I decided to start this assignment by researching the history of skateboarding, these are some accompanying images and a summary of what I found while reading the book “The Concrete wave the history of skateboarding” written by Michael Brooke.
The first type of skate board was created around the early 1900’s by children in the America modifying roller-skates, they took the wheels and attached them to a plank of wood, often these early skateboards would also have handles so they more closely resembled what we know as a scooter. Over the next fifty years children changed the design by removing the handles, these early skateboards more closely resemble what we know as a skateboard however they were still extremely crude they did not have trucks and their wheels were steel.
During the baby boom following the Second World War toy manufacturers realised the commercial potential the skateboard had, by 1959 the first commercial skateboards were on sale. It was around this time that surfing was also attracting attention, people tied the two sports together and it became popular for surfers to “surf the street” on days when the waves were poor. In 1965 the sport fell out of popularity due to a disgruntled public, cities began to ban skateboarding due to the high number of injuries and a rising number of fatalities. These were mainly because the commonly used ceramic wheels gave poor traction and trucks were unreliable and only offered limited mobility. skateboard manufacturers made huge losses due to thousands of cancellations. For the next eight years skateboarding was kept alive by small numbers of dedicated individuals, during this period Larry Stevenson invented the “kick tail”, this is where modern skateboards get their raised ends. Larry attempted to revive skating in California, where it was still popular among small groups though he was met with little successes.
In 1970 Frank Nasworthy, a recreational skater realised that urethane wheels were far superior in ride quality than traditional clay wheels, he began producing, selling and promoting urethane wheels, at first he was met with resistance skaters didn’t want to move away from the traditional clay wheels. Urethane wheels were also very costly, a set cost as much as a new board. Eventually skaters realised what a difference these wheels made and their popularity grew. Thanks to these new wheels the popularity of the sport also grew, a surge of new manufacturers and ideas led to precision bearings replacing the loose bearings that had accompanied the early clay wheels and urethane wheels that preceded.
As a result of this improved performance vertical skateboarding which originated with riders using empty swimming pools as half pipes became more popular and in 1976 the first outdoor skate park was built in Florida, this was followed by hundreds of others across the USA. The size and shape of boards changed to improve the vertical and street riding style, most noticeably boards became wider as this gave better stability. The top riders of the time began riding boards with graphics under the deck, almost all manufacturers followed suit and soon it became common for riders to ride decorated boards. However skate park insurance became hugely expensive due to liability issues causing many owners to close, this suppressed the growth of the vertical style of the sport. The popularity once again fell and the sport largely moved underground.
In 1984 vertical and street skating rose in popularity again due to increased promotion of the sport and competitions. With this new publicity and the top riders in the spotlight skate clothing and shoes became popular; the sport established a new image. During the 1990’s the forgotten art of longboarding and downhill styles began making a comeback but the focus was still mainly on vertical and street style riding, a legislative change meant that new skate parks began to open which greatly assisted popularity of these styles. Today the situation is largely the same, street and vertical styles are still the most popular and longboarding and downhill styles are seeing a resurgence.
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