Styles of skateboarding

Styles of skateboarding

The original style is freestyle skating. This is where you do tricks on flatground , usually not moving and not popping.
Below is Rodney Mullen in a freestyle competition in 1986




Vert skating became popular after this and so did street skating.
Below is Bob burnquist skating in the Xgames



 Below is an example of early street Skating, a part from Plan B's video Questionable



Since then, Vert skating has died out and is not popular any more. Street skating has progressed and is more popular than ever.
This recent video by Cody McEntire that is a good example of modern street skating

The evolution of skateboarding

The evolution of skateboarding

Skateboarding was originally known as sidewalk surfing and was invented in the 50’s by surfers who wanted some way to practice their skills when the waves were bad. The first Skateboards were made by sawing a roller skate in half and bolting the two sets of wheels on either end of a plank of wood.  


By the 60’s, Skateboarding had become very popular and lots of competitions were beginning to take place.  At this time the styles were downhill slalom (kind of like skiing slalom) and freestyle.

However, in 1965 it started to die. Lots of people considered it a fad and many company’s closed down. Very few people kept skating during this time and this was mostly with homemade boards. Another reason it is thought that skateboarding dies is that it was very dangerous and the wheels used were made of clay and very unsafe.

 In 1972 the urethane wheel was invented and skateboarding started to recover and become popular again. In 1975 I contest was held in California that showed the world what great skaters could do.


In 1978 the Ollie was invented. This trick changes skateboarding forever. Alan Gelfand invented this by slamming the tail of his board into the ground and sliding his from foot forward. This causes the board to lift off the ground. Skateboarding in the street becomes much more popular due to that.
In the 90’s, Skateboarding on big half pipes (Vert) becomes less popular and almost dies out all together

Nowadays skate parks are being built all over the place and skateboarding is on the rise. Millions are made by Skateboarders who win competitions and have big sponsorship deals.

I wonder what will happen next?



Photo: http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2009/5/19/the-evolution-of-the-modern-skateboard.html

How Skateboard Decks are made.

How Skateboard Decks are made.

Most Skateboard Decks are made of Canadian Maple. The factory starts with seven veneers that are put into a glue machine by hand. Veneers are very thin pieces of wood. Some of these may have been dyed colours beforehand to make the board look better. These are then put into a mould which uses hydraulics to shape the nose, the tail and the concave of the board. It is then left to dry for a few hours.

Four holes are drilled in either end for the truck mounts.

At this stage the board is still square so next it is cut to shape. The edges are sanded round and the board is sealed with a clear coat of finish. Finally the graphic on the bottom is applied usually by screen printing. The deck is dried and is now ready for shipping

Image from http://diyskate.com/press_01.html