Skateboarding, Then and Now

Skateboarding is one of the most unique, enjoyable, and physically demanding sports in the world. Like baseball, basketball and football, skateboarding has endured many changes and fluctuations in popularity, and has emerged as one of the most entertaining and satisfying activities enjoyed by both today’s youth and adults. The goal of this paper is to inform about the history, evolution and present state of skateboarding.
The concept of skateboarding was invented in the 1950s when surfers from California wanted to try their surfing techniques on land. All over California, surfers and teenagers began constructing their own “land surfboards” by attaching roller skate wheels to wooden crates. The surfers would then ride down steep hills while in the crates, performing surfing moves as they went down. This idea, however, was a painful one. Wooden crates did not provide the necessary range of motion to equate to surfing and, consequently, many surfers were injured while experimenting with their new invention. As a result, wooden surfboard-shaped boards were constructed. A pair of roller skate wheels were attached eight inches inward to either end of the board to add stability while riding. One day, a young man named Alan Gelfand revolutionized skateboarding. While riding, he pushed downward with his back foot, causing the front of the board to rise. He then jumped with the board. This caused the board, and Alan, to lift off into the air about five inches off the ground. This technique became known as the “ollie”, after Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. This was a momentous occasion in the history of skateboarding.
Before Alan’s discovery, skateboarding was nothing more than land surfing. The ability to ollie marked the transition between land surfing and skateboarding. Now that people could leave the ground with their board, a brand-new sport was born, and skateboarding became a sport of it’s own. Now that skateboarders could jump into the air, a whole new world was opened to them. All across America kids were constructing their own boards. Skateboarding became a discovery sport. Everyone was discovering new ways to spin and flip their board and land back on it. Skateboarders were jumping down stairs, over gaps and onto handrails. Skateboarding was flourishing.
The explosion of skateboarding was noticed not only by kids, but by enterprising entrepreneurs. Pioneering businessmen saw a potential market in skateboarding, and acted on it. Skateboards became mass-produced, allowing kids to buy a board, rather than build one. The market boomed, and skateboarding became an industry. The skateboard itself has undergone an evolution of it’s own. Skateboard decks were originally just pieces of wood. Slowly, the decks took on a rectangular shape, with the two smaller sides rounded off. A “nose” and “tail”, curvatures on the ends of the board, were made to help a skateboarder ollie. Griptape, a corse sandpaper-like tape, was added to the top of the board to help skateboarders stay on their boards. Skateboard decks are now made by compressing multiple layers of wood together to make the board stronger. The skateboard wheel has also undergone a transformation. Skateboard wheels were originally just metal roller skate wheels. Rubber wheels were made to make riding on the skateboard smoother. Finally, urethane skateboard wheels were invented to make the wheels smoother, lighter, and cheaper to produce. Skateboarding is now one of the fastest-growing sports markets in the United States and Europe. Every year there are more than 350 million dollars is spent on skateboarding-related products. Everything from skateboard wheels and skateboarding kneepads, to shoes and clothing items are produced and purchased. Skateboard parks are opening up all across the country.
Skateboarding is currently at the height of its popularity. Skateboarding as a sport in the 90s has taken on an identity of it’s own. Skateboarders see the sport as the perfect activity. Skateboarding has no bias. It accepts anyone, regardless of race, gender, age, or creed. The unofficial skateboarding motto is ‘If you carry a board, you are my friend’. One advantage to skateboarding is that skateboarders can do it anywhere: skate parks, garages, streets, parks, basketball courts, parking lots or back alleys. Skateboarders don’t need a field to play in. They just need their skateboards.
Skateboarding teaches determination. It teaches you how to set goals, and what it takes to achieve them. Skateboarding teaches you persistence. No matter how hard you fall, no matter how many bruises you get or bones you break, you always hop back up and try the same trick again. No other sport offers you that. Skateboarding has undergone many changes, but its unique willingness to accept anyone to try it will keep it popular for years to come, and the love of the sport will keep it alive forever.

Yes that’s right we recycle.

