Skateboarders have become as much a part of the urban landscape as pigeons, scooting down the roads and sidewalks, jumping over curbs, turning any ramp, railing or set of steps into an excuse for acrobatics–seemingly defying the laws of physics.
Skateboarding may seem like the ultimate in turn-of-the-millennium hipness, but it’s been around a long time. Back in the ’30s and ’40s, kids used to attach roller skates to two-by-fours. In 1958, a California surf shop went a step further, creating a “surfboard” that could be used even when the waves weren’t up by mounting skate wheels on square wooden boards.
Skateboarding promptly caught on big-time in California, where they called it “sidewalk surfing”–Jan and Dean even released a song by that name. By 1965, the National Skateboard Championships were being covered by ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and Life Magazine did a feature on the sport. In 1966, a movie called Skater Dater, featuring skateboarders performing outrageous stunts, was nominated for an Academy Award.
The first wave of popularity faded, but in the ’70s skateboarding made a comeback, thanks to some technological innovations: an upward curve on the back of the skateboard, called a “kicktail,” that made it more maneuverable, the invention of polyurethane wheels, which made the ride smoother and provided more grip, and the improvement of skateboard bearings, which made boards faster.
In the late ’70s, more than 40 million skateboards were sold in America and skateboarding parks popped up all over. Kids began skateboarding in empty swimming pools, using the sloping surfaces as launch ramps for stunts. Skateboarding clothing went on sale in JC Penney. It seemed everyone was skateboarding: Fred Astaire, 77, broke his wrist when he fell off his board.
But skateboarding faded again. Skateboard parks began to close, mainly due to liability concerns.
That drove skateboarders back to the street. Today, skateboarding has become tied in with rap and hip-hop music and fashion, and is all about urban acrobatics–much to the delight of the skateboard companies, since the boards, which aren’t cheap, wear out much faster on asphalt than they do on plywood ramps.
Today’s skateboard is narrower than boards were in the ’70s, and usually made from seven plies of sugar maple veneers, pressed together using polyvinyl glues. (Manufacturers have tried everything from fiberglass to nylon, but nothing works as well as wood.) In addition to a kicktail, boards may have an upturned nose and also curve up at the edges.
One key part of the board is the “trucks,” the mechanisms to which the wheels are attached. The trucks are what allow skateboards to be steered. They consist of a base plate, an axle which pivots on two bushings, and a pivot point. If you lean left, the wheels arc left and you turn left; if you lean right, you turn right. (The mechanism wasn’t invented for skateboards: it was actually developed for ballroom roller-skate dancing in the ’20s.)
Of course, technology is all very well, but it’s what you can do with it that makes it interesting. Skateboarders do some amazing things, but they’re not really breaking the laws of physics; they’re just using them to their advantage.
The basic skateboard acrobatic maneuve is the ollie, named after Alan “Ollie” Gelfand of Florida, who invented it in the late 1970s. It’s used in any trick where the skater hops over an obstacle or onto a curb, and somehow brings the skateboard with him. It looks like the skateboard is attached to his feet–but it’s not. Here’s how it works: the skater crouches, then accelerates himself upward by straightening his legs and raising his arms. He pushes down with his back foot, which raises the board on its rear wheel. As the tail strikes the ground the board bounces up into the air and begins to pivot forward. With the board in the air, the skater slides his front foot forward; the friction between his foot and the board’s surface drags the board even higher. Now he pushes down with his front foot and lifts his rear leg. The board levels out, the skater has both feet on it, and both of them return to the ground on an even keel.
So the next time you see skateboarders on the streets, don’t concentrate on what you may consider their questionable taste in clothing: watch what they’re doing, instead.
Then be sure to thank them politely for their public demonstration of physics in action.
1 comments
Thanks for sharing. Amazing how skateboarding started and how it became now. Good to know the history and contributions of skateboarding community.