically since the 1970s but have remained mostly alike since the mid 1990s. The contemporary shape of the skateboard is derived from the freestyle boards of the 1980s with a largely symmetrical shape and relatively narrow width. This form had become standard by the mid '90s.
Go Skateboarding Day was created in 2004 by a group of skateboarding companies to promote skateboarding and help make it more noticeable to the world. It is celebrated every year on June 21st.
With the evolution of skateparks and ramp skating, the skateboard began to change. Early skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional 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, long jumping from one board to another (often over small barrels or fearless teenagers) or slalom.
In 1976, skateboarding was transformed by the invention of the ollie by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand. It remained largely a unique Florida trick until the summer of 1978, when Gelfand made his first visit to California. Gelfand and his revolutionary manoeuvre caught the attention of the West Coast skaters and the media where it began to spread worldwide. The ollie was adapted to flat ground by Rodney Mullen in 1982. Mullen also invented the "Magic Flip", which was later renamed the Kickflip, as well many other tricks including, the 360 Kickflip, which is a 360 pop shove it and a kickflip in the same motion. The flat ground ollie allowed skateboarders to perform tricks in mid-air without any more equipment than the skateboard itself, it has formed the basis of many street skating tricks.
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.
The image of the skateboarder as a rebellious, non-conforming youth has faded in recent years. The rift between the old image of skateboarding and a newer one is quite visible: magazines such as Thrasher portray skateboarding as dirty, rebellious, and still firmly tied to punk, while other publications, Transworld Skateboarding as an example, paint a more diverse, and controlled picture of skateboarding. Furthermore, as more professional skaters use hip hop, reggae, or hard rock music accompaniment in their videos, many urban youths, hip-hop fans, reggae fans, and hard rock fans are also drawn to skateboarding, further diluting the sport's punk image.
Films such as Grind and Lords Of Dogtown, have helped improve the reputation of skateboarding youth, depicting individuals of this subculture as having a positive outlook on life, prone to poking harmless fun at each other, and engaging in healthy sportsman's competition. According to the film, lack of respect, egotism and hostility towards fellow skateboarders is generally frowned upon, albeit each of the characters (and as such, proxies of the "stereotypical" skateboarder) have a firm disrespect for authority and for rules in general. Group spirit is supposed to heavily influence the members of this community. In presentations of this sort, showcasing of criminal tendencies is absent, and no attempt is made to tie extreme sports to any kind of illegal activity.
Gleaming the Cube, a 1989 movie starring Christian Slater as a skateboarding teen investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother was somewhat of an iconic landmark to the skateboarding genre of the era. Many well-known skaters had cameos in the film, including Tony Hawk.
Skateboarding video games have also become very popular in skateboarding culture. Some of the most popular are Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, and Skate. for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms.
Skateboarding as a form of 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.
Skateboards, along with other small-wheeled transportation such as in-line skates and scooters, suffer a safety caveat where riders may easily be thrown from small cracks and outcroppings in pavement, especially where the cracks run perpendicular to the direction of travel. However, high average travel speeds help mitigate this; injuries are more likely to be minor, although very uncommon, head injuries still pose a major health risk.
Skateboard ban in Norway
The use, ownership and sale of skateboards were forbidden in Norway, during the period between 1978 and 1989. The ban was said to be due to the perceived high number of injuries caused by boards. The ban led skateboarders to construct ramps in the forest and other secluded areas to avoid the police.
Military experimentation in the United States
The United States Marine Corps tested the usefulness of commercial off-the-shelf skateboards during urban combat military exercises in the late 1990s. Their special purpose was "for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire".
"Gleaming the Cube, a 1989 movie starring Christian Slater as a skateboarding teen investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother was somewhat of an iconic landmark to the skateboarding genre of the era. Many well-known skaters had cameos in the film, including Tony Hawk."
i have a VHS copy. its pretty sick. better than deck dogs ahahaha ;)
"Magic Flip", which was later renamed the Kickflip"
thank god it was renamed ahaha
top stuff fellas, you guys get some top ass;
http://img122.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1366fz9.jpg
keep em comming
The history of skateboarding from its first appearance in the 1950's to the present day.
The first skateboards were actually more like scooters, with the undercarriage consisting of rollerskate wheels attached to a two by four. Once the pushbar of the scooter-like contraption was broken off, skateboarding was born.
1950's
It wasn't until the 1950's, when the surfing craze was in full swing, that people realized skateboarding could recreate the feeling of riding a wave. This connection with surfing gave skateboarding a direction that would influence everything to come, from maneuvers and style, to terrain, fashion and attitude. It was during this time that modifications were made to the trucks making it easier to maneuver. By 1959 the first Roller Derby Skateboard was for sale.
