Skateboarding

Skateboarding, otherwise known as sidewalk surfing, is a sport, method of transportation, and even seen by some as an art form. Skateboarding culture has been through three previous generations to reach the subculture that it is today. The first skateboard originated sometime around the 1950’s and coincided with new emergence of surfing. Skateboarding hit the mainstream culture in the 1960s when the international skateboarding championships were broadcast on national television. The second generation of skateboarders in the 1970s had the advantage of riding improved boards made from fiberglass and aluminum with specially designed trucks and wheels. Skaters of the second generation were able to develop tricks on their new equipment. The Z-Boys, were a group of skaters from Santa Monica California and are credited as the founders of the skating subculture that exists today. The Z-Boys got their practice time in by skating the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought. This started the vert trend in skateboarding. The third generation of this established subculture emerged in the late 80s and early 90s. The focus of this generation was on the vert ramp, where a horizontal plane will quickly transform to a vertical plane. Once the skater is at the top they may perform tricks in the air. The third generation also expanded upon freestyle skating and street skating. The founders of street skating, such as Rodney Mullen invented the basic tricks of modern street skating. The ollie kickflip, the heelflip, and the 360 flip are just a few tricks well known to insiders. Movies such as Dishdogz (2005) portray current skating subculture as a competitive sport between people who have a positive outlook on life. We are now within the fourth generation of skateboarding. According to American Sports Data Inc, there are 12.5 million skateboarders today. The vast majority of this subculture dress, talk, and act in distinctive ways that portray the past generations and allow room for the future. New developments in skateboarding subculture are skating videogames, technology and the X-games, where competitors come from around the globe to show their moves in this action sports competition.

Below is a movie clip from the 2003 X-games: