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Skateboarding

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is the act of riding and doing tricks on a skateboard. It is similar to surfing, but on dry land and with a lot more tricks available. Skateboarding really took off in popularity in the late 1970's and early 1980's with the invention of the polyurethane wheel, which was a vast improvement over metal wheels, which gave both a brutal ride and no traction.

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About Skateboarding

The first skateboards probably came into existence some time in the 1940's and 50's when surfers were looking for something else to do in the absence of good surf. The first skateboards were made of wood with metal roller skate wheels. Tricks didn't really exist, and people mainly rode them down hills.

Skateboarding really began to gain in popularity with the polyurethane wheels in the early 1970's, which not only improved traction, but provided a much nicer ride. In California people started riding in drained pools and building vert ramps, which made skating more fun, but also increased liability for skate park owners. During the 1970's some of the basic tricks like the Ollie, and grab tricks were invented.

By the 1980's the commercial world of skateboarding was focused on vert ramps. People rode fish boards, wide boards with big soft wheels and short noses. Vert skating was expensive, ramps cost money to build and parks had to have liability insurance, which meant a lot of skaters never had access, and so street skating was born.

Pioneers like Rodney Mullen invented many of the basic tricks of modern street skating such as the Impossible and the Kickflip, street skating was still done on fish boards. By the 1990's most skating was done on the streets, and the board changed again to its present shape. The boards got narrower (7.5-8 inches), symmetrical in shape with a raised nose and tail and with smaller and harder wheels which made tricks more manageable. Now get out there and ride safe!

The current generation of skateboards is dominated by street skateboarding. Most boards are about 7¼ to 8 inches wide and 30 to 32 inches long. The wheels are made of an extremely hard polyurethane, with hardness (durometer) approximately 99A. The wheel sizes are relatively small so that the boards are lighter, and the wheel's inertia is overcome quicker, thus making tricks more manageable. Board styles have changed dramatically since the 1970s but have remained mostly alike since the mid 1990s. The contemporary shape of the skateboard is derived from the freestyle boards of the 1980s with a largely symmetrical shape and relatively narrow width. This form had become standard by the mid '90s.

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Skateboarding