1960's
In the early 1960's companies such as Larry Stevenson's Makaha and Hobie Alter's Hobie began to mass-produce the first true surfing-inspired skateboards. Some of the early proponents of surf-style skateboarding included Bill and Mark Richards, Dannu Bearer, Bruce Logan and Torger Johnson. Skateboarding became very popular almost overnight, and companies were fighting to keep up with demand. Over fifty million skateboards were sold within a three year period, and the first skateboard contest was held in Hermosa Beach, CA in 1963. Then in 1965 a slew of so-called safety experts pronounced skateboarding unsafe - urging stores not to sell them, and parents not to buy them. The skateboarding fad died as quickly as it had started, and the sport entered its first slump. Skateboarding would experience other slumps in its history. This pattern of peaks and valleys would come to be known as the "ten-year cycle," although the slumps weren't exactly ten years apart.
1970's
It was during this first slump that Larry Stevenson invented the kicktail, and the first generation of skateboarders laid down the foundation of tricks and style. However, they were still largely limited by equipment. Then in 1973 the urethane wheel was invented, revolutionizing the sport. The new wheels provided much better traction and speed and, combined with new skateboard specific trucks, allowed skaters to push the difficulty of maneuvers to new levels. Tricks at this time consisted of surfing maneuvers done on flat ground or on banks. Empty swimming pools and cylindrical pipes were exploited as terrain for the first time.
During the 1970's skateboarding experienced a large growth stage whish saw the construction of numerous concrete skateparks, a rank of professional skaters, magazines and movies. During this period modern skateboarding evolved to include vertical skating among its disciplines of slalom, downhill, freestyle and longjump.
Key advances in the sport included the aerial, the invert and the ollie, which may be the single most important trick in the evolution of skateboarding, next to the kickturn. This was the first time skateboarding had stars, some of the first really big names being Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta. The look of skateboards also changed from being six to seven inches in width to over nine inches, providing better stability on vertical surfaces. Near the end of the 70's, spiraling insurance and slowing attendance forced all but a few skateparks out of business and skateboarding entered its! Second slump.
1980's
In the 80's the plywood ramp and streetstyle revitalized skateboarding just as the urethane wheel had revitalized the sport in the 70's. Forced to take an underground, do-it-yourself attitude, skaters began to create their own wooden skate ramps in backyards and empty lots and turn previously unrideable street terrain, such as walls an handrails, into free-skate parks. Skater-owned companies became the norm and innovations in board and truck size allowed the trick envelope to be pushed even further. This generation had its own group of skate stars, some of whom still compete today including Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero. Towards the end of the 80's the focus shifted to street skating and Vert riding became less popular, it was the era of the first street stars like Mark Gonzales, Natas Kaupas and Mike Vallely.
With all this grass-roots action taking place it was inevitable that skateboarding would go through another growth phase. This time the cycle peaked around 1987 after skateboarding had directly influenced international culture ranging from the hard-edged punk style of music that most skaters preferred to the baggy, earth-tone clothes and retro tennis shoes that skaters wore.
The current cycle of skateboarding has been fueled by many items including new companies, more varied and difficult terrain, a new, more hard-core, almost dangerous attitude, and most importantly by a new generation of kids who have discovered the exhilaration feeling of rolling along of a board with wheels. Some of the people who exert heavy influence on the sport are former pros who have started companies like Steve Rocco of World Industries. The ollie has come into its own as the foundation for 80% of street tricks and about 60% of vert tricks, with the focus being on more technical and larger tricks.
1990's
In regards to the "ten-year cycle," the sport once again started on an upward swing in 1995, due in part to exposure it received from ESPN's first Extreme Games in Rhode Island. This served to bring skateboarding, which had long been viewed as a rebel sport, perhaps because of the danger and occasional illegality of the endeavor, a step closer to the mainstream. Many of the skaters who competed felt that ESPN's coverage of the sport raised skateboarding's overall image with the general public and is a good thing for the future of the sport. In 1996 the Extreme Games were again held in Rhode Island, once more exposing the sport of skateboarding to millions of people. Skateboarding was also included in the 1997 Winter X Games in the form of a CrossOver event that also included in-line skating, bicycle stunt, and snowboarding.
The impact of media coverage on skateboarding has moved it from an underground sport to a spectator sport over the last four years. It was brought an influx of companies and their advertising dollars, which had previously ignored skateboarding, as a vehicle for promotional purposes. Advertisers have seen that skateboarding has become a prime sport through which they can reach their favorite demographic: youth males.