If something is worth using once, it’s worth using again. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.. Enough said.

Dark Knight be dammed.. give me bright yellow board shorts!

00100, btw it’s binary..

The highest form of praise?

Gosh it’s so easy.. What was I thinking!

If skateboarding were easy.. everyone whould be doing it.

Just because I like AGP so much.. that’s all.

Origninal Source: Antigravitypress.com

grrr.. grrr… grrr..

Original Source: Antigravitypress.com

Adrenaline Junkies and the Skateboarding Appeal

The popularity of skateboarding has soared and plummeted since the sport’s inception more than a half century ago, much like skateboarders themselves. But now it is more popular than ever.

Skateboarding originated with California surfers in the 1950s who were trying to surf on land. Today, this relatively low-tech sport has become a subculture in almost every American city and town. But it has always been more of a pastime for the fearless young, as skaters, like Anthony Manning, Marissa O’Guinn and Sean Gates, experience the highs and lows of defying gravity.

“It makes me feel good like when I land a cool trick that I’ve been practicing for a while. When I go down something and do a trick, and it look cool. It’s really exciting,” says skateboarder Anthony Manning.

Marissa O’guinn, also a skateboarder, adds, “It’s really exhilarating, skateboarding. I think that’s what attracts most people to it. I guess just knowing there’s a possible risk within it, it’s just what makes it exciting.”

“It’s just a really, really cool feeling because, I mean, you are just flying through the air, and you are just all weightless and stuff. Also, in the pool they have tiles so when you hit them they have a certain sound. And, it’s just a really, really cool, ” says Sean Gates, a fellow skateboarder.

Boogie is a 59-year-old skateboarder

But skateboarding is not just for the young. Some skaters hang on to this adrenaline-fueled hobby into middle age. As a skateboard veteran, Boogie enjoys the excitement of a good ride without taking safety lightly. “Now, I want you to know that wrist guards cure insecurity because they protect you falling forward. They protect your hands, and then you wear this [helmet] to protect your head from falling backwards. That, and a pad right here, along with the pads here. And this is the only reason that you get to skate when you are 59 years old.”

With advances in technology, today’s skateboards are lighter and faster than boards from the past. This means that skaters can now do some wild tricks – things that the first skateboarders never dreamed of.

Skateboarding involves speed, balance and coordination, and can sometimes result in serious injuries. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 26,000 people need hospital emergency room treatment each year in the U.S. for injuries related to skateboarding.

Manning says, “I broke my finger. I cracked my ribs.” O’Guinns recalls, “I fell and rolled down a street.”

The skateboarding technique of holding on the edge

The sense of danger has a lot to do with the popularity of skateboarding. For others, skateboarding means freedom and self-expression. For Anthony, it is a chance to develop a unique, personal style. “It’s really like no pain, no game. If you can’t take the pain, then you might as well not skateboard.” Once thought to be another passing fad, skateboarding is an extreme sport that appears to be here to stay.

Original Source: VOA.com, By Sarah Zaman

Skateboarding Family

Local skateboarder Jake Hibish shows off some of his award-winning moves on the ramp at his home. As the popularity of extreme sports continues to grow, one of our local lads is latching on to the phenomenon with full force. Jake Hilbish, of Forest, recently finished in second place in the Mid-Atlantic Skateboard Series (MASS).

Jake, the son of Brian and Debbie Hilbish, has been skating nearly all of his life. But that’s not a surprise when you find out that his father has skateboarded nearly all of his life.

Brian Hilbish, a Brookville alum, was raised in Lynchburg where his skating antics, “got me run off quite a bit,” in his words. After a stint in the Air Force, he earned his engineering degree at the University of Colorado. Through it all, Hilbish kept on skating.

Jake’s older brother, Nathan, is working on an engineering degree at VCU. Debbie Hilbish said of him, “We tried the organized sports and they just didn’t take. Nathan was timid until we put him on a board.” She continued,”His confidence and grades all went up.”

Jake started skating as a four year old. He played organized ball but felt compelled to make a choice and went with skateboarding.

