Skateboarding
[6] However, skateboarding has become controversial in areas in which the activity, although legal, has damaged curbs, stoneworks, steps, benches, plazas, and parks.
The first manufactured skateboards were ordered by a Los Angeles, California surf shop, meant to be used by surfers in their downtime.
One of the earliest Skateboard exhibitions was sponsored by Makaha's founder, Larry Stevenson, in 1963 and it was held at the Pier Avenue Junior High School in Hermosa Beach, California.
Two Road Runner cartoons made in 1965, Shot and Bothered and Out and Out Rout, feature Wile E. Coyote riding a skateboard.
McGee made the cover of Life magazine[1][25] in 1965 and was featured on several popular television programs—The Mike Douglas Show, What's My Line?
[26][27][28] Some other well known surfer-style skateboarders of the time were Danny Bearer, Torger Johnson, Bruce Logan, Bill and Mark Richards, Woody Woodward, and Jim Fitzpatrick.
[1] The improvement in traction and performance was so immense that from the wheel's release in 1972 the popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again, causing companies to invest more in product development.
In the early 1970s, the precursors to the modern skateparks for skateboarding would be the repurposing of urban hydro and storm water infrastructure such as the Escondido reservoir in San Diego, California.
As the equipment became more maneuverable, the decks started to get wider, reaching widths of 10 inches (250 mm) and over, thus giving the skateboarder even more control.
[40] A precursor to the extreme sport of street luge, that was sanctioned by the United States Skateboarding Association (USSA), also took place during the 1970s in Signal Hill, California.
[8][32][43] Notable skateboarders from the 1970s also include Ty Page, Tom Inouye, Laura Thornhill, Ellen O'Neal, Kim Cespedes, Bob Biniak, Jana Payne, Waldo Autry, Robin Logan, Bobby Piercy, Russ Howell, Ellen Berryman, Shogo Kubo, Desiree Von Essen, Henry Hester, Robin Alaway, Paul Hackett, Michelle Matta, Bruce Logan, Steve Cathey, Edie Robertson, Mike Weed, David Hackett, Gregg Ayres, Darren Ho, and Tom Sims[citation needed].
Manufacturers started to experiment with more exotic composites and metals, like fiberglass and aluminum, but the common skateboards were made of maple plywood.
Skateboarders, most notably Ty Page, Bruce Logan, Bobby Piercy, Kevin Reed, and the Z-Boys started to skate the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought.
With increased control, vert skaters could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks, such as slash grinds and frontside/backside airs.
This caused liability concerns and increased insurance costs to skatepark owners, and the development (first by Norcon, then more successfully by Rector) of improved knee pads that had a hard sliding cap and strong strapping proved to be too-little-too-late.
In response to the tensions created by this confluence of skateboarding "genres", a rapid evolution occurred in the late 1980s to accommodate the street skater.
During this period, numerous skateboarders—as well as companies in the industry—paid tribute to the scenes of Marty McFly skateboarding in the film Back to the Future for its influence in this regard.
[54][55][56] This was also based on the healthy physical opportunities skateboarding was understood to bring participants for muscle & bone strengthening and balance, as well as the positive impacts it can have on youth in teaching them mutual respect, social networking, artistic expression and an appreciation of the environment.
[51][68][69][70][71] Many new places to skateboard designed specifically for street skaters, such as the Buszy in Milton Keynes, UK, and the Safe Spot Skate Spot program, first initiated by professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek throughout many cities, allowed for the creation of smaller alternative safe skate plazas to be built at a lower cost.
In 2015, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., hosted an event at which skateboarders accompanied by music did tricks on a ramp constructed for a festival of American culture.
Gelfand and his revolutionary maneuvers caught the attention of the West Coast skaters and the media where it began to spread worldwide.
Thrashin' also had a direct impact on Lords of Dogtown, as Catherine Hardwicke, who directed Lords of Dogtown, was hired by Winters to work on Thrashin' as a production designer where she met, worked with and befriended many famous skaters including the real Alva, Hawk, Hosoi and Caballero.
In presentations of this sort, showcasing of criminal tendencies is absent, and no attempt is made to tie extreme sports to any kind of illegal activity.
Productions of limited editions with particular designs and types of collectible prints that can be hung on the wall, have been created by such famous artists as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.
[112][113] In January 2019, Sotheby's in New York auctioned[114] the full set of the 248 skateboard deck designs ever sold by Supreme, collected by Ryan Fuller.
[116] In 2019, artist Adrian Wilson created the SUPREME Mundi, a cross between an artist palette and a skateboard as a commentary on the record bids at auction of the Supreme decks and the restored Salvator Mundi which was sold by a New York art gallery for $20,000[117] Skateboards, along with other small-wheeled transportation such as in-line skates and scooters, suffer a safety problem: riders may easily be thrown from small cracks and outcroppings in pavement, especially where the cracks run across the direction of travel.
[129] Private industry has responded to this problem by using skate deterrent devices, such as the Skatestopper, in efforts to prevent further damage and to reduce skateboarding on these surfaces.
[7][132] The Plaza contains copies of portions of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the nation's capital city that have been inscribed in the park's raised marble surface.
[131] A 2016 National Park Service management plan for the Historic Site states that skateboarding has damaged stonework, sculptures, walls, benches, steps, and other surfaces in some areas of the Plaza.
[7] A professional skateboarder promoted on Facebook the use of governmental sites for the prohibited activity during the 2013 federal government shutdown in the United States.
