Who invented the skateboard? The skateboard was invented so that surfers could keep surfing when the sea was flat and there were no waves.
So, who invented surfing? Surfing has been around for thousands of years. Fishermen in ancient Peru fished in kayaks made of reeds and they surfed them back to shore when they had finished. Modern surfing has its routes in Polynesian culture. Nobody knows when they started surfing, but it probably goes back to about 2000 BC. The Polynesians were very connected to the sea and they learned how to read the waves and to navigate for long distances. They also surfed using bodyboards. Surfing was a way of training warriors and it was also a way of dividing up society. The best surfers became the chiefs and they were allowed the best beaches and the best wood for their boards.
The Polynesians reached Hawaii in about 1000 BC and they took their surfing culture with them. In Hawaii, people started to surf standing up and the surfboards became longer. Surfing also approached the level of a religion. There were rituals for preparing to surf, after surfing, for preparing a tree to make a board, for christening a new board, and many others. They used society to divide their society as well. Only the chiefs were allowed to surf in the best places and they used special boards made from the best trees. Surfing came to America in the 19th century and picked up in popularity throughout the early 20th century. The first competition was introduced in 1975.
So, who invented the skateboard? The skateboard was invented in the 1940s and was known as “sidewalk surfing”. Surfing is a great sport, so long as you have waves to do it on. Surfers lived to surf and they needed a way to be able to do it all year round. The skateboard was invented so that surfers could continue to surf even when there were no waves. People simply used a plank of wood with wheels taken off roller skates screwed on the bottom and performed surfing moves barefoot. There is no way of knowing who invented it because a lot of people started to do it at the same time. There were a lot of injuries because the boards were hard to control.
Then, in 1958, a Los Angeles Surf Shop sold the first manufactured skateboards. The owners, Bill and Mark Richard, cut a wooden board to about 2 feet long and attached the front and back wheels of a pair of roller skates to it. They sold it at their Val Surf Shop for $8 each. That’s about $80 in today’s money. Whether the idea is based on the Richards’ skateboard is anyone’s guess, but in 1959 the Roller Derby company brought out a commercial skateboard. They were a roller skating company, so they had access to lots of wheels and they already had factories set up. They sold 50 million boards by 1965.
Over the 1960s, the design of the boards got smaller and in the late 1960s, Larry Stevenson invented the kicktail, which is the slightly curved tail end of the skateboard. This meant that it was easier to flip the board and perform jumps and tricks.
Skateboarding went through a low patch in the late 60s because of a fatality and a lot of injuries. Many cities banned skateboarding and skateboarding was viewed as too dangerous. This changed with the next biggest evolution in the early 1970s. The wheels were changed from metal and clay to polyurethane wheels. Metal and clay are not renowned for their ability to grip surfaces, which is one of the causes behind the accidents and fatalities. The new polyurethane wheels were slightly cushioned and gave the skateboarder far more grip, allowing for more tricks and greater speed. It became much easier to skateboard and it exploded in popularity. Then, in 1976, the skateboard axle was invented, which allowed the boards to be more maneuverable and slightly wider.
The 1970s also saw the invention of the skate park, which gave skateboarders somewhere to practice their tricks. Since then, skateboarding companies have been largely run by skateboarders and there have been huge improvements. This year, for the first time, skateboarding has become an Olympic event, giving it the recognition it has always deserved. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfing
https://errantsurf.com/history-surfing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skateboarding
https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-invented-the-skateboard
https://www.surfertoday.com/skateboarding/who-invented-the-skateboard-and-skateboarding