Skateboarders have been present in campaigns for products from soft drinks to potato chips, candy to phone companies. Thus, most of what is happening in skateboarding today is coming not from the skateboarders themselves, but from corporate sponsors and the mass media. The primary focus of the sport remains on street skating, as can be seen throughout both the editorial and advertising pages of the major skateboard magazines, where street skating photos continue to dominate. However vert skating is making a comeback, due in part to the large number of new skateparks being built. These skateparks have also given boost to the skating community in many towns. The many different ramps, pipes and bowls present at these parks have led to a change in equipment. These technological changes applied to skate products have improved skateboarding hear steadily over the last two decades. While in the early 90's small boards and tiny wheel ruled, now there is a wide range of boards and wheels being seen under the feet of skateboarders. Wheel diameters are larger, deck width continues to grow, and longboards are gaining in popularity, especially in beach communities and among those that just want to use their skateboards to cruise or as a mode of transportation. Downhill skateboarding has also seen resurgence in recent years due in part to the visibility of the street luge.
One of the biggest trends at work is among softgoods. In the past, clothing fashions have consistently reflected the changes influenced by those who skate. Footwear is currently getting all the attention. According to the Transworld Skateboarding Business Summer 1998 Retailer Survey shoes represented 26.5 % of the market share, followed by decks (26%), apparel (16%), trucks (11.5%), wheels (11%), and accessories (9%).
There have been many organizations and governing bodies for skateboarding throughout its history. The two main organizations today are the IASC (International Association of Skateboarding Companies), and World Cup Skateboarding, which is the leading competition organization. World Cup Skateboarding is run by former NSA (National Skateboarding Association) president Don Bostick, with competitions featuring Street and Vert disciplines. Competitors are usually on factory teams, rather than national teams. This is due to the growth of sponsorship and sponsorship dollars put into events, which has changed the face of competitive skateboarding tremendously. Skateboarding is beginning to earn respect as professional athletes and are receiving greater amounts of purse money from contests.
2000's
"Today a pro can make anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 a month," says Danielle Bostick of World Cup Skateboarding and the X Games. These earnings are based on winnings, depending on how well a skater places in any given competition and how many competitions a skater competes in during any given month. Most skaters who are sponsored also earn a monthly salary from one or more companies, which sponsors them as team riders. This is a considerable change from the past when pro skaters had to work a regular job as well as compete according to Bostick.
Skateboarding can be enjoyed by kids as young as two years, but the majority of pro skaters' range from early teens to early twenties. Most skateboarders don't train in any usual sense of the word, and they don't even think about their diet. Skaters just do what they love to do: skate, all the time. Skateboarding is fun, and when having fun is the goal, it never seems like training. Of course many skateboarders do other things for fun as well, such as surfing and snowboarding, which is actually extreme sports cross-training.
In 1959 the first skateboard was about to be sold made by the company Roller Derby. This board had clay wheels and a flat piece of wood for the deck. The idea of the skateboard came together around the time of when surfing was even a cooler sport than it is today. So many people decided why don't we make a land surfboard, then kids started taking pieces of wood and rollerskate wheels to make the skateboard.
In 1978 boards were being made with tails so you could pop the board up or ride on the back wheel. Then the revolutionary trick came around called the ollie or the no hands ariel. The skateboarders could hit the tails of their board and slide there front foot forward to make the board pop up and then level out.
In 1981 Thrasher Magazine came out to provide skateboarders information about skateboarding and music. Two years later Transworld Magazine had its first magizine out to try to bring back the now underground skateboarding scene, also coming up was skateboard companys with pro riders like Santa Cruz skateboards and Powell skateboards, and the team of the Bones Brigade was thought up.
The underground skate scene started to become more popular as more pros were becoming known for skateboarding from vert skaters like Christan Hosoi to street skaters like Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerroro.
In the later 80's many new companies were popping up like Vision, World industries, Airwalk, Vans, and Etnies and skate clothes and shoes were getting very popular. Many new companies were being brought into existance, even magazines like Big Brother were just coming into place.
In 1995 ESPN 2 hosted the first ever extreme games (X-Games) where skateboarding became a big hit. The X Games were contests for people who were professional skateboarders, rollerbalders, BMXers, and even motocross.
As the X Games carried on as the most popular extreme sports competition skateboarding's popularity began to rise even higher than it was before all the way to its large popularity now.
More than half of all the people living in the United States who like to skateboard currently live in California….shocked, aren’t you!!!
Just in the United States alone, there are more than 300 skateboarding parks, with more being constructed everyday! People are starting to realize that skateboarding is a great activity for their children to be involved in, and that it provides an excellent source of physical exercise, which many of us are severely lacking in!
