History of Skateboarding.... per the Wikipedia gurus

History

The first skateboard
The first skateboard originated sometime in the 1950s and coincided with the initial popularization of surfing in California. The earliest skateboards were homemade and constructed of flat wooden planks attached to roller-skate trucks and wheels. Skateboarding was originally called "sidewalk surfing" and early skaters emulated surfing style and moves. Skateboards may or may not have evolved from "crate scooters." Crate scooters preceded skateboards, and were essentially similar except for having a wooden crate attached to the front, which formed rudimentary handlebars. In the film Back to the Future, Marty McFly is seen commandeering such a scooter from an unsuspecting '50s youth, and ripping the crate off to fashion an improvised skateboard.

In the mid 1960s, skateboarding went mainstream. A number of surfing manufacturers such as Hobie and Makaha started building skateboards that resembled small surfboards and assembling teams to promote their products. The popularity of skateboarding at this time spawned a national magazine, Skateboarder Magazine and the 1965 international championships were broadcast on national television. The growth of skateboarding at this time can also be seen in Makaha's sales figures which quoted $4 million worth of board sales between 1963 and 1965 (Weyland, 2002:28). Yet by 1966 sales had dropped significantly (ibid) and Skateboarder Magazine had stopped publication. Skateboarding's popularity dropped and remained low until the early 1970s.


Second generation
In the early 1970s, Frank Nasworthy started to develop a skateboard wheel made of polyurethane,calling it the 'Cadillac' as he hoped this would convey the smooth ride it afforded the rider. The improvement in traction and performance was so immense that from the wheel's release in 1974 the popularity of skateboarding started to rise rapidly again, and companies wanted to invest more in product development. Many companies started to manufacture trucks (axles) especially designed for skateboarding,and the modern design was reached in 1976 by Tracker Trucks. As the equipment became more maneuverable, the decks started to get wider, reaching widths of 10 inches and over in the end, thus giving the skateboarder even more control. Banana board is a term used to describe skateboards made of polypropylene that were skinny, flexible, with ribs on the underside for structural support and very popular during the mid-1970s. They were available in myriad colors, bright yellow probably being the most memorable, hence the name.

Manufacturers started to experiment with more exotic composites and metals, like fiberglass and aluminum, but the common skateboards were made of maple plywood. The skateboarders took advantage of the improved handling of their skateboards and started inventing new tricks. Skateboarders, most notably Ty Page, Bruce Logan, Bobby Piercy, Kevin Reed, and the Z-Boys, started to skate the vertical walls of swimming pools that were left empty in the 1976 California drought. This started the vert trend in skateboarding. With increased control, vert skaters could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks, such as slash grinds and frontside/backside airs. This caused liability concerns and increased insurance costs to skatepark owners,and the developement(first by Norcon,then more successfully by Rector) of improved knee pads that had a hard sliding cap and strong strapping proved to be too-little-too-late. During this era, the "freestyle" movement in skateboarding began to splinter off and develope into a much more specialised discipline,characterized by the development of a wide assortment of flat-ground tricks.

Skateparks increasingly had to contend with high-liability costs that led to many parks closing. Vert skaters therefore started making their own ramps and freestylers didn't need skateparks. Thus by the beginning of the 1980s, skateboarding had died again.

Third generation
The third skateboard generation, from the early/mid eighties to early nineties, was fueled by skateboard companies that were run by skateboarders. The focus was initially on vert ramp skateboarding. The invention of the no-hands aerial (later known as the ollie) by Alan Gelfand in Florida in 1976 [4] and the almost parallel development of the grabbed aerial by George Orton and Tony Alva in California had made it possible for skaters to perform airs on vertical ramps. While this wave of skateboarding was sparked by commercialized vert ramp skating, a majority of people who skateboarded during this period never rode vert ramps. Because most people couldn't afford to build vert ramps or didn't have access to nearby ramps, street skating gained popularity. Freestyle skating remained healthy throughout this period with pioneers such as Rodney Mullen inventing the basics of modern street skating; the flatground ollie, the ollie kickflip, the heelflip, and the 360 flip, to name a few. The influence freestyle had on street skating became apparent during the mid-eighties, but street skating was still performed on wide vert boards with short noses, slide rails, and large soft wheels. Skateboarding, however, evolved quickly in the late 1980s to accommodate the street skater. Since few skateparks were available to skaters at this time, street skating pushed skaters to seek out shopping centers and public and private property as their "spot" to skate. Public opposition, and the threat of lawsuits, forced businesses and property owners to ban skateboarding on their property. By 1992, only a small fraction of skateboarders remained as a highly technical version of street skating, combined with the decline of vert skating, produced a sport that lacked the mainstream appeal to attract new skaters.


Current generation

The fourth and current generation of skateboards is dominated by street skating. Most boards are about 7¼ to 8 inches wide and 30 to 32 inches long. The wheels are made of an extremely hard polyurethane, durometer (approximately 99a). As Steve Caballero had shown on vert in the mid-80's, very high durometers offer the benefit of reduced drag on hard surfaces which results in an overall faster ride, so long as one avoids rougher terrain. The wheel sizes are relatively small so that the boards are lighter,and the wheel's inertia is overcome quicker, thus making tricks more manageable. Today, modern wheels are currently around 48 to 60 mm in diameter and advances in technology have made them extremely light compared to the wheels of the eighties. Most decks are still constructed out of Canadian Maple, with 7-plies being the industry standard for strength and durability. Board styles have changed dramatically since the 1970s but have remained mostly alike since the mid 1990s. The contemporary shape of the skateboard is derived from the freestyle boards of the 1980s with a largely symmetrical shape and relatively narrow width. This form had become standard by 1992. During the 90s ramp or vert skateboarding dropped in popularity.

