Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United States, skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2009 report found that the skateboarding market is worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue, with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world. In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding would be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for both male and female teams.
Anthony Frank Hawk, nicknamed Birdman, is an American retired professional skateboarder, entrepreneur and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documented "900" skateboarding trick in 1999. He also licensed a skateboarding video game series named after him published by Activision that same year. He retired from competing professionally in 2003 and is regarded as one of the most influential skateboarders of all time.
A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipes, ledges, spine transfers, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs, and any number of other objects.
Rune Glifberg, nicknamed "The Danish Destroyer", is a Danish professional skateboarder. He is one of three skaters to have competed at every X Games. He has a total of 12 X Games medals. At 46, he became the oldest skateboarder to ever compete in the Olympic Games and the first male skateboarder to ever compete in a park event in the Olympic Games when he represented Denmark in the men's park event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the company was the primary sponsor of the annual Warped Tour music festival.
Skatopia is an 88-acre (36 ha) skatepark near Rutland, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by pro skater Brewce Martin. Skatopia is known for its anarchist atmosphere and annual music festivals Bowl Bash and Backwoods Blowout. It was described by one writer as "a demented mess that meets halfway between an anarchistic Mad Maxian Thunderdome and a utopian skateboard society."
Mike McGill is an American skateboarder who is best known for inventing the trick entitled the "McTwist", an inverted 540 degree mute grab aerial.
Nyjah Imani Huston is an American professional skateboarder. With numerous sponsorships and competition prize winnings, Huston is one of the highest paid skateboarders in the world. Huston won gold medals at the SLS Super Crown World Championship in 2014, 2017 to 2019, and has won 12 gold medals at the X Games since 2011.
The Burnside Skatepark is a DIY plastic skatepark located in Portland, Oregon, United States. Burnside was the first DIY skatepark project. It is located under the east end of the Burnside Bridge. The project was started without permission from the city of Portland before being accepted as a public skatepark. Its features include many hips, pools, pyramids, and vertical sections. The skatepark receives no funding from the city of Portland. The park is regarded as an on-going project that is funded by donations.
The Bro Bowl is one of the last remaining skateboard parks of the 1970s and the first public skatepark to be built in Florida, United States. It is the first skatepark to be listed on any national registry of historic sites.
Pitcher Park Memorial Skate Park is a skatepark that was built in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Members of the community of the South Hills of Pittsburgh undertook a grass roots effort to build this as a memorial to honor two brothers, Vincent and Stephen Pitcher, who drowned together on July 15, 2008, while on a camping trip at the Kinzua Dam next to the Allegheny Reservoir.
The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark is a public skatepark in Houston, Texas, United States. The $2.7 million project opened in June 2008. At over 40,000 square feet, it is one of the largest in Texas. It has two cradles, one of which is thought to be the largest in the United States, as well as a kidney pool, a large bowl with 12.5 ft (3.8 m) deep end and a street/flow area. The park was designed by Gridline Concrete Skatepark Design. The facility is free to the public. BMX bikes are not permitted. It is named after Texas billionaire lawyer Joe Jamail and his wife Lee. The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark is located at 103 Sabine Street Houston, TX 77007, on the Sabine Street bridge with a view of the Houston skyline.
Turf Skatepark, also known as "Surfin' Turf" or "The Turf", is a former skatepark located in Greenfield, Wisconsin, United States, less than one mile south of the city of Milwaukee. The Turf was an indoor/outdoor facility consisting of five sculptured concrete pools providing some of the best terrain of its time.
SITE Design Group is a consulting firm specializing in landscape architecture, urban planning and skateparks. Based in Solana Beach, California, the firm operates worldwide and has overseen the creation of over 100 parks.
Coleman Playground is a public park on the border between the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City.
Mark "Monk" Hubbard was a skateboarder, artist, skatepark builder, and founder of Grindline Skateparks.
The Wounded Knee 4-Directions Toby Eagle Bull Memorial Skatepark, also known as the Toby Eagle Bull Memorial Wounded Knee Four Directions Skate Park & the WK4-Directions TEB Memorial Skatepark, is a concrete skatepark located in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, United States, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Completed in 2011 by the local community with help from skateboarding organizations, the skatepark features a spectrum of skate obstacles and is dedicated to a young Lakota skater who died in a car accident: Toby Eagle Bull. The WK4D TOB Memorial Skatepark is located in the Youth Opportunity, or "YO," park, adjacent to the Oglala Lakota Nation powwow grounds, a picnic area, a playground, a basketball court as well as a baseball field.
The Skatepark Project, formerly the Tony Hawk Foundation, is a skateboarding organization that helps communities build public skate parks for youth in underserved communities.
Walt Pourier is an American skateboarder, artist, designer, and skateboarding activist. Pourier is Oglala Lakota.