One of the most famous skateboarding tricks, the 900, was first successfully completed by famous skater Tony Hawk.
Out of all of the sports played around the world today, skateboarding has been ranked number 6, in terms of number of participants and popularity.
There are National Skateboarding Championships held each and every year, with the first one being held in 1965, the very same year that skateboard was created and put on the market for sale!
It is estimated that close to 100,000 people require medical treatment each year due to skateboarding related injuries, many caused by skateboarders not wearing the proper protective equipment!
If you suffer from an injury while skateboarding, your wrist will most likely be the injured body part, according to current studies. Even skilled skateboarders suffer from wrist injuries, usually due to falls caused by debris on the skating surface.
When shopping for a skateboard, you need to pay attention to the weight rating of the board. If you weigh more than the suggested weight, you are more likely to fall when using this board.
It is important that you pay special attention to the type of protective equipment you have, to make certain it is approved for skateboarding, as not all protective gear will provide adequate protection. As time goes on, you should inspect your gear for cracks or tears, and replace it as needed.
Skateboards are manufactured in different lengths, and depending on what you plan to do with the board, you will need to purchase the appropriate sized board. For example, if you want to do stunts with your skateboard, you should purchase one that is 27 inches in length, whereas if you plan to just ride on the sidewalk, you will need one that is longer, around 29 inches. This is useful information, especially if you plan on shopping for a skateboard anytime in the near future.
Most skaters are around 12 years old, and they tend to lose interest at around 14 years of age, however, recently, older teens and young adults have taken up the hobby as well.
Skateboarding was first referred to as sidewalk surfing, and was the coolest mode of travel in the 1950’s.
^^ Props?
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Interesting Facts/Skate Articles
Bamboo Banga! 06:36 13/Sep/08
I would contribute but your "tits" posts are far below average. That last chick looks like she pissed/shit herself! Very disappointed Combat.
Combat 12:35 14/Sep/08
thanks fellas,
sorry to dissapoint bamboo, how about I amp it up a bit?
http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1362fl3.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1363qp5.jpg
http://img57.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1365oc2.jpg
joe-joe 12:50 14/Sep/08
i lol'ed at the last pic in the links above. Shes licking that other chicks ass
GOON BAGG 13:54 14/Sep/08
Skateboarding is the act of riding and performing tricks using a skateboard. A person who skateboards is most often referred to as a skateboarder or a skater.
Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an artform, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report by American Sports Data 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.
Skateboarding is relatively modern. A key skateboarding maneuver, the ollie, was developed in the late 1970s and in the early '80s freestyle skateboarder Rodney Mullen invented the ollie kickflip.
Contents
History
The 1940s-1960s
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, rather, 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. The boxes turned into planks, and eventually companies were producing decks of pressed layers of wood -- similar to the skateboard decks of today. During this time, skateboarding was seen as something to do for fun besides surfing, and was therefore often referred to as "Sidewalk Surfing".
The first manufactured skateboards were ordered by a Los Angeles, California surf shop, meant to be used by surfers in their downtime. The shop owner, Bill Richard, made a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to produce sets of skate wheels, which they attached to square wooden boards. Accordingly, skateboarding was originally denoted "sidewalk surfing" and early skaters emulated surfing style and maneuvers. Crate scooters preceded skateboards, and were borne of a similar concept, with the exception of having a wooden crate attached to the nose (front of the board), which formed rudimentary handlebars.
A number of surfing manufacturers such as Makaha started building skateboards that resembled small surfboards, and assembling teams to promote their products.Skaters used to use old computer parts as Boards,because of the rigidness. The popularity of skateboarding at this time spawned a national magazine, Skateboarder Magazine, and the 1965 international championships were broadcast on national television. The growth of the sport during this period can also be seen in sales figures for Makaha, which quoted $10 million worth of board sales between 1963 and 1965 (Weyland, 2002:28). Yet by 1966 the sales had dropped significantly (ibid) and Skateboarder Magazine had stopped publication. The popularity of skateboarding dropped and remained low until the early 1970s.
The 1970s
In the early 1970s, Frank Nasworthy started to develop a skateboard wheel made of polyurethane, calling it the 'Cadillac', as he hoped this would convey the fat ride it afforded the rider.[4] The improvement in traction and performance was so immense that from the wheel's release in 1974 the popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again, causing companies to invest more in product development. Many companies started to manufacture trucks (axles) especially designed for skateboarding, reached in 1976 by Tracker Trucks. As the equipment became more maneuverable, the decks started to get wider, reaching widths of 10 inches (250 mm) and over, thus giving the skateboarder even more control. Banana board is a term used to describe skateboards made of polypropylene that were skinny, flexible, with ribs on the underside for structural support and very popular during the mid-1970s. They were available in myriad colors, bright yellow probably being the most memorable, hence the name.
