Skateboarding started during the 1950’s where surfers were looking for something else to do other than surf, the first skateboard appeared on the west coast in california and hawaii where the first board was made from a smaller surfboard with metal wheels attached
In the years 1959 through to 1965 skateboarding was starting to be popular in the United States. Particularly affected were the states on the east and west coasts. The skateboard became a full fledged piece of sports equipment.During the year of 1962 ‘Vals surf shop sold the first skateboard which was sold as a complete with the smaller surfboard shape and wheels already attached. later on that year a company named Patterson Forbes created a more develop version of the skateboard that was an improvement on the old design. Skate clothing started to become more common. Famous skate brands like Vans, Kryptonics and Santa crux were founded in the mid 60’s to early 70’s and they started the new craze of skate brands and creating the new breed of skaters
Around the 70’s american soldiers bought skateboarding over to Germany where in Munich it started ti become the new craze with much becoming the hub for German skating. The first skate park was built in Neuperlak and the first skateboard mag came out and then the first skateboard competitions started to take place so within a matter of years skateboarding had completely taken over. In 1978 Alan Gelfand created the ‘Ollie’ this changed skateboarding forever the sport went from being a skate park sport to now being used on the streets. When skateboarding transferred to the streets different styles became apparent with regular street skaters creating new tricks and then there were the freestylers who had new and crazy techniques of making skateboarding fun and unique. Rodney Mullen was one of these skaters who revolutionised street skating with his own unique take on different tricks and new tricks, he was responsible for some if not most of the tricks that are seen today and he has influenced many more in his years of skating.
Thrasher magazine was one of the first skateboard magazines to be made in 1981 and following the creation of Thrasher other magazines started to be made like Transworld skate mag and smaller mags, with the creations of magazines, plenty of skate shops worldwide became more and more common. The first skate videos started to come out with the new genre of skate filmed on VHS the new tricks that were being created were captured on film.
Skateboarding was so common in the united states and Germany that the skaters that were appearing became celebrities in their own field like other sports players they had their fans. During the 90’s skateboarding took a step up and started having big competitions where skaters from around the world took part in something called the X-games, everything from the magazines and videos covered the event so was able to gain more popularity than previous competitions with the use of these tools.
Brands like Girl, Chocolate and alien workshop all helped skateboarding advance and reach new people and get them into skateboarding and new and better tools and hardware were created that made skateboarding a safer and more approachable sport for new people, more and more competitions are being made every year like Tampa and SLS with big money prizes and big crowds.
JACKHUNTERDESIGNS 