A Brief History Of Skateboarding

Skateboarding is a pretty popular sport these days. I can't think of any guys I know that don't skateboard, or at least tried skateboarding. For those of you that may be wondering, the sport does come from another well known water sport.

The history of skateboarding has its roots in surfing. Did you ever wonder why skateboarding and surfing looked so similar? Here is the deal, they are quite similar because skateboarding was actually developed by surfers to see if they could do the things they could do on the waves on the streets. The other thing that makes sense, is that not everyone is near an ocean. And even if you are, not every ocean is condusive to catching waves.

You can't talk about the history of skateboarding without mentioning the first skateboards. They were much more primitive than what is available today. Today, you can find boards of different sizes with different features and pictures. The early skateboards were simply boards on wheels. As with most new items, someone just went ahead and put together stuff they had in the garage. The users experimented with the design until they came up with something that would allow them to "surf" in the streets. The final work on the skateboard was really a collaboration of many different people.

The sport started to catch on, though. It wasn't until the early sixties that the skateboard really came into fashion. Companies started to manufacture skateboards, making the sport available to more than just those who made their own boards. As the sport grew, competitions were held, and the technology and materials used to make skateboards improved as well.

The popularity of skateboarding faded briefly as the initial fad wore off. It was in the 80's that the skateboard picked up again in popularity. The revival happened after new skateboarding tricks were invented, and the sport gained popularity due to to films like "Gleaming The Cube." But today, skateboarding is more popular than ever. There are skateboarding competitions, specialized boards, clothing, and shoes. Skateboarding parks exist all over the world, even in the smallest of European villages.

Now, skateboarding is a more serious sport. Though it was once considered a fad, the sport is so popular that there are skate shops everywhere selling gear. There is even a skateboarding culture where skateboarding is more than a sport, it's a way of life.

The popularity of the sport is also shown in the fact that you can also get skateboarding video games, and major municipal parks are putting in skateramps.