Evolution of Skateboarding

Luis Barragan

Intro to Kinesiology

Judy Stamm

March 12, 2017

Evolution Of Skateboarding 

        Skateboarding has been around for so many years. And even though everyone knows what it is, who really know how it all started and became what it is today. It all originated around the 1950’s when groups of surfers in California had the idea to “surf” the concrete. Which later became known as skateboarding. Although we know around what time this all started, we don’t know the origin of the first ever skateboard, as it looks like it happened because of multiple people.

        Skateboards haven’t always been as high end and fancy as they are today. Original skateboards were made by using wooden boards with roller skates wheels slapped on the bottom. By the early 1960’s skateboarding was reaching its peak. It was all rage. Big companies such as Jack’s, Hobie, and Makaha started to make real competitions happen. Then came 1965 where the sport of skateboarding seemed to have died significantly. Few stayed true to the sport and continued to create their own homemade boards. One of the reasons they believe skateboarding lost popularity was because of the simple fact that it was too dangerous and led to too many injuries.

        Then the 1970’s came. Everything took a turn for skateboarding. It made its comeback because of the invention of urethane wheels by Frank Nasworthy in 1972. Frank was the founder of the company Cadillac Wheels. By 1975 skateboarding was going back to its peak. Everything changed in a beach freestyle contest. That day, the Zephyr team amused everyone by riding their boards like no one had in the public eye, low and smooth. By then, skateboarding was now viewed as serious and exciting. In 1978 Alan Gelfand (nicknamed “Ollie”) invented a maneuver that allowed you to jump with the skateboard. That’s when the Ollie was born, a trick that completely revolutionized the sport.

        Now, from the year 2000 to today, skateparks pop up everywhere. There are even countless amounts of skateboarding video games that allow kids everywhere to be a skateboarder. The well known competition The X Games keeps on growing and getting more and more popular. One big factor today that makes skateboarding so big is that the pros actually make real money. Skateboarding is a sport that yeah, has grown dramatically over the past 60 years, but I do believe that it’s still not done growing completely.