Manufacturers started to experiment with more exotic composites and metals, like fiberglass and aluminium, but the common skateboards were made of maple plywood. The skateboarders took advantage of the improved handling of their skateboards and started inventing new tricks. Skateboarders, most notably Ty Page, Bruce Logan, Bobby Piercy, Kevin Reed, and the Z-Boys (so-called because of their local Zephyr surf shop) started to skate the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought. This started the vert trend in skateboarding. With increased control, vert skaters could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks, such as slash grinds and frontside/backside airs. This caused liability concerns and increased insurance costs to skatepark owners, and the development (first by Norcon,then more successfully by Rector) of improved knee pads that had a hard sliding cap and strong strapping proved to be too-little-too-late. During this era, the "freestyle" movement in skateboarding began to splinter off and develop into a much more specialized discipline, characterized by the development of a wide assortment of flat-ground tricks.
As a result of the "vert" skating movement, skate parks had to contend with high-liability costs that led to many park closures. In response, vert skaters started making their own ramps, while freestyle skaters continued to evolve their flatland style. Thus by the beginning of the 1980s, skateboarding had once again fallen into obscurity.
The 1980s
This period was fuelled 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 in had made it possible for skaters to perform airs on vertical ramps. While this wave of skateboarding was sparked by commercialized vert ramp skating, a majority of people who skateboarded during this period never rode vert ramps. Because most people couldn't afford to build vert ramps or didn't have access to nearby ramps, street skating gained popularity. Freestyle skating remained healthy throughout this period with pioneers such as Rodney Mullen inventing the many of the basic tricks of modern street skating such as the flat ground ollie and the kickflip. The influence freestyle had on street skating became apparent during the mid-eighties, but street skating was still performed on wide vert boards with short noses, slide rails, and large soft wheels. Skateboarding, however, evolved quickly in the late 1980s to accommodate the street skater. Since few skateparks were available to skaters at this time, street skating pushed skaters to seek out shopping centres and public and private property as their "spot" to skate. Public opposition, and the threat of lawsuits, forced businesses and property owners to ban skateboarding on their property[citation needed]. By 1992, only a small fraction of skateboarders remained as a highly technical version of street skating, combined with the decline of vert skating, produced a sport that lacked the mainstream appeal to attract new skaters.
The 1990s to Present
The current generation of skateboards is dominated by street skating. Most boards are about 7¼ to 8 inches wide and 30 to 32 inches 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 wheel's inertia is overcome quicker, thus making tricks more manageable. Board styles have changed dramatically since the 1970s but have remained mostly alike since the mid 1990s. The contemporary shape of the skateboard is derived from the freestyle boards of the 1980s with a largely symmetrical shape and relatively narrow width. This form had become standard by the mid '90s.
Go Skateboarding Day was created in 2004 by a group of skateboarding companies to promote skateboarding and help make it more noticeable to the world. It is celebrated every year on June 21st.
With the evolution of skateparks and ramp skating, the skateboard began to change. Early skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional 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, long jumping from one board to another (often over small barrels or fearless teenagers) or slalom.
In 1976, skateboarding was transformed by the invention of the ollie by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand. It remained largely a unique Florida trick until the summer of 1978, when Gelfand made his first visit to California. Gelfand and his revolutionary manoeuvre caught the attention of the West Coast skaters and the media where it began to spread worldwide. The ollie was adapted to flat ground by Rodney Mullen in 1982. Mullen also invented the "Magic Flip", which was later renamed the Kickflip, as well many other tricks including, the 360 Kickflip, which is a 360 pop shove it and a kickflip in the same motion. The flat ground ollie allowed skateboarders to perform tricks in mid-air without any more equipment than the skateboard itself, it has formed the basis of many street skating tricks.
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.
The image of the skateboarder as a rebellious, non-conforming youth has faded in recent years. The rift between the old image of skateboarding and a newer one is quite visible: magazines such as Thrasher portray skateboarding as dirty, rebellious, and still firmly tied to punk, while other publications, Transworld Skateboarding as an example, paint a more diverse, and controlled picture of skateboarding. Furthermore, as more professional skaters use hip hop, reggae, or hard rock music accompaniment in their videos, many urban youths, hip-hop fans, reggae fans, and hard rock fans are also drawn to skateboarding, further diluting the sport's punk image.
Films such as Grind and Lords Of Dogtown, have helped improve the reputation of skateboarding youth, depicting individuals of this subculture as having a positive outlook on life, prone to poking harmless fun at each other, and engaging in healthy sportsman's competition. According to the film, lack of respect, egotism and hostility towards fellow skateboarders is generally frowned upon, albeit each of the characters (and as such, proxies of the "stereotypical" skateboarder) have a firm disrespect for authority and for rules in general. Group spirit is supposed to heavily influence the members of this community. In presentations of this sort, showcasing of criminal tendencies is absent, and no attempt is made to tie extreme sports to any kind of illegal activity.
Gleaming the Cube, a 1989 movie starring Christian Slater as a skateboarding teen investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother was somewhat of an iconic landmark to the skateboarding genre of the era. Many well-known skaters had cameos in the film, including Tony Hawk.
Skateboarding video games have also become very popular in skateboarding culture. Some of the most popular are Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, and Skate. for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms.
Skateboarding as a form of 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.
Skateboards, along with other small-wheeled transportation such as in-line skates and scooters, suffer a safety caveat where riders may easily be thrown from small cracks and outcroppings in pavement, especially where the cracks run perpendicular to the direction of travel. However, high average travel speeds help mitigate this; injuries are more likely to be minor, although very uncommon, head injuries still pose a major health risk.
Skateboard ban in Norway
The use, ownership and sale of skateboards were forbidden in Norway, during the period between 1978 and 1989. The ban was said to be due to the perceived high number of injuries caused by boards. The ban led skateboarders to construct ramps in the forest and other secluded areas to avoid the police.
Military experimentation in the United States
The United States Marine Corps tested the usefulness of commercial off-the-shelf skateboards during urban combat military exercises in the late 1990s. Their special purpose was "for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire".
Curtis.E.Bear 12:02 15/Sep/08
"Gleaming the Cube, a 1989 movie starring Christian Slater as a skateboarding teen investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother was somewhat of an iconic landmark to the skateboarding genre of the era. Many well-known skaters had cameos in the film, including Tony Hawk."
i have a VHS copy. its pretty sick. better than deck dogs ahahaha ;)
"Magic Flip", which was later renamed the Kickflip"
thank god it was renamed ahaha
Combat 14:28 15/Sep/08
top stuff fellas, you guys get some top ass;
http://img122.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1366fz9.jpg
keep em comming
GOON BAGG 06:54 16/Sep/08
The history of skateboarding from its first appearance in the 1950's to the present day.
The first skateboards were actually more like scooters, with the undercarriage consisting of rollerskate wheels attached to a two by four. Once the pushbar of the scooter-like contraption was broken off, skateboarding was born.
1950's
It wasn't until the 1950's, when the surfing craze was in full swing, that people realized skateboarding could recreate the feeling of riding a wave. This connection with surfing gave skateboarding a direction that would influence everything to come, from maneuvers and style, to terrain, fashion and attitude. It was during this time that modifications were made to the trucks making it easier to maneuver. By 1959 the first Roller Derby Skateboard was for sale.
1960's
In the early 1960's companies such as Larry Stevenson's Makaha and Hobie Alter's Hobie began to mass-produce the first true surfing-inspired skateboards. Some of the early proponents of surf-style skateboarding included Bill and Mark Richards, Dannu Bearer, Bruce Logan and Torger Johnson. Skateboarding became very popular almost overnight, and companies were fighting to keep up with demand. Over fifty million skateboards were sold within a three year period, and the first skateboard contest was held in Hermosa Beach, CA in 1963. Then in 1965 a slew of so-called safety experts pronounced skateboarding unsafe - urging stores not to sell them, and parents not to buy them. The skateboarding fad died as quickly as it had started, and the sport entered its first slump. Skateboarding would experience other slumps in its history. This pattern of peaks and valleys would come to be known as the "ten-year cycle," although the slumps weren't exactly ten years apart.
1970's
It was during this first slump that Larry Stevenson invented the kicktail, and the first generation of skateboarders laid down the foundation of tricks and style. However, they were still largely limited by equipment. Then in 1973 the urethane wheel was invented, revolutionizing the sport. The new wheels provided much better traction and speed and, combined with new skateboard specific trucks, allowed skaters to push the difficulty of maneuvers to new levels. Tricks at this time consisted of surfing maneuvers done on flat ground or on banks. Empty swimming pools and cylindrical pipes were exploited as terrain for the first time.
During the 1970's skateboarding experienced a large growth stage whish saw the construction of numerous concrete skateparks, a rank of professional skaters, magazines and movies. During this period modern skateboarding evolved to include vertical skating among its disciplines of slalom, downhill, freestyle and longjump.
