Skateboarding Freestyle Street
The history of skateboarding goes way back in history. It started as a two by four screwed to roller skate wheels. Then it soon became connected to urethane wheels and from there it moved to metal trucks with actual skateboards. There are many different types of skateboarding there is freestyle street style and many vert skateboarding and many other different types of skateboarding. These types of skateboarding come from different parts of the United States and the world. Freestyle comes from the west coast where street style comes from the East coast. With these different types of styles it makes for a very interesting thing to watch and do. Street style skateboarders come in many different shapes sizes and even ages believe it or not. With this style you can skateboard pretty much anywhere sidewalks, driveways, schoolyards, parking lots, and any other paved or concrete surface. Please make sure that your thinking fast when you are doing street style skateboarding, Problems will come at you fast while skateboarding.
“So that means your brain and body will also have to work fast. You'll keep a sharp eye out for obstacles. Make a bad decision and you'll face plant” (Shoemaker). Skateboarding in this style has been around for many years. In the 1920's and 1930's skateboards where roller-skates nailed to a board. (Shoemaker). The steel wheels extremely loud and instantly stopped you when you hit a crack or even a pebble or rock. In the 1960's the skateboards became small and very flat with no concave. Now days the skateboards have many different shapes sizes and even come with concave. These are completely different compared to skateboards now days. They were heavy and stiff and did not turn well at all, but skateboarding was coming to the United States very fast. The very first skateboarding international competition took place in 1965, in Anaheim California. In those days skateboards had modern day trucks and the wheels were made of a stiff or even hard material, which made them skid very easy.
This competition had people from every country including the United States. (Shoemaker) Now days the skateboards that we use have awesome decals that appear on the bottom of the deck,a skateboard, which are very different from the ones they had back in the 20's 30's and even the 60's. The skateboards they had were lucky to get even a spray paint job on them! Skateboards now take time to get the decal job on them compared to the ones back then. Most skateboards back in the day didn't even have a decal job on them, they were plastic and were very difficult to put decals on. Skateboards now with their paint jobs cost more money then the skateboards with no paint jobs. Skateboarding takes time to learn ask any pro and they will answer with that answer it takes time. Most things you will learn while skateboarding will take time to learn sometimes 10 minutes to even months to learn. But do not give up when it comes to taking your time to learn these very valuable keys to good skateboarding, So whatever you do don't give up on your self. The footing and balance of skateboarding is what will take up the least amount of time to learn considering it's what you feel comfortable with. Once you have taught yourself how to get a hold of your balance and footing you will soon be able to learn tricks and anything else that comes your way, once you have taken the time to practice this you will be on your way to becoming a pro.
Street style skateboarding is now outlawed in many states because of the way the skateboarders carry themselves. It is important to obey the posted laws because outlaw skating doesn't just hurt you it hurts the rest of the skateboarding population in that area when banned. In the state of California a man hit a police officer in the face, which was assault on a police officer, and then that is how the skateboarding became banned in the state of California. Getting hurt is probably the most important part in skateboarding, I say this because if you don't get hurt then how are you suppose to know what you did wrong. When you wreck that is what teaches you what to do wrong and how to fix. It may take a few broken bones, pulled muscles, scrapes and bruises and sometimes it even results in permanent injuries while skateboarding but that's the part of it. So please make sure you have the correct protection gear. With all that said we can now move into the types of skateboarding of then and now. There are many different types of skateboarding street style, freestyle, and long boarding, and even just regular skateboarding. Street style comes from the west coast because they use the streets of like New York City and big cities like that to skateboard in. The freestyle comes from the West coast because all of the surfers just use it like their surfing, by rolling down big hills and using the turning style like it's a surfboard.
Skateboarding has advanced from the past times to what it is now by people wanting to make it better then it is. People wanted a bigger surface so they made a bigger surface, they wanted a better wood, not just a piece of wood out of the burn pile with roller skates on it, they wanted to use sturdy wood called maple and glue it together so they did. They wanted lighter trucks so they used a different type of metal, which made lighter trucks. It has advanced so much with its booming popularity that skate shops sometimes have difficulties keeping skateboards in stock. I would have to say that I am glad that it has advanced because if it didn't then I would be stuck rolling around on a 2x4 with roller skate wheels. I think that the history of skateboarding is a major part of the United States history.
“Traveling on skateboards makes things pretty easy. You can get yourself to and from sports, the store and even to school, it's just a great way to travel. A skateboard is light and it maneuvers better then a pair of roller skates ever would, it needs to parking space, and it has less repair then a bicycle, and its better exercise and more fun than a scooter.” (Gould). “ The popularity of Skateboarding really took off in the 1960's. The skateboards before now were crude compared the ones now.” (Gould) Skateboarding has even now still taken off to become one of the most popular sports in the United States, Skateboarding started in the 60's and then the popularity shot off and just hasn't quite stopped yet. “At this time, skateboarding was mostly either downhill slalom or freestyle. Torger Johnson, Woody Woodward and Danny Berer were some well known skateboarders at this time, but what they did looked almost completely different from what skateboarding looks like today! Their style of skateboarding, called "freestyle", is more like dancing ballet or ice skating with a skateboard.”(Cave)
If you go and ask your grandparents they probably remember putting their skateboards together by tearing apart a set of roller skates and nailing them to a piece of wood. If you saw some one skateboarding back then, you would probably laugh because they popular way of today was not so popular back then they stood very erect and stiff they did not bend their knees and they surely didn't attempt and big jumps off buildings and the grand canyon. Back then they rode their skateboards like they were scooters not surf boards because that is what they were familiar with. (Gould) Then, in 1965, skateboarding's popularity suddenly crashed. Most people assumed that skateboarding was a fad that had died out, like the hoola hoop. Skateboard companies folded, and people who wanted to skate had to make their own skateboards again from scratch. In conclusion the History of skateboarding is a very important part in the United States history, they do have a big part in the way things are now with skateboarding and how the types of skateboarding has advanced in time from the early 20's and 30's to even the 60's and to now. If you don't think that skateboarding history is important pick up a book at your local library about skateboarding and read them they, all have something about the history of skateboarding. So check out the history its pretty important history.
Work cited
Gould, Marilyn. Skateboarding. Mankato: Capstone Press, 1989.
Shoemaker, Joel. Skateboarding Streetstyle. Minneapolis: Capstone Press, 1995.
Cave, Steve. "A brief history of skateboarding." www.about.com. 2008. 6 Feb 2008 <http://skateboard.about.com/cs/boardscience/a/brief_history.htm>.
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