History of Skateboarding
NOVEMBER 7, 2013
It all started around the late 1940’s early 1950’s when the California surfers weren’t able to surf because the sea was too flat, no one person started skateboarding it seems to be spontaneous invention of multiple people they had the great idea to take the handles of wooden scooters
or screwed roller skate wheels to 2x 4’s and started surfing the sidewalks just to get the same sensation of carving a wave but on the sidewalk. Back then the scooters and roller skates had metal wheels.
1960’s Skateboarding had become all the rage, companies such as Makaha started producing boards at this point the board didn’t have a nose or tail and were just a basic oval shape.
1963 The first skate contest was put on in Hermosa Beach, California. Competitions had started to be set up like down hill slalom and then freestyle such as Woody Woodward, Danny Berer and Torger Johnson paved the way for modern skateboarding by doing tricks like hand stands and ballet moves.
1965 Skateboarding seems to fade away over night and became a fad that came and went. Some seem to think this was down to the clay wheels that were being used instead of steel ones. They tended to to break apart and become unsafe leading to many injures, a few hard core skaters carried on.
1966 Brothers Paul and James Van Doren, along with Gorden Leen and Serge D’Elio opened the first Vans store under the name The Van Doren Rubber Company.
1969 Larry Stevenson made the 1st real innovation in skateboard’s when he invented the kick tail which allowed the skaters to break and have more control over the board as well, which lead to lots more tricks being invented.
1970’s Vans introduce the vans “#95” know today as the “Era” everything changed for skateboarding with vans coming out with there waffle sole which provided a superior grip and foot protection.
1972 The invention of the urethane wheel by Cadillac Wheels Frank Nasworthy making it a lot smother and safer for riders.
1973 The skateboard truck was invented. Ronald Bennett of Bennett Trucks, known for its signature red bushings. The Bennett Truck gave skateboarders the ability to turn and have better control on their skateboards. Skateboarders could adjust the tension on the bushings by tightening or loosening the king pin.
1973 Santa Cruz was set up by Rich Novak, Doug Haut, and Jay Shuirman, and the official title of “NHS, Inc.” was later adopted (the first letter of each of the founders’ surnames were used)The company’s first line of products consisted of fiberglass skateboard decks, loose ball bearings, and rollerskate wheels
1973-75: Fiberglass boards made by surf shops out of fin material became popular with the surf crowd. Companies experiment making skateboard decks, using everything from wood to aluminum. The first full-length skate movie, Spinnin’ Wheels, is released.
1975 Road rider wheels were invented. They were the 1st skate board wheels to use precision bearings making the ride even faster and smother putting an end to cadillac’s wheels which still used loose ball bearings.
The same year there was a freestyle and slalom competition held at ocean festival in del mar California. a team of skaters called the zephyr team entered and showed the world what skateboarding could do. they had rode their boards like no one in the public had ever seen before, changing skateboarding from just a hobby into something more exciting and serious. The zephyr team had a lot of influential skaters such as legends like Tony Alva, Jay Adams , Stacy Peralta and Alan Gelfand (nicknamed ollie).
The Zephyr team started skating abandoned empty pools. They would stand in the shallow end of the empty pool and roll toward the deep end, steering their boards around the bowled end in what’s called a “carve.” Carving is basically a wide turn in which all four wheels of the board remain on the wall of the pool or bowl. witch had the same sensation as surfing, around this time skaters were finding new ways to skateboard and so these new ways drove ‘shapers’ into new designs: freestyle and slalom boards stayed ‘small’ and the park boards grew from 7-10″+ the wider boards were created specifically for the vert skating
1976-78: The California drought forces homeowners to drain their pools. Though skaters have been riding swimming pools since the introduction of urethane wheels the previous year, they now view the empty pools as territory to be conquered In these early days, it was noted that Alva hit the lip of the pool so hard that he caught air witch gave birth to the 1st aerial, a front side air. Pool skating had become so popular that skaters that didn’t have accesses to pools started up what was dubbed a poor mans pool which consisted of layers of plywood shaped into a half pipe shape which lead to the vert ramps and the birth of vert skating.
1977 Tony Alva shunned the major skate companies to form his own, Alva skates It was the first company ever run and owned by a skateboarder, as well as being one of the first to use layered Canadian maple plywood in skate decks.
1977 Stacy Perralter and Greg Powell set up Powell Peralta.
1978, In response to the skateboarders’ demands, The Independent truck company was founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman, Fausto Vitello, and Eric Sweson. They then set to work manufacturing a durable truck that had a quicker turning radius as well as combining all the best features of it’s predecessors. The result was the Stage 1 model was the inaugural product, released in Newark, California, US. The Independent truck (or “Indy”) was designed as a response to the lack of quality skateboard trucks on the market at the time. In reference to the two other major truck companies on the market, Blackhart stated that one broke, and one didn’t turn(Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively) following a merger between NHS and Ermico both companies had been developing truck design prior to formation. Ermico consisted of Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello—Vitello was the founder of Thrasher magazine and Independent was responsible for designing the first production truck that could be easily adjusted and a model that could turn better than any truck in existence.