Key advances in the sport included the aerial, the invert and the ollie, which may be the single most important trick in the evolution of skateboarding, next to the kickturn. This was the first time skateboarding had stars, some of the first really big names being Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta. The look of skateboards also changed from being six to seven inches in width to over nine inches, providing better stability on vertical surfaces. Near the end of the 70's, spiraling insurance and slowing attendance forced all but a few skateparks out of business and skateboarding entered its! Second slump.
1980's
In the 80's the plywood ramp and streetstyle revitalized skateboarding just as the urethane wheel had revitalized the sport in the 70's. Forced to take an underground, do-it-yourself attitude, skaters began to create their own wooden skate ramps in backyards and empty lots and turn previously unrideable street terrain, such as walls an handrails, into free-skate parks. Skater-owned companies became the norm and innovations in board and truck size allowed the trick envelope to be pushed even further. This generation had its own group of skate stars, some of whom still compete today including Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero. Towards the end of the 80's the focus shifted to street skating and Vert riding became less popular, it was the era of the first street stars like Mark Gonzales, Natas Kaupas and Mike Vallely.
With all this grass-roots action taking place it was inevitable that skateboarding would go through another growth phase. This time the cycle peaked around 1987 after skateboarding had directly influenced international culture ranging from the hard-edged punk style of music that most skaters preferred to the baggy, earth-tone clothes and retro tennis shoes that skaters wore.
The current cycle of skateboarding has been fueled by many items including new companies, more varied and difficult terrain, a new, more hard-core, almost dangerous attitude, and most importantly by a new generation of kids who have discovered the exhilaration feeling of rolling along of a board with wheels. Some of the people who exert heavy influence on the sport are former pros who have started companies like Steve Rocco of World Industries. The ollie has come into its own as the foundation for 80% of street tricks and about 60% of vert tricks, with the focus being on more technical and larger tricks.
1990's
In regards to the "ten-year cycle," the sport once again started on an upward swing in 1995, due in part to exposure it received from ESPN's first Extreme Games in Rhode Island. This served to bring skateboarding, which had long been viewed as a rebel sport, perhaps because of the danger and occasional illegality of the endeavor, a step closer to the mainstream. Many of the skaters who competed felt that ESPN's coverage of the sport raised skateboarding's overall image with the general public and is a good thing for the future of the sport. In 1996 the Extreme Games were again held in Rhode Island, once more exposing the sport of skateboarding to millions of people. Skateboarding was also included in the 1997 Winter X Games in the form of a CrossOver event that also included in-line skating, bicycle stunt, and snowboarding.
The impact of media coverage on skateboarding has moved it from an underground sport to a spectator sport over the last four years. It was brought an influx of companies and their advertising dollars, which had previously ignored skateboarding, as a vehicle for promotional purposes. Advertisers have seen that skateboarding has become a prime sport through which they can reach their favorite demographic: youth males.
Skateboarders have been present in campaigns for products from soft drinks to potato chips, candy to phone companies. Thus, most of what is happening in skateboarding today is coming not from the skateboarders themselves, but from corporate sponsors and the mass media. The primary focus of the sport remains on street skating, as can be seen throughout both the editorial and advertising pages of the major skateboard magazines, where street skating photos continue to dominate. However vert skating is making a comeback, due in part to the large number of new skateparks being built. These skateparks have also given boost to the skating community in many towns. The many different ramps, pipes and bowls present at these parks have led to a change in equipment. These technological changes applied to skate products have improved skateboarding hear steadily over the last two decades. While in the early 90's small boards and tiny wheel ruled, now there is a wide range of boards and wheels being seen under the feet of skateboarders. Wheel diameters are larger, deck width continues to grow, and longboards are gaining in popularity, especially in beach communities and among those that just want to use their skateboards to cruise or as a mode of transportation. Downhill skateboarding has also seen resurgence in recent years due in part to the visibility of the street luge.
One of the biggest trends at work is among softgoods. In the past, clothing fashions have consistently reflected the changes influenced by those who skate. Footwear is currently getting all the attention. According to the Transworld Skateboarding Business Summer 1998 Retailer Survey shoes represented 26.5 % of the market share, followed by decks (26%), apparel (16%), trucks (11.5%), wheels (11%), and accessories (9%).
There have been many organizations and governing bodies for skateboarding throughout its history. The two main organizations today are the IASC (International Association of Skateboarding Companies), and World Cup Skateboarding, which is the leading competition organization. World Cup Skateboarding is run by former NSA (National Skateboarding Association) president Don Bostick, with competitions featuring Street and Vert disciplines. Competitors are usually on factory teams, rather than national teams. This is due to the growth of sponsorship and sponsorship dollars put into events, which has changed the face of competitive skateboarding tremendously. Skateboarding is beginning to earn respect as professional athletes and are receiving greater amounts of purse money from contests.
