Skateboarding

Skateboarding is a commonly known sport of today that consists of riding and performing stunts on a skateboard. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/skateboarding A skateboard is ridden by one person by guiding the movement with his/her feet. As a sport, the rider uses the board to perform stunts, while others use skateboards as a means of transportation over short distances.http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Skateboard.html

Throughout the life of skateboarding, different brands have experimented with different styles of skateboard equipment. The most commonly altered parts in history have been wheels and boards. The first mass produced skateboard was created by Bill and Mark Richards and production was centered out of Dana Point, California.http://ezinearticles.com/?Skateboard-Decks---History-and-Construction&id=1319413 Companies now produce boards or decks out of pressed layers of specialized wood, the most common is the seven ply board.

The sport was simultaneously thought of by surfers throughout California in the 1950s. Suffering from small waves that are poor for surfing, they got the idea to create something that would work on pavement. Without guidance or planning, they began to put roller skate wheels to the bottom of wooden boxes or boards.http://skateboard.about.com/od/gear/f/Who_Invented_Sk.htm It is argued by many how skateboarding got its start and who is to credit for the popularity today. Before surfers attached roller skate wheels to planks of wood, children were seen attaching wheels to soap boxes in the 1930s and 40s.http://ezinearticles.com/?Skateboard-Decks---History-and-Construction&id=1319413

It wasn't until the 1980s that skateboarding took on a form that is more recognizable in today's version of the sport. Skateboarders at the time began coining tricks and building ramps of a certain style that is still used today.http://www.skatelog.com/skateboarding/skateboarding-history.htm The rising popularity of street skateboarding in the 1990s caused the sport to grow with a more raw, edgy, and dangerous attitude. In 1995, ESPN helped pull skateboarding into popular culture by holding the first X Games. These competitions continue to keep vertical and street skateboarding popular and have helped classify it as a sport. In the year 2000, skateboarding gained more attention by the media with games, commercials, and children skatboarders.http://skateboard.about.com/cs/boardscience/a/brief_history_3.htm