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.
Steve Caballero is an American professional skateboarder. He is known for the difficult tricks and air variations he invented for vertical skating and for setting the long-standing record for the highest air achieved on a halfpipe. In 1999, Thrasher Magazine named Caballero the "Skater of the Century".
Christian Rosha Hosoi is an American professional skateboarder. He is also known by the nicknames "Christ" and "Holmes".
The Skatepark of Tampa is a skatepark in Tampa, Florida, United States. It is considered one of the top skateboarding venues on the East Coast of the United States. The name is often abbreviated as SPoT, and it is well known for its annual Tampa Am and Tampa Pro competitions.
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.
Robert Lance Mountain is a professional skateboarder and artist who was one of the prominent skateboarders throughout the 1980s, primarily due to his involvement with the Bones Brigade. As of August 2017, Mountain continues to skate professionally and his sponsors include Flip, Nike SB, Independent Trucks, Spitfire Wheels, and Bones Bearings.
Mike McGill is an American skateboarder who is best known for inventing the trick entitled the "McTwist", an inverted 540 degree mute grab aerial.
Harrow Skate Park or Harrow Solid Surf is one of only two remaining 1970's shotcrete skateparks still operating in the United Kingdom. It is located next to Byron Park and Harrow Leisure Centre in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, England.
Salman Agah is an American professional skateboarder and entrepreneur.
Andrew Kessler was a Greek-born American skateboarder, skatepark builder, and prominent member of a loose-knit collective of skateboarders and graffiti artists called the Soul Artists of Zoo York. Kessler is featured in the documentary Deathbowl to Downtown.
Juice Magazine, founded in 1993 in Wilmington, North Carolina, is a skateboarding, surfing and music publication, edited, owned and published by Terri Craft. It includes interviews by skate editor, Jim Murphy, and features editors: Steve Olson, Jay Adams, Dave Duncan, Christian Hosoi, Jim O'Mahoney, and surf editors Jeff Ho, Herbie Fletcher and Dibi Fletcher. The staff includes Terri Craft, editor and Dan Levy, assistant editor. Other interviewers include Jason Jessee, Jeff Ament, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Danforth and Chris Mearkle. There are currently 76 issues of the magazine. Juice Magazine headquarters is located in the birthplace of modern-day skateboarding, Venice, California.
The Maloof Money Cup was an annual skateboarding competition for amateur and professional skateboarders founded by Joe and Gavin Maloof of the Maloof family. The events were held in four cities: Costa Mesa, California in 2008, 2009, 2010; New York City in 2010 and 2011; Washington, D.C. in 2011, and in Kimberley, South Africa in 2011 and 2012. The aim of the competition was to raise awareness of skateboarding and to encourage participation in skateboarding events and activities. Organizers also aim to contribute new skateboarding infrastructure and boost retail activity in those areas where events are held.
Bowl-A-Rama was a skateboarding event held annually at Bondi Beach until 2018, and previously Wellington until 2014 and once in New York City in 2012. Founded in 2005, it was the richest skateboard competition in terms of prize money in Australia and New Zealand and was broadcast live on Fuel TV Australia. Vans held the naming rights to the event until 2018 when General Pants Co. Bowl-A-Rama.
Dave “Hackman” Hackett is a professional skateboarder from Malibu, California.
Kader Sylla is an American professional skateboarder from Studio City, California. Kader is goofy-footed.
Louie Lopez is a regular-footed American skateboarder from Los Angeles, CA. He is of Mexican and Guatemalan descent.
Jahmal Williams is a regular-footed professional skateboarder, skate company owner, and artist from Boston, Massachusetts.
Reginald Barnes Jr., aka Reggie Barnes is a retired American professional freestyle skateboarder and the founder/CEO of Eastern Skateboard Supply, the largest skateboard wholesale company in North America. Known as a "virtuoso" teen amateur, Barnes skated professionally from 1980 to 1991, with the Pepsi-Cola Pro Skateboard Team, Walker Skateboards, and Dogtown Skateboards. By 1986, Barnes was one of the top five American freestyle skateboarders in the United States and was featured demