The Birth Of Skateboarding

Posted By
photojack53, United States


I did a search for "skateboard" to see what this site had about them and I'm certain I discovered a mistake about the date of introduction for them. As kids, we made our own skateboards by attaching the two parts of steel-wheeled roller skates to the ends of a short 2" by 4" board. These were certainly not "flexies!" This was in the mid '60's when I was in elementary school. I clearly remember saving to buy my first real skateboard which cost $8.65 and was made of strips of oak glued together to make a beautiful surfboard-shaped plank that had steel trucks with hard pink plastic wheels withball bearings. This had to be in the late '60's, as we moved from that house in 1970. We adjusted the truck to be as loose as was possible, so we could turn quickly. The wheels would flop from side to side they were so loose and wore grooves in the underside of the board. It took strong ankle control to ride one adjusted so loose and we used to put a board across two coffee cans to make a jump and we would ride toward it and jump off the skateboard, clear the jump and land back on the skateboard which had passed below the jump. Those old wheels were so hard that a 1/4 " pebble would lock up one wheel and send you flying over the front of the board. I remember changing the wheels as newer ones came along. We didn't wear helmets or knee and elbow protection, we just bore the scrapes and bruises with bravado back then. It was fun and I know of no one who broke any bones while riding those "ancient technology" skateboards. I'm certain commercially manufactured skateboards were available around 1968 or 1969 and I still have mine to this day.

6 comments:

  1. Hi PhotoJack,

    I did some checking after your memory , and here is what I found from my 60's page

    From http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1960s.html Popular Culture
    I suspect Google Would not give a result for Skateboard sorry about that ,

    "This was the start of the skateboarding era which was started by some surfing enthusiasts in California who were frustrated by the weather and put roller skates on the front and back end of wooden planks"

    Does that sound about right

    steve

    ReplyDelete
  2. Plus to hep with the bad experience of Search Engine not picking up skateboard , I have now added an early video of skateboarding on the 60s page

    steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. in 1965 or 66 i had a skatebored, it was made of plywood it was light
    blue with yellow lettering, it was
    called mustang. it had steel trucks
    and as far I know that was the first bored for sale,the super sufer come out a year or so later, that was the oak bored and it came in three size the longest three people
    could stand on

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dude i totally loved skateboarding even though im wasnt that good. I remember when me and my little brother would try to do trix on them and he would do it right but he landed on the board and it snapped in two. it was funny and we atill laugh about it today.

    ReplyDelete
  5. today skateboarding is still as fun as it was and it is enjoyed by over 3 million ppl all over the world.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I started driving in 1965 and remember having a manufactured skateboard prio to that year. Seems like I was about 13 which would make it 1962.

    ReplyDelete