Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net/By jscreationzs
Skateboarding appears as fresh-faced as some young women and men riding boards to school, the market, or local skate parks. What’s surprising to some, despite its popularity and association to exercise, is skateboarding’s age! The sport has been around since the 1960s.
Skateboarding, like those who mature, gain experience, and evolve, has transformed; the moves, direction, and riders look different today as compared to skateboarding’s beginnings.
The Beginning
It’s difficult for skate historians to attribute one event, invention, or person to the beginning of skateboarding; it seems multiple stories place the advent of skating around the same time. At some point, surfers, looking to replicate the experience on land (especially when waves were minimal), fused roller skates to a flat board, emulating the skating experience but with two (free) feet on one board.
Like surfing, the ‘new’ way of riding was considered alternative and ridiculous by most, yet a select few, enjoying the sensation of paving streets in style and speed, continued the practice. Despite athleticism of riders, the clay wheels, getting caught in cracks and sidewalks, often pitched riders off boards.
If smooth riding was an end goal, improvement was needed.