1978 Alan Gelfand got his nicknamed ollie for inventing the 1st ollie air (front side air)
1978 Stacy Peralta set up the Bones Brigade consisting of Lance Mountain, Mike, Mcgill, Tony Hawks, Tommy Guerrero, Steve Caballero and Rodney Mullen
1979 Steve Rocco becomes freestyle champ
By the end of the 1970s skateboarding took another hit when public skateparks started to shut down because of the high insurance rates due to the danger factor of the new vert skating and lack of attendance because of poor park layouts, shapes and poor construction making it hard for beginners to start. A few hardcore skaters carried on skating the back yard pools and build there own half pipes in their back gardens.
1980’s Tom Groholski is issued the 1st fishtail board the the whole tail of the board is wider making it easier to land and drop in when skating vert, with the rise and popularity of back yard vert ramps Stacy Peralta and Craig Stecyk III started organizing back yard vert comps and would invite everyone.
1980. the 14-year-old Rodney Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco, Rodney Mullen later turned professional as a member of the renownedBones Brigade team, By 1990, Mullen had won thirty-four out of thirty-five freestyle competitions that he had entered, losing only to fellow Bones Brigade member,Per Welinder due to falling over in his run.
1983 Rodney Mullen perfects the 1st ever flat land ollie, which changed skateboarding for ever. People started to see that they can get around the streets ollie’ing up and off curbs or over bins and bush’s. Street skating was born
1984 With the rise of VCR players Stacy Peralta got a video camera and started to film the Bone Brigade and released there 1st video (Bones Brigade Video Show)
1985 Bone Brigade release Future Primitive this video changed skateboarding it show cased street skating and kick started the street skating revolution.Turning hand rails and walls into free skateparks.
1987 World industries company was founded by Steve Rocco and in 1988 Rocco was joined by skater, Rodney Mullen and then Mike Vallaly in 1989
1989 Mark Gonzales approached Rocco with the desire to be involved in his own company. Gonzales was riding for Vision at the time, which at the time, was the largest skateboard company. Gonzales and Rocco decided to name the company Blind, in contrast to Gonzales’ former sponsor. Jason Lee who was, at the time, a World Industries team member, assisted with the development of the brand.
At the end of the 1980s skateboarding took yet another dive in popularity as vert skateboarding became far less popular than street skateboarding. as skateboarding lost its popularity it was harder for skaters to find places to skate,a new bread of skating pushed by skaters like Mike Vallely and Natas Kaupas started to take back the streets and develop this style using the different tricks that Rodney Mullen and the freestyle skaters had invented such as the kick flips and shov’its. With this came another evolution in the shape and size of the board. Boards noses went from flat to having a kicker the same as the tail which allowed the skateboard to be skated either way.
90‘s From the evolution of street skating, board shapes are becoming thiner (7inches) and lighter allowing the board to spin quicker when performing flips tricks and tiny wheels become all the rage.
1993 Girl skateboarding brand was founded after a selection of team riders from the World Industries distribution company decided to found their own brand the main figures that were Mike Carrol Rick Howard, Spike Jonez and Megan Baltimore (Baltimore was an administrative employee at World).
1995 ESPN holds the first ever X-Games. The event was a huge success and brought skateboarding into the mainstream light sparking interest in many more young kids
1997 the first Winter X Games were held, and “Extreme Sports” were classified. Plenty of skaters resent the way skateboarding has slowly moved from underground to mainstream. However, the X Games did bring vert skateboarding back into popularity. The X Games and competitions like that have continued to keep vert skateboarding popular, even though few skaters actually ride real vert ramps. Vert skateboarding has slowly become a much loved spectator sport.
By the late 90s, skating appears in commercials for everything from soft drinks to phone companies. Fashion trends begin to reflect the influence of the skating crowd well into 2000, so did the rise in popularity for skateboarding, fueling more and more commercialized skateboarding competitions like the X Games which, brought back vert skateboarding and CBS coverage of skateboarding events. video games, children’s skateboards and commercialization have all pulled skateboarding more and more into the mainstream. With the benefits of skaters being more accepted, and the label that all skaters are criminals slowly being dispelled. Also, with more money being put into skateboarding, there are more skateparks, better skateboards, and more skateboarding companies to keep innovating and inventing new things.
However, there is a large group of skaters who miss the underground days, and who strongly disagree with the way skateboarding has been made more mainstream. One benefit of skateboarding is that it is a very individual activity. There is no right or wrong way to skate.
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