The History of Skateboarding
Did you know that most modern sports were born from other sports or from simple outdoor activities? This is the case with skateboarding. Way back in 1950, just as surfing was gaining popularity with the LA crowd, surfers had found a way to surf on land. Their experiment was putting wheels on the bottoms of surfboards or any other wooden boards, which allowed them to surf around town. This in turn led to people branding skateboarding as hazardous and unsafe for younger crowds.
Skateboards in the early days were just wooden planks with roller skate wheels slapped underneath. Ten years later, in the 1960s, skateboarding was gaining so much popularity that companies like Jack’s, Hobie and Makaha decided to create and sponsor legitimate skateboarding competitions.
Vintage 1963 Makaha "Molokai" Skateboard
One of the most notable events in the history of skateboarding was during the spring of 1975 in Del Mar, California at the Ocean Festival. The Zephyr crew, better known as the Z-Boys, set the stage for modern skateboarders by showing the world what skateboarding could be - exhibiting sophisticated tricks, namely the Ollie. Skateboarding had thus made a revolutionary leap into becoming a movement and a subculture.
In the 80s, skateboarding took a bit of a dive and became more of an underground movement. After nearly a decade of mainstream growth in the 70s, skateboarding had lost legitimacy and turned into a street sport. Skateboarding’s new pop culture associated skaters with a grungier punk vibe, which many modern skateboard brands are known for today.
It was not until 1995 that skateboarding really hit a mark in history when ESPN held its first X Games in Rhode Island. Skateboarding was branded as an “extreme sport” and thus began to truly garner the interest and hype that we associate the sport with today.
Since the 2000s, skateboarding has proven to be a unique and distinct culture of which the likes of brands such as Vans, Converse and Santa Cruz Skateboards still commercialize and profit from. Skateboarding has ventured forth into a distinctive era from its humble origins of being a leisure activity to then a verified sport, to a movement and finally a properly evolved culture.