Skateboarding was first originated in the 1950s, when all over California surfers got the idea of trying to surf the streets. No one really knows who made the first skateboard but a few people came up with somewhat similar ideas at the same time. Quite a few people have claimed to have invented the first skateboard, but nothing can be proved. The first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels attached on the bottom. Since the boards back then were pretty sketchy a lot of people got hurt in skate boarding’s early years! It was a sport just being born and discovered, so anything went. The boxes turned into planks, and eventually companies were making decks of pressed layers of wood, similar to the skateboard decks you see today. During this time, skateboarding was seen as something to do for fun after surfing.
In 1963, skateboarding was a very popular thing, and companies like Jack's, Hobie and Makaha started holding skateboarding competitions
. Skateboarding was mostly either downhill slalom or freestyle. Torger Johnson, Woody Woodward and Danny Berer were some well known skateboarders at this time, but the things they did looked completely different from what skateboarding looks like today! The way they skated back then was called freestyle, it is almost like dancing ballet or ice skating with a skateboard. Then, in 1965, skateboarding’s popularness suddenly crashed. Most people thought that skateboarding was a fad that had died out, like the hoola hoop (haha). Skateboard companies folded, and people who wanted to skate had to make their own skateboards again from scratch! But people still skated, even though parts were hard to find and boards were home made. Skaters were using clay wheels for their boards, which was really dangerous because the clay wheels could just crack a little and bust apart when they were skating at a very fast speed. But in 1972, Frank Nasworthy invented urethane skateboard wheels, which are similar to what most skaters use today. His company was called Cadillac Wheels, and the invention made many new interests in skateboarding among surfers and other young people.In 1975, skateboarding took a huge leap toward the sport that today is skateboarding! In Del Mar, California a slalom and freestyle c
ontest was held at the Ocean Festival. That day, the Zephyr team showed the world what skateboarding could be. They rode their boards like no one had ever seen; low and smooth, and skateboarding was taken from being a hobby to something serious and exciting. The Zephyr team had many members, but the most well known are Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta. The Zephyr team and all the skaters who wanted to be like them made skateboarding even more of a sport and lifestyle. Unfortunately, at the end of the 70's skateboarding faced its second crash in popularness. Public skate parks were being built, but with skateboarding being such a dangerous activity, insurance rates went sky high. Since parents didn’t want there children to get hurt it went from A LOT of people going to barely any so they started closing the skate parks.In 1978, only a few years into the popularity of this new style called “skateboarding”, a skater named Alan Gelfand (nicknamed "Ollie") invented a trick that gave skateboarding another revolutionary jump. He would smack his back foot down on the tail of his board and slide his front foot up the grip tape thereby popping him and the board into the air. The ollie was born a trick that completely turned skateboarding around to a poor sport to a massive thing! Most tricks today are mixed in with an ollie. Alan Gelfand was inducted into the skateboard hall of fame in 2002.
Since 2000, many products and commercials and TV shows have to do with skateboarding and have all pulled skateboarding more and more into the mainstream. The benefit of this is that more and more people think that skateboarding is a
real sport as well as lifestyle, now skaters are more accepted, and the thought that all skaters are criminals is slowly being distinguished. Also, with more money being put into skateboarding, there are more skate parks, better skateboards, and more skateboarding companies to keep skateboarding alive!However, there is a large group of skaters who miss the early days, and who strongly disagree with the way skateboarding has been made a BIGGER thing instead a little hobby. One benefit of skateboarding is that it is a very individual activity. There is no right or wrong way to skate (besides if you push mongo!). So got buy a board and skate!
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