Skateboard
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Transcript of Skateboard
Skateboard
• Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard. Skateboarding can also be considered a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation.
• Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report found that there were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world. 85 percent of skateboarders polled who had used a board in the last year were under the age of 18, and 74 percent were male.
• Since the 1970s, skateparks have been constructed specifically for use by
skateboarders, Freestyle BMXers, aggressive skaters, and very
recently, scooters.
• Skateboarding was probably born sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s when surfers in California wanted something to surf when the waves were flat. No one knows who made the first board; it seems that several people
came up with similar ideas at around the same time. These first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate
wheels attached to the bottom.
• In the early 1970s, Frank Nasworthy started to develop a skateboard wheel made of
polyurethane, calling his company Cadillac Wheels. Prior to this new material,
skateboards wheels were metal or "clay" wheels. The improvement in traction and
performance was so immense that from the wheel's release in 1972 the popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again, causing companies to invest more in product
development.
• This period was fueled by skateboard companies that were run by skateboarders.
The focus was initially on vert ramp skateboarding. The invention of the no-hands aerial (later known as the Ollie) by Alan Gelfand in Florida in 1976, and the almost parallel development of the grabbed aerial by George Orton and Tony Alva in California, made it possible for skaters to perform airs on
vertical ramps.
• Skateboarding during the 1990s became dominated by street skateboarding. Most boards are about 7 1⁄4 to 8 inches (180 to 200 mm) wide and 30 to 32 inches (760 to 810 mm) 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 wheels' inertia is overcome
quicker, thus making tricks more manageable.
• By 2001 skateboarding had gained in such popularity, that more participants under the age of 18 rode skateboards (10.6 million) than played
baseball (8.2 million), although traditional organized team sports still dominated youth
programs overall. Skateboarding and skateparks began to be viewed and used in a variety of new ways to compliment academic lessons in schools, including new non-traditional physical education
skateboarding programs, like Skatepass and Skateistan that are used to encourage youth to have better attendance, self-discipline and
confidence.
• With the evolution of skateparks and ramp skating, the skateboard began to change. Early
skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional freestyle manoeuvres like riding on only two wheels ("wheelie" or "manual"), spinning only on the back wheels (a "pivot"), high jumping over a bar and landing on the board again, also known as a "hippie jump", long jumping from one board to another,
(often over small barrels or fearless teenagers), or slalom. Another popular trick was the Bertlemann slide, named after Larry
Bertelemann's surfing manoeuvres.
• Skateboarding was popularized by the 1986 skateboarding cult classic Thrashin'. Directed
by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin, it features appearances from many famous skaters such
as Tony Alva, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi and Steve Caballero. Thrashin' also had a direct impact
on Lords of Dogtown, as Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Lords of Dogtown, was hired by Winters to work on Thrashin' as a production designer where she met, worked with and befriended many famous
skaters including the real Tony Alva, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi and Steve Caballero.
• Skateboarding was, at first, tied to the culture of surfing. As skateboarding spread across the United States to places unfamiliar with surfing or surfing culture, it developed an
image of its own. For example, the classic film short Video Days(1991) portrayed skateboarders as reckless rebels.
• One of the early leading trends associated with the sub-culture of skateboarding itself, was the sticky sole "Slip-On" Skate shoe, most popularized by Sean Penn's skateboarding
character from the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Because early skateboarders were actually surfers trying to emulate the
sport of surfing, at the time when skateboards first came out on the market, many
skateboarded barefoot.
• But skaters often lacked traction, which led to foot injuries. This necessitated the need for a
shoe that was specifically designed and marketed for skateboarding, such as the
Randy "720", manufactured by the Randolph Rubber Company, and Vans sneakers, which eventually became cultural iconic signifiers for
skateboarders during the 70s & 80's as skateboarding became more widespread.
• Skateboards, along with other small-wheeled transportation such as in-line skates and
scooters, suffer a safety problem: riders may easily be thrown from small cracks and
outcroppings in pavement, especially where the cracks run across the direction of travel. Hitting such an irregularity is the major cause of falls and injuries. The risk may be reduced
at higher travel speeds.
• Transportation
• The use of skateboards solely as a form of transportation is often associated with
the longboard. Depending on local laws, using skateboards as a form of transportation
outside residential areas may or may not be legal. Backers cite portability, exercise, and environmental friendliness as some of the
benefits of skateboarding as an alternative to automobiles.
• Military
• The United States Marine Corps tested the usefulness of commercial off-the-shelf
skateboards during urban combat military exercises in the late 1990s in a program called Urban Warrior '99. Their special purpose was "for maneuvering inside buildings in order to
detect tripwires and sniper fire.
• Trampboarding
• Trampboarding is a variant of skateboarding that uses a board without the trucks and the wheels on a trampoline. Using the bounce of the trampoline gives height to perform tricks, whereas in skateboarding you need to make
the height by performing an Ollie. Trampboarding is seen on YouTube in
numerous videos.
• Swing boarding
• Swing boarding is the activity where a skateboard deck is suspended from a pivot
point above the rider which allows the rider to swing about that pivot point. The board
swings in an arc which is a similar movement to riding a half pipe. The incorporation of a
harness and frame allows the rider to perform turns spins all while flying though the air.
• Skateboarding is sometimes associated with property damage to urban terrain features such as curbs, benches, and ledges when
skateboarders perform tricks known as grinds on these surfaces. Private industry has
responded to this perceived damage with skate deterrent devices, such as
the Skatestopper, in an effort to mitigate damage and discourage skateboarding on
these surfaces.