Written by Elizabeth Hall
The exact moment that skateboarding began is almost impossible to determine, but the sport developed in the 1940s to the early 1960s. Skateboarding development can be identified from Californian surfers, who wanted to surf even when the waves were calm and added roller-skating wheels onto the bottom of wooden boards, and by children who rode crate scooters, which then had both the handle bars and the crate removed. These formed the first generation of skateboards. At this time skateboarders would just ride around and perform little tricks, which is known as cruising. Due to this new demand for skateboarding, skate shops were set up, such as Makaha by Larry Stevenson. Makaha originally produced long boards specifically made for surfers and the shop has been credited with creating the first skateboarding competition in 1963. In 1966, Vans began to cash in on the skating boom by creating shoes specifically made for both skaters and surfers. Around this time a new style of skateboarding was developed known as ‘vert’, short for vertical. It allowed skateboarders to use ramps, rails and bowls to skate and perform tricks in.
Until the early 1970s, skaters would use dangerous metal wheels that were eventually replaced, by Frank Nasworthy, with more durable urethane wheels, which he had dubbed ‘Cadillac wheels.’ Skate shops around this time also began to create rubber pivots which allowed for easier turning. In addition, Makaha began to add a kicktail onto the back of the board, which was later added to the front of the board. The kicktail saw major use in 1977 with the creation of the ‘Ollie’ by Alan Gelfnad, which allows a skater to jump on the board without having to pick it up, revolutising how skateboarders moved. With a drought hitting California in 1976, ‘vert’ began to increase in popularity as the skaters could make use of the empty pools. As the 1980s rolled in, skateboarding magazines such as Thrasher were established, allowing skateboarding to be discovered by a broader audience, as well as movies such as Back to the Future boosting the sport’s popularity. Also, around this time, the NSA (National Skateboarding Association) was formed, which focused on providing skateboarding competitions aimed at amateur and pro-skaters. Tony Hawk became one of the most popular vert skaters at the time, and remains popular still to this day.
Beginning in 1994, the X Games became one of the most influential competitions in skating. One of the X Games’ most infamous moments came from Tony Hawk in 1999, when he landed a ‘900’, a stunt that seemed almost impossible for any skater to achieve, as the trick had him do two and a half revolutions and a hundred-and-eighty degree turn. During this decade many new skate brands began to emerge, such as GIRL and Zero, as well as sports companies like Nike and Adidas beginning to cash in on the skating boom as they also began to make shoes suitable for skating in. As the 2000s began, online sites like YouTube allowed skaters to create and share their own custom skate videos. Many of the counter-cultural icons at the time made references to or were skaters themselves, from Avril Lavigne’s ‘Sk8er Boi’ to Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit often showing off his skateboarding prowess to fans. With the rise in popularity of video games in the 1990s, Tony Hawk took advantage of this and created his first game. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was released in 1999 on Sony’s PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Colour, Dreamcast, and N-Gage. The game was immediately a hit with skaters. Tony has since released games including four other titles in the Pro Skater series and Tony Hawk: American Wasteland. Also wanting to cash in on the video game skateboarding craze, the Skate series was created in 2008, being released on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii. Skate utilised flickit technology, allowing for more precise skating than the Tony Hawk games could provide.
But in more recent years, skateboarding has become more and more popular, being pushed out further into the mainstream because of the sports inclusion in both the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games and later on in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. In the Olympics, skateboarding is divided into two events: the park event has skaters gain speed, traverse through obstacles and perform tricks while in a bowl; meanwhile, the street event has skaters in an environment not too different from what is found on the streets. Skateboarding was included in the 2024 Paris Olympic games and skateboarding will be one of the permanent sports included in the Olympics from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic games. However, due to the dangerous risk that skateboarding can pose, many public places have banned skateboarding. Also, with this massive push to the mainstream comes a risk to the culture itself, as this can be seen as a push by companies to make skateboarding into something safe and profitable instead of the raw authenticity which has defined skateboarding since the very beginning.
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Winner, T. (2018) Sidewalk Surfing: The Gnarly History of Skateboarding Part I (1940s to 1972), The Strong National Museum of Play. Available at: https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/sidewalk-surfing-the-gnarly-history-of-skateboarding-part-i-1940s-to-1972/ (Accessed: 5 February 2026).
Winner, T. “Sidewalk Surfing: The Gnarly History of Skateboarding Part II (1973 to 1991).” The Strong National Museum of Play, 14 Sept. 2018, www.museumofplay.org/blog/sidewalk-surfing-the-gnarly-history-of-skateboarding-part-ii-1973-to-1991/.
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Featured image credit: “Skateboard” by rafael-castillo is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Retrospect Journal 