Thursday, October 3, 2019
The Influence of Surfing in Skateboarding Essay Example for Free
The Influence of Surfing in Skateboarding Essay Skateboarding began in the year of 1950, when all over California surfers suddenly got the notion that they could try surfing on street, it was partly this reason why no one could really tell who first made or discovered skateboards. There are several assertions that they are the ones who made the very first skateboards however, none of those could really be verified. During these times, skateboarding is considered to be fun, yet it is only second to surfing. â€Å"The first type of skateboards which dates back to early 1900s was actually more like a scooter†(Brooke, 16) with the undercarriage made up of roller skate wheels fastened to a two by four, once the push bar of the scoter like apparatus was broken off, it was only then skateboarding came into existence. Around the late 1950s, open-minded Californian surfers began to realize that these-scooter-minus-the-handlebar contraptions†¦could be used as a kind of alternative to surfing†¦ (Books and Phillips, p.11)            It was by the year of 1950 that the surfing fad became very popular. It was only then that people recognized the fact that skateboarding could be almost similar to riding a wave or surfing and this particular association with surfing which gave skateboarding, a course which would affect everything regarding the sport which was just about to come. This includes a series of maneuvers, style terrain, as well as stance. It was basically at some point in this time that changes were done to the apparatus in order to make them easier to use or handle. By the year of 1959 the very 1st Roller Derby Skateboard was put up in stores. Basically, it was the surfers who first thought of the idea that surfing could be done on streets (Cave, 2007).            As was already mentioned, the 1st skateboard was manufactured by the year of 1950 and it happened during the surfing or riding in wave was in vogue in California. The very first skateboards were made at home and built on even wooden boards fastened to roller skate trucks and wheels, skateboarding were initially named â€Å"sidewalk surfing†and the very first skaters imitated some methods and moves from surfers. It is even argued if skateboards really developed from â€Å"crate scooters†, which in turn came before skateboards did and they were basically the same saved that they have a crate made of wood fastened to the front, which made up elementary handlebars (Cave, 2007).            The entrance of the year 1960 paved way to skateboarding going on mainstream. There are also those surfing companies like Hobie and Makaha who began manufacturing skateboards which looks a lot like minute surfboards and accumulating groups to endorse their manufactured goods. The fame of skateboarding at this point in time generated a national magazine which is called a â€Å"Skateboarder Magazine and the 1965 international championships were publicized on national televisions, the development of skateboarding during this times could also be observed in Makaha’s sales records which stated $4, 000, 000 worth of skateboard were sold from the year of 1963 up to 1965. It was also in the year of 1963 that skateboard was at the highest peak of its fame and thus Makaha, among other companies commenced in giving off tournaments on skateboarding. During this year skateboarding are usually done, downhill, salom or freestyle and skateboarders such as Torger Johnson, Woody Woodward and Dany Berer became famous on the sport however, one should take note of the fact that skateboarding is very different from what it is today and thus one should not expect them to be doing things skaters of today’s times are doing. During those times â€Å"freestyle†their favorite style in skateboarding seems as though they are doing some ballet or they are ice skating, not exactly the same as it looks like today. However, by the year of 1966 sales had not been as good as before and it plunged down considerably. It was also about this time when Skateboarder Magazine had ended their publications, and hence skateboarding’s fame plunged down and continued to remain low until the coming of the year, 1970 (OldSchoolSkateboarding, 2007).            The early 1960s is the time when companies like Makaha and Hobie’s started to mass produce the very first and genuine surfing enthused skateboards. A number of the first advocates of surf-style skateboarding are Bill and Mark Richards, Danu Bearer, and so on. Skateboarding became very trendy in an instant and manufacturing companies have had to work hard in order to sustain the demands of the customers. More than 50, 000, 000 skateboards were bought within the span of three years. The very first contests on skateboarding took place on Hermosa Beach, California in the year of 1i963. It was in 1965 that a swing supposedly safety specialists asserted that skateboarding is not safe, forcing the stores to stop selling skateboards, and parents to stop buying them. The skateboarding trend died immediately in the same way it had been an instant fad before (OldSchoolSkateboarding, 2007).            At the early years of 1970, Frank Nasworthy began to make skateboard wheels from polyurethane. Nasworthy’s invention looks closer to what skateboarders use nowadays. The development in footing and execution was so great that the reputation of skateboarding began to increase quickly once more. Companies began to spend more in product advancement. A large number of companies began to produce trucks principally intended for skateboarding. As the gear develops and began to be more maneuverable or easier to handle, the decks began to get broader which provides the skateboarders even more room to maneuver Nasworthy’s company was called Cadillac wheels and his inventions caught the interest of surfers among other people which is another development on skateboarding.            Skateboards made up by polypropylene were called banana board; these boards are thin, supple, with beams on the underside for structural foundation and they are also very famous until the mid-70s. These skateboards are available in many colors; however yellow is the most famous of them all, hence the term banana boards.            