This year, the family discovered the MASS, which consists of a series of events held in Northern Virginia and Maryland. The eight competitions ran from June until the end of August and are scored on a point system, similar to that used in NASCAR. Jake won three of the individual events outright.

One thing certainly working in his benefit is the existence of a skating ramp on the family’s property. The ramp, designed and built by Brian Hilbish is 6 feet high, 24 feet wide and 40 feet long. “I built it because, at the time, that’s all Nathan wanted to do,” said Brian Hilbish.

It is actually the second ramp to grace the Hilbish estate, the first having been blown down by a tornado in 2001. In the immediate aftermath of that tornado, “Nathan was more worried about the ramp than anything else,” Brian Hilbish noted with a chuckle.

Jake could find himself with some headier home-grown competition if some current plans come to fruition. There is a proposal to build a skate park at the Falling Creek Park here in Bedford.

If this park is built, Bedford would join the ranks of other communities that have built such attractions including Blacksburg, Roanoke, Vinton, Christiansburg and Salem.

Father and son skaters Brian (left) and Jake Hibish pose in front of the ramp that Brian built. As Brian Hilbish pointed out, “It’s a sport in which some kids who aren’t good at other sports kind find a niche. It’s also a lifelong sport.”

Jake enjoys the sport for a number of reasons. “It’s really fun and exciting. You get an adrenaline rush from it,” he noted. “You get to determine what things you want to do with a skateboard.”

A demonstration by Jake on the skating ramp shows that it is a sport that takes a lot of stamina, strength and coordination. “A friend of mine lost a lot of weight just by skating,” declared Jake.

Brian Hilbish added, “I think it’s one of the greatest sports for kids if they’re brought into the sport right and mentored properly.” He also pointed out that skateboarding is a year-round sport that has a lot of camaraderie among the participants.

Skateboarding can be a relatively inexpensive sport compared to golf or hockey, with an initial equipment outlay in the neighborhood of $150.

And, it can be a sport for the more mature set, as well. “I started skating at the park because I was bored with just watching,” said the older Hilbish. “For those over forty, if you start out slow and are padded, it’s not really dangerous. In fact, a number of fathers have started getting into it.”

Original Source: Bedford Bulletin, By Mike Forster

Parents Grappling With Skateboard Phenomenon

So, you took your son and daughter to the X Games and they got one look at Kerry Getz and Tony Hawk flying through the air and they decided right then and there they wanted to be a skateboarder. Along with the rest of the passing interests, the guitar that sits unplayed, the soccer cleats in the garage and the ice skating lessons that went nowhere, this must be the next phase, right? Maybe not.

“It’s a lifestyle,” said Steve Bradley, a skater and employee at Board Stiff in Media. “Everybody I know that skates, it’s not all they think about, but it’s always in their mind. The way they dress is from a skateboarding background. The way they act is from a skateboarding background. It’s the basis of someone’s lifestyle.”

Bradley should know. The 22-year-old has been skating most of his life. Like the rest of the knowledgeable staff at the Media shop, he knows every nook and cranny of Delaware * County, skateboard-style. For around $130, a new skater can get set up with a board, trucks * and wheels *. Then it’s all up to them. Bradley expects there will be another new generation of skateboarders after this summer. He has seen a sharp increase in sales since the X Games came through Philadelphia * last year and he is expecting the same sort of reaction again.

It’s not just kids, Bradley said. The twenty- and thirtysomethings who stopped skating years before have been bitten by the bug again.

Like most longtime skaters, Bradley is skeptical of the X Games, Big Business, and the influence ESPN has over his beloved sport.

“As far as the X Games go, it’s good for business,” Bradley said. “It’s good to get the kids out to see the pros. It helped make skateboarding huge. But personally, I won’t go down to see it.”

Bradley, like most skaters, is a street skater, a discipline that requires skaters to be creative when turning tricks. There are no set-up ramps, no half-pipes for street skaters. All you have are your board, yourself and whatever your environment provides, be it railings or benches or curbs.

