Skateboarding#2

Skateboarding was founded in the 1950s by many surfers that decided it was about time to start surfing concrete rather than just waves. The original skateboards, even before penny boards were actually square planks. They weren't anything special but it was definitely a kick start to a revolution of skateboarding. During the early 60s was when everything started to fall into place. People from all over the world started to hop on a skateboard. The tricks were more of cruising and skating down big hills rather than a kickflip or heelflip. They called this "freestyling". It was hard for a lot of people to skate because of the way it was shaped. Many people actually were making their own home made skateboards. Around 1975 skateboarding became something much more than a hobby, it became a sport. Many teams started forming that are still around today. In 1978 a man by the name of Alan Gelfand created the most original trick of them all, the ollie. As you can see from the picture above, the skater is lifted off the ground with both of his feet staying on the board. That is an ollie. Its almost like a simple jump in the air, with the board of course. As time went on skaters became a little bit more techniqual. Rodney Mullen came up with the tricks kickflip and even impossible. This changed the way of "freestyling" for good. Throughout the 80s people started to create skateparks. This opened a totally new way of skating, bringing everyone together to share some good times. At the start of the 2000s a huge boom in skateboarding accured. Almost everyone and their mother started to hop on a board and find skateboarding to be their sport of choice. I remember when I was in 8th grade almost every single person I passed in middle school was wearing skinny tight jeans which actually started becoming a thing from skateboarding teams and clothes. Looking at statistics in 2002 there were 18.5 million known skateboarders in the world. The cool part was that 85% of them were under the age of 18, starting a whole new generation of land cruisers. So now that skateboarding has become so popular the question is if they will make it part of the Olympics. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

http://www.skateboardingskateboards.com/skateboarding-history/
http://www.skateboardingskateboards.com/skateboarding-history/
http://skateboard.about.com/cs/boardscience/a/brief_history.htm

2 new sources:http://www.skatelog.com/skateboarding/skateboarding-history.htm
http://skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProTonyHawk.htm