In the year of 1975, skateboarding unexpectedly received an evolutionary improvement and it is almost similar to what skateboards and skateboarders do and look like nowadays. In Del Mar wherein a salom and freestyle competition was held , the Zephyr team amazed the world to the things skaters and their skateboards could do and it was the start of whence the sport was treated seriously and not just as a mere past time. Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Tony Peralta were the three most well-known and celebrated skateboarders at that time and all of them are members of the Zephyr.            By the year of 1978 skateboarder, Alan â€Å"Ollie†Gelfand made a noteworthy invention which gave skateboarding another boost. The Ollie is a technique wherein one would slam one’s back foot on the tail of the skateboard and then the skater would be seen boarding the air.            Producers began to experimenting with more interesting combinations such as fiberglass and aluminum; however, the typical skateboards were structured with maple plywood. The skateboarders made use of the better handling of their boards and they commenced on creating and discovering new tricks with their skateboards. Skateboarders, especially the Z-boys, commenced in skating the vertical walls of swimming pools and this began the vertical trend in the said sport. With amplified improved control vertical skaters could skate faster and execute more risky tricks like slash grinds and the like. This founded liability apprehensions and intensified insurance charges to skatepark owners. During this period, the â€Å"freestyle†movement in skateboarding started it could be distinguished by the growth of a broad variety of flat-ground tricks.            Skateparks progressively had to debate against high-liability expenses which led to many parks closing down. Vertical skaters thus, began to make their own access ramps and freestylers are no longer in need for skate parks. Therefore, by early 1980s skateboardings popularity diminished once more (YourLeisurelyTime, 2006).            It was by the year of 1980s that the VCR suddenly materialized into the picture and they paved way to kids all over the world who wants to skate. Stacey Peralta along with George Powell made a team of gifted skateboarders and called them the Bones Brigade, it was also Stacey who made skateboarding videos which he called â€Å"The Bones Brigade Videos†. Their team includes Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, along with other famous skaters, most of which one could see in â€Å"Freestyle†(a playstation game), and it was by this time that skaters began to be famous and made their own clothing styles which others tries to imitate even up to this point in time.            The 3rd generation of skateboards which is by the early 1980s up to early 1990s was stimulated by skateboard manufacturers which were managed by skateboarders. The main concentration was originally on vertical ramps skateboarding. The creation of the no-hands aerial by Allan Gelfand in the year of 1976 made it feasible for skateboarders to execute airs off of vert ramps. Whereas this wave of skateboarding was generated by commercialized vertical ramps skating, a great number of individuals who skateboarded during these times do not use or ride vertical ramps. Since majority of this individuals do not have the financial means to construct vertical ramps or they do not have access towards the ramps in the vicinity, street skating obtained a great deal of popularity. Freestyle skating continued to be popular all throughout this time with founders like Rodney Mullen formulating the fundamentals of contemporary street skating. The effects thiese freestylers had on street skating became pretty much obvious by the middle of 1980s. However, skateboarding progressed rapidly in the late 80s to adapt with the street skaters. Because only a small number of skate parks are accessible to skaters during this period, street skating urged skaters to search for shopping centers as well as public and private property they could call their place on which they could skate. The public resistances as well as dangers of bringing matters to court compelled businesses and property holders alike, to prohibit skating on their properties. By the year of 1992 just a small number of skateboarders continued to be a specialized adaptation of street skating, merged with the deterioration of vertical skating, generated a sport that is lacking of the mainstream allure to draw new skateboarders (DiMartino, 2007).            The 4th as well as the present generation of skateboards is dominated mainly of street skating. Typical boards are approximately 71/4 up to 8†wide and 30-32†long. .Tthe wheels are composed of exceptionally hard polyurethane, durometer, also, very high durometers provides the advantage of lessened hindrance on hard areas which produces in an general a speedier ride. The sizes of the wheels are comparatively minute so that the boards are does not weigh much in comparison to the wheels of the 80s. Most decks are still made up from Canadian Maple, with 7 plys being the manufacturing average for depth and sturdiness. Skateboards designs have been altered noticeably since the year of 1970. However it is still the same since the middle years of the 90s. The modern form of the skateboard is obtained from the freestyle boards of the 1980s with a mostly symmetrical figure and moderately slim width. It was by the year of 1990s that ramps or vertical skateboarding popularity started to dwindle. However, it was also in the 1990s when Mike Vallely and Natas Kaupas came into the picture and started boosting street skateboarding and it was basically this reason why they are highly responsible for skateboarding rising in fame again.            Basically, skateboarding is very similar to surfing from which it is known to have originated. The vertical ramps used by skateboarders could be seen to be almost the same as the vertical waves surfers have had to ride when they are doing the sport. Ollie, as well as the other techniques is also similar in skateboarding and surfing. The people who find fascination in the two sports were all diverse and drawn up to the said sports because of sheer exhilaration and feeling of adventure. Both sports are very risky or dangerous and it is primarily the reason why there are those devil may care individuals who finds themselves irresistibly drawn to the sport.            