“The best place to learn is skating with your friends in a cul-de-sac or in your neighborhood,” Bradley said. “I don’t recommend skate parks to kids who are just beginning because they are going to run into people who know what they’re doing and they could get hurt.”

There are no skate parks in Delaware County. The closest are in Avondale, Chester County, Willow Grove and in Ocean City, Md.

The most well-known natural skate park was in Philadelphia’s FDR Plaza, better known as LOVE Park. Skaters from all over the world came to Philadelphia to test their skills at the park, and its popularity spread through video games and word of mouth. That is, skaters used to come to LOVE Park. That was before the city renovated the park and made it inhospitable to skaters who are now not welcome. Plans for a sanctioned skate park in Philadelphia near the Art Museum have been put on hold as city council members fight over the logistics. With no skate parks, and with Philadelphia out of the equation, kids in Delco do their riding in the street — if they can find a street where skateboarding is allowed.

In Springfield, skateboarding is a crime in all public places. Media restricts skating in the downtown area. Bradley said the crackdowns have the opposite effect on young skaters.

“When skateboarding is banned, it’s going to make kids want to do it more,” Bradley said.

According to Bradley, the best places to skate are big open parking lots, especially at high schools. The best, Bradley said, was Strath Haven, but the school has since been placed off limits by police. With a sigh, Bradley repeats the often-heard lament of most skaters. “Skateboarding,” he said, “gets a bad rap.” It may look a little unorthodox. Its participants may not be cut from the “Leave it to Beaver” mold and the sport may scare a certain generation. But if you give it a try, it may lead to a whole new outlook on life. And that new skateboard could get considerably more use than that out-of-tune guitar.

Original Source: Delco Times, By Paul Flannery

Over-protective parents robbing children of their childhood

Over-protective parents are warned today that they are denying youngsters a proper childhood by keeping them indoors playing video games instead of letting them outside to play. A group of almost 300 teachers, psychologists, authors and childcare experts claim the loss of unstructured play is threatening the health and well-being of a generation.

They say that loosely supervised fun is crucial for keeping children active, teaching them to deal with risk and learn to get on with others. But parental anxiety over “stranger danger” is conspiring with high volumes of traffic, aggressive marketing of commercialised toys and screen entertainment to rob children of opportunities to enjoy traditional play.

The warning comes in an open letter signed by, among others, children’s author Philip Pullman, childcare expert Dr Penelope Leach and Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution.

The signatories also include 60 psychologists and psychotherapists, more than 40 university professors, plus leaders of teaching unions and children’s charities.

A similar letter a year ago voiced fears that childhood was being “poisoned” by a damaging mix of junk food, all-day TV and violent computer games.

That warning, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, sparked a national inquiry on the state of childhood which is due to report next year. In the latest letter, experts warn that the loss of opportunities for play is a major factor in the rise of mental health and behavioural problems in recent years. They say research has deepened concern that youngsters are facing a mental health crisis.

They point to the finding by Unicef that Britain’s children are among the unhappiest in the developed world, adding: “We believe that a key factor in this disturbing trend is the marked decline over the last 15 years in children’s play.”

The letter goes on to insist that play, particularly outdoors, is vital to children’s all-round health and well-being. The letter was organised by writer Sue Palmer, whose book Toxic Childhood sparked a national debate on the issue, and Dr Richard House, a senior lecturer in psychotherapy at Roehampton University.

“Real play – socially interactive, first-hand, loosely supervised – has always been a vital part of children’s development, and its loss could have serious implications,” they said.

“Just as the epidemic of childhood obesity recently took the developed world by surprise, too much ‘junk play’ could – like too much junk food – have alarming implications for the next generation.

“We hope this letter helps draw attention to the importance of giving the next generation time, space and encouragement to go ‘out to play’.”

Mrs Palmer added: “We have become over-protective in certain ways and letting go is one of the hardest things.

“But there is a limit to the extent we can protect children physically – they have to become capable of protecting themselves as well.”

Original Source: Daily Mail, By Laura Clark