History Of Skateboarding.

Skateboarding is believed to have been created by surfers during the 50's who had the idea of surfing the streets. The first boards that were made were home made but skateboards out of pieces of wood carved into a square, however skateboards soon were made in large quantity using thin layers of ply glued together for greater durability. Skatboarding was still a hobby of surfers rather than a full fledged sport.














Skateboarding began to expand and by the mid 60's local competions were emerging for downhill slalom skateboarder, however within a few years skateboarding was almost extinct as skateboard companies ceased to produce boards, and the small number of skateboarders was once again forced to produce their own boards with clay wheels and square pieces of wood.




In the spring of 1975, skateboarding took an evolutionary boost toward the sport that we see today. In Del Mar, California a slalom and freestyle contest was held at the Ocean Festival. That day, the Zephyr team showed the world what skateboarding could be. They rode their boards like no one had in the public eye, low and smooth, and skateboarding was taken from being a hobby to something serious and exciting
Similar to the boards in this video.






In 1978 the most influencial thing in skateboarding history would occur, Alan Gelfand would do the first "ollie". The importance of this is because almost every single trick in skateboarding today has the "ollie" as the foundation.



Skateboarding continued to progress and so came the evolution of vert skateboarding, which is probobly most popularised by modern skateboarders such as Tony Hawk and Bob Burnquist who both feature on the THPS series.



Vert skateboarding took a dive in fame in the early 90s, but skateboarding still remained, though it became primarily street. It was then that Mike Vallely and Natas Kaupas came on the scene and pushed street skateboarding even further. Natas pictured above.

In 1995 ESPN held the first X games which put skateboarding into the mainstream. The other most influencial factor in the mainstream success of skateboaring was the first THPS game which was released in 1999.