2000's
"Today a pro can make anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 a month," says Danielle Bostick of World Cup Skateboarding and the X Games. These earnings are based on winnings, depending on how well a skater places in any given competition and how many competitions a skater competes in during any given month. Most skaters who are sponsored also earn a monthly salary from one or more companies, which sponsors them as team riders. This is a considerable change from the past when pro skaters had to work a regular job as well as compete according to Bostick.
Skateboarding can be enjoyed by kids as young as two years, but the majority of pro skaters' range from early teens to early twenties. Most skateboarders don't train in any usual sense of the word, and they don't even think about their diet. Skaters just do what they love to do: skate, all the time. Skateboarding is fun, and when having fun is the goal, it never seems like training. Of course many skateboarders do other things for fun as well, such as surfing and snowboarding, which is actually extreme sports cross-training.
GOON BAGG 06:58 16/Sep/08
In 1959 the first skateboard was about to be sold made by the company Roller Derby. This board had clay wheels and a flat piece of wood for the deck. The idea of the skateboard came together around the time of when surfing was even a cooler sport than it is today. So many people decided why don't we make a land surfboard, then kids started taking pieces of wood and rollerskate wheels to make the skateboard.
In 1978 boards were being made with tails so you could pop the board up or ride on the back wheel. Then the revolutionary trick came around called the ollie or the no hands ariel. The skateboarders could hit the tails of their board and slide there front foot forward to make the board pop up and then level out.
In 1981 Thrasher Magazine came out to provide skateboarders information about skateboarding and music. Two years later Transworld Magazine had its first magizine out to try to bring back the now underground skateboarding scene, also coming up was skateboard companys with pro riders like Santa Cruz skateboards and Powell skateboards, and the team of the Bones Brigade was thought up.
The underground skate scene started to become more popular as more pros were becoming known for skateboarding from vert skaters like Christan Hosoi to street skaters like Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerroro.
In the later 80's many new companies were popping up like Vision, World industries, Airwalk, Vans, and Etnies and skate clothes and shoes were getting very popular. Many new companies were being brought into existance, even magazines like Big Brother were just coming into place.
In 1995 ESPN 2 hosted the first ever extreme games (X-Games) where skateboarding became a big hit. The X Games were contests for people who were professional skateboarders, rollerbalders, BMXers, and even motocross.
As the X Games carried on as the most popular extreme sports competition skateboarding's popularity began to rise even higher than it was before all the way to its large popularity now.
GOON BAGG 07:07 16/Sep/08
More than half of all the people living in the United States who like to skateboard currently live in California….shocked, aren’t you!!!
Just in the United States alone, there are more than 300 skateboarding parks, with more being constructed everyday! People are starting to realize that skateboarding is a great activity for their children to be involved in, and that it provides an excellent source of physical exercise, which many of us are severely lacking in!
One of the most famous skateboarding tricks, the 900, was first successfully completed by famous skater Tony Hawk.
Out of all of the sports played around the world today, skateboarding has been ranked number 6, in terms of number of participants and popularity.
There are National Skateboarding Championships held each and every year, with the first one being held in 1965, the very same year that skateboard was created and put on the market for sale!
It is estimated that close to 100,000 people require medical treatment each year due to skateboarding related injuries, many caused by skateboarders not wearing the proper protective equipment!
If you suffer from an injury while skateboarding, your wrist will most likely be the injured body part, according to current studies. Even skilled skateboarders suffer from wrist injuries, usually due to falls caused by debris on the skating surface.
When shopping for a skateboard, you need to pay attention to the weight rating of the board. If you weigh more than the suggested weight, you are more likely to fall when using this board.
It is important that you pay special attention to the type of protective equipment you have, to make certain it is approved for skateboarding, as not all protective gear will provide adequate protection. As time goes on, you should inspect your gear for cracks or tears, and replace it as needed.
Skateboards are manufactured in different lengths, and depending on what you plan to do with the board, you will need to purchase the appropriate sized board. For example, if you want to do stunts with your skateboard, you should purchase one that is 27 inches in length, whereas if you plan to just ride on the sidewalk, you will need one that is longer, around 29 inches. This is useful information, especially if you plan on shopping for a skateboard anytime in the near future.
Most skaters are around 12 years old, and they tend to lose interest at around 14 years of age, however, recently, older teens and young adults have taken up the hobby as well.
Skateboarding was first referred to as sidewalk surfing, and was the coolest mode of travel in the 1950’s.
^^ Props?
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