While street skateboarding remains popular, its rigid conformity and high attrition rate does not appeal to everyone, and there is a resurgence of other types of skateboarding brewing. Longboarding, speedboarding, downhill sliding, pool or bowl skating, slalom, and ditch skateboarding are thriving all over the world, albeit below the radar.

Hot Springs officer put on leave as investigation opens into skateboarder video

Comment: Witness how when the cop grabs the young girl in a choke hold the young guy does everything he can to stop it. This boy is already ten times the man that the cop will ever be.

Hot Springs police placed an officer on administrative leave while they investigate an Internet video that appears to show him choking three skateboarders, the mayor said Tuesday.

Mayor Mike Bush said investigators talked with passers-by and business owners who saw Officer Joey Williams stop the skateboarders on a city sidewalk Thursday for breaking an ordinance banning skating in the area. A YouTube video posted Monday shows Williams apparently choking one of the youths after forcing him to the ground, while later chasing and wrestling two others while holding them in a headlock.

“Unfortunately, the video shows it pretty good,” Bush said. “I don’t condone that sort of stuff and I tell everybody that calls me, we don’t know where he was before and during and after this video.”

When asked about the officer’s conduct, Bush called Williams “one of 100 best and finest we’ve got” in the city’s police department.

The mayor declined to say what the city’s next step would be.

“Until the investigation is complete, we really don’t know what we’re going to do,” Bush said.

Williams did not answer a request through the department for an interview and did not respond to a phone message left at a home number in his name.

Police spokesman McCrary Means identified two of those arrested as Matthew Jon McCormack, 21, and Skylar Nalls, 19, both of Hot Springs. Means said McCormack faces a misdemeanor battery charge after purportedly pushing or striking a 67-year-old city employee during the melee. Nalls was cited for skateboarding and faces misdemeanor charges of fleeing and obstructing governmental operations.

Means said four youths involved in the incident also face skateboarding citations and resisting arrest charges.

McCormack, who works at Hot Springs’ Funbox Skateshop, said both he and Nalls were free on $1,000 bond. McCormack said most of the youths remained at home on house arrest.

“It’s never been an issue. They made that rule a long time ago, but I’ve skated down through there all the time and it’s never been a problem,” McCormack said. “It was kind of shocking for it to be such a huge issue.”

McCormack said skaters immediately started shooting the scene with a digital camera capable of shooting video and an Hi8 video camera. The YouTube video, spliced between the two cameras, shows the skaters along Hot Springs’ Central Avenue, home to eight bathhouses that figured prominently into the town’s popularity in the early 1900s.

Voices in the background can be heard asking Williams why he was arresting the skaters.

“When I tell you to stop and you tell everybody to keep going, that’s fleeing, that’s disorderly conduct, that’s a violation of city ordinance,” Williams is heard saying in the video.

Williams later threatened one of teens laying on the ground that he’d spray him with pepper spray if he moved.

McCormack disputed many of the police allegations, especially his battery charge. He said he only pulled on the city employee’s arm after the man picked a girl off her feet in a chokehold.

The video on YouTube had been viewed 30,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon.

Source: The Associated Press by David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Officer accused of choking skateboarder

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press Writer


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. --A police officer who appears to choke a skateboarder and put two others in a headlock in a video posted online has been put on administrative leave while police investigate, officials said.

Hot Springs Mayor Mike Bush said Tuesday that investigators have talked with witnesses who saw the officer, Joey Williams, stop the skateboarders on a downtown city sidewalk last Thursday. Skateboarding is banned in the area.

The video shows Williams apparently choking one of the skateboarders after forcing him to the ground, then later chasing and wrestling two others while holding them in a headlock.

"Unfortunately, the video shows it pretty good," Bush said.

Bush said he won't be sure of the city's next step until the investigation is complete. The video, taken by Matthew Jon McCormack and another unidentified skater, was posted Monday on YouTube, a popular Internet site.

Williams can be heard threatening one person with pepper spray if he moved, and several voices are heard asking why they were being arrested. One person can be seen running from Williams, and Williams later tells them they are fleeing and acting disorderly.

Williams did not answer a request through the department for an interview and did not respond to a phone message left at a home number in his name.

Police spokesman McCrary Means identified two of those arrested as McCormack, 21, and Skylar Nalls, 19, both of Hot Springs. McCormack faces a misdemeanor battery charge after allegedly pushing or striking a 67-year-old city employee during the altercation, Means said. Nalls was cited for skateboarding and faces misdemeanor charges of fleeing and obstructing governmental operations.

Four juveniles involved in the incident also face skateboarding citations and resisting arrest charges, Means said.

McCormack disputed many of the police allegations, especially his battery charge. He said he pulled on the city employee's arm after the man picked a girl off her feet in a choke-hold.

Hot Springs is a resort town about 50 miles west of Little Rock.