Skateboarding is the act of riding on and performing tricks with a skateboard. A person who skateboards is referred to as a skateboarder, skater or "shredder".
Skateboarding is a recreational activity, a job, or a method of transportation.[1] Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report by American Sports Data found that there were 18.5 million skateboarders in the world. Eighty-five percent of skateboarders polled who had used a board in the last year were under the age of 18, and 74 percent were male.[2]
Skateboarding is relatively modern. A key skateboarding trick, the ollie, was only developed in the late 1970s. This ollie was used only on vertical ramps on flat ground. A decade later, freestyle skateboarder Rodney Mullen invented the kickflip which before was called a Magic Flip.[3]
Trick skating
See Skateboarding trick for detailed description of trick skating maneuvers
A skater performs a kickflip.
A skater performs a kickflip.
With the evolution of skateparks and ramp riding, the skateboard began to change. Early skate tricks had consisted mainly of two-dimensional manoeuvres (e.g. riding on only two wheels (wheelie, a.k.a. manual), spinning like an ice skater on the back wheels (a 360 pivot), or when you ollie a bar and you leave the board and land on it again (nowadays called a "Hippie Jump"), long jumping from one board to another (often over a line of small barrels or fearless teenagers lying on their backs), and slalom.
In 1976, skateboarding was transformed by the invention of the first modern skateboarding trick by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand, the ollie. It remained largely a unique Florida trick from 1976 until the summer of 1978, when Gelfand made his first visit to California. Gelfand and his revolutionary maneuver caught the attention of the West Coast skaters and the media where it began to spread worldwide.
The ollie was reinvented by Rodney Mullen in 1982, who adapted it to freestyle skating by ollieing on flat ground rather than out of a vert ramp. Mullen also invented the ollie kickflip, which, at the time of its invention, was dubbed the "magic flip." The flat ground ollie allowed skateboarders to perform tricks in mid-air without any more equipment than the skateboard itself. The development of these complex tricks by Rodney Mullen and others transformed skateboarding. Skateboarders began performing their tricks down stair sets and on other urban obstacles - they were no longer confined to empty pools and expensive wooden ramps.
Rodney Mullen is seen as one of the main founding fathers of modern skateboarding, inventing most of the tricks used today. He invented over 30 tricks, such as the kickflip, heelflip, and the ollie impossible. Jason Lee was the person to invent the 360 flip later. The act of ollieing onto an obstacle and sliding along it on the trucks of the board is known as "grinding", and has become a mainstay of modern skateboarding.