The present sequence of skateboarding as well as surfing has been stimulated by many things as well as new companies, more wide-ranging and tricky terrains, a daredevil attitude, and most significantly by a new generation of youngsters who have found out the excitement of feeling of rolling along boards, may it be surfing boards or skateboards. A number of people who apply heavy pressure on the said sports are former pros who have started their own companies. The Ollie has come about into its own as the basis for eighty percent of street tricks and also about sixty percent of vertical tricks, which as had mentioned earlier is almost the same to that of surfers riding vertical waves, on which their main concentrations were on more technical and superior tricks. Also, â€Å"improvement in skateboarding like all sports takes countless hours of physical practice†(Werner and Badillo, p 15).            Skateboarding regained more popularity in 1995, mainly because of the exposure it has had from ESPN’s 1st Extreme Games in Rhode Island which served to bring skateboarding, which like surfing is categorized as a rebel and dangerous sport, maybe because of the perils and hazards and intermittent illegality of the enterprise, closer to the majority of people. In the year of 1996, the extreme Games took place, once more on Rhode Island, once again rendering the sport into another exposure to millions of individuals (DiMartino, 2007).            The influence of media exposure towards the sport has made it a spectator sport instead of the underground sport it had been for the last decades. It has caused an invasion of companies which provided the sports a great sum of money for advertising, which had until that time disregarded skateboarding, as a means for promotional reasons. Advertisers and promoters have seen that skateboarding developed into a major sport on which they could have access to their preferred demographics, young males. Skateboarders and surfers alike have been in constant existence in campaigns for manufactured goods starting from soft drinks up to other kind of junk foods, sweet delicacies and even phone corporations. Therefore, majority of the phenomenon in skateboarding and surfing in present time came not from the skateboarders or surfers themselves; rather they came from company’s supports as well as from the media exposures ([emailprotected], 2007). The main concentration of the skateboarding continues to be on street skating, as is evident allover the editorials and publicity sides of the chief skateboarding magazines, wherein street skating pictures still dominates majority of the pages. On the other hand, vertical skating is about to return in the picture, owing in some ways to the great number of new skate parks being constructed all over the place. The said skate parks have also amplified the skating areas in numerous settlements. These numerous and assorted ramps, pipes as well as bowls offered at the said parks have paved way to a modification in gears. These technological alterations put on the skateboard products have better or enhanced skateboarding progressively in the course of the last two decades, and whereas in the early 90’s small boards and tiny wheels reigned all over the place, in today’s time there is a broad variety of skateboards and wheels which could be seen in use by many skateboarders. Wheel diameters are bigger, deck breadth continually develops, and long boards are advancing in fame particularly in beach communities (in the same manner that surfing is very popular in surfing communities) and amongst those that just desires to make use of their boards as a vehicle or some kind of a means for transport. Downhill skateboarding is also being revived for the past few years partly because of the visibility of the street sled (YourLeisurelyTime, 2006).            Among the leading fads at work is amongst soft goods. In the past few years, clothing trends have steadily mirrored the alterations wrought by those who people who skates, (Avril Lavigne for one used to wear what other labels as punk or skaters apparels.            â€Å"Today a pro can make anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 a month,†stated Danielle Bostick of World Cup Skateboarding and the X Games. These salaries are depends mainly on winnings of the professional skater. This is also one of the pulls why skating had been such a fad even up to this point in time (surfers are also drawn by the amount of earnings one could obtain depending on the wins he would bring his team). Most skateboarders who are sponsored by companies also earns good money provided that they meet up with these companies expectations and they carry the name of the company as some kind of an advertisement. This is a substantial transformation from the past when professional skaters need to work in other jobs in order to earn their money for skating (The Concrete Wave, 2007).            Skateboarding could be enjoyed by anyone (even by people two years of age) however the bulk of professional skaters vary from early teenagers up to individuals who are in their twenties. Majority of skaters do not train in any customary meaning one could denote from the word, in fact they do not even worry about their diets. Skaters like surfers simply do what they like to do best, skating. In fact, skateboarding is a lot of fun and it is largely the reason why we often see people of different nationalities, ages, or groups loitering around on their skateboards. Basically, the same thing could be said with surfers. Try going on a beach and there you could also see different people of all age surfing with the waves. Both sports are enjoyable and both are not picky when it comes to performing them. Works Cited Books, Carlton, and Skin Phillips. Skateboard Ramp: History. Carlton Books; 1 edition, 2002. Brooke, Michael. The Concrete Wave: The History of Skateboarding Warwick House Publishing, 1999. Cave, Steve. â€Å"A Brief History of Skateboarding.†2007. OldSchoolSkateBoarding, â€Å"Interview with Makaha Skateboards founder Larry Stevenson†2007. Werner, Doug, and Steve Badillo. Skateboarding New Levels: Tips and Tricks for Serious Riders Tracks Publishing 2002.  YourLeisureTime, â€Å"Skateboards: Skateboarding, Skate Parks.†2006.
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