Posted on 08/14/2014 1:37:41 AM PDT by lee martell
The second wave - at least in California - began in the 1970s, and was driven by two factors: 1) better technology (flexible, light-weight boards and polyurethane wheels); 2) a drought, which turned many a private swimming pool into the ideal grounds for skating.
Regards,
yes... i have to say, here in California, it has always seemed popular... i went to elementary school with Steve Caballero...
I hadn’t even thought of the droughts, but that is probably true. Here in Northern California, we’re in yet another drought. Many folks are just giving up with maintaining a lawn. Not when watering the lawn can get you reported, ticketed, fined and sent to Water School for offenders. Yes, that’s a real thing now; “Water School” to learn you right!
“The first wave of popularity of the skateboard might have been in the 1950s and 1960s “
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As a child of the 50s, born in 1944, I can not remember EVER seeing a skateboard. We did, however, have roller-skates.
I do not remember when I first saw, or heard of a skateboard.
I never saw or heard of them at university in the 60s.
I remember in the early 60s, canniblizing my sisters roller skates and nailing them to a 2X12 for a skateboard.
Any relation to Guy ?
Yep. My son has built and refurbished several. Long boards, microboards, and several for his buds. I’m grateful that he’s not a vidiot.
Back then, the board was wood and the wheels were metal. I tried it once on our bumpy tarred road, and that was enough. The vibrations were brutal. I would have loved the modern kind, though.
I was lucky enough to have a great conversation with Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean. They had a whole lot to do with popularizing the skateboard through their song “Sidewalk Surfin’”. A skateboard company made boards with their likenesses and Dean did skateboard tricks during their concerts. At the time we chatted (the late ‘90s), skateboards were MASSIVE business, as they are today. Dean said he and Jan would probably have made multi millions if they’d become even just a little more involved on the business end. But, at the time, the fun of it was everything.
My 20-year-old son is a “skater.” Gets him out in the fresh air with his friends, and he hasn’t been arrested yet.
;-D
The first refined skateboard came out around 1963 or 64. It was a hard, inflexible board and the wheels were stone (or something like that) on an axle that allowed the wheels to turn in response to the left or right weighting on the board.
My uncle gave me one for my birthday. Unfortunately I lived out in the country where it was all hills and the law of gravity was not to be violated without serious consequences......
It wasn't until later years they started making safety equipment such as knee and elbow pads, wrist guards and helmets..........After a couple of high speed serious wipeouts on the hilly roads, I threw the board away........
Rebellion against the Nanny State.
Having been a skateboarder — it’s a dangerous passtime unless under strictly controlled conditions, and young men want to be spontaneous and prove their manhood. That’s the problem — too many definitions of what ‘manhood’ is, most of them wimpy.
Until society agrees to a sane and worthy definition of manhood, the insanity will keep escalating.
I had one in the early 60s. My son was into it in the 90s.
I still have my deck (skateboard) from the 80’s. It is excellent. I stand on it and my two rat terriers pull me around the neighborhood. It’s funny as all get-out, because I am old, haha!
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