The design of skateboards was very close to
surfboards, at the beginning they where quite similar,
but with the time the design changed because of
all the manufacturerers competing to make better decks.
The first manufactured skateboards
where made in 1965. They were an inch thick, had
rubber wheels, and cast ? iron trucks.
Competitions soon started down the
sidewalks between skateboarders, some of this were:
Free Style, Slalom, Down Hill, High Jump and finally
Long Jump. Some time passed by, and skateboarders
started using drainage channels, routes, and some
places around buildings.
Vert skating began using swimming pools.
The transitions were too vertical and fast, and jumps
turned better.
The first Skateparks were built in the U.S. This were
the main hang-out places for skaters, soon, pool and
Vert skating became the most popular form of
skating. Vert skating demanded harder boards, so
manufacturers built them wider for more stability and
changed the old rubber wheels for polyurethane
wheels, which were faster!
Barefoot skating was now
forgotten except by a few of the old die-hard
"sidewalk surfers". The new skaters figured out
that gym shoes had more stability and didn't hurt
as bad when you wipe-out.
Early eighties came and had lots, and lots of
skateboarding popularity. Skateparks closed the
doors, manufacturers stopped manufacturing and
worst of all, skateboard magazines switched over
to BMXing and roller-skating. But a few hardcore
skaters kept going. Those dedicated skaters
advanced skateboarding cy creating their own
techniques, writing their own magazines, and
building some of there own boards and layouts.
This is when half-pipes arrived. Simpler and
cheaper than pools, they could be built by the
skater himself. Tricks were used in street skating
that, before, had only been used by Vert skaters,
Street ollies, slide'n'rolls, and curb grinds( most of
which have different names now) are classic as
street skaters moves, all of which were made by
Vert skaters. Street skating is still probably one of
the most popular forms or boarding. Every skater
is a street Skater because that's where his roots are
from. It's just that some skaters forget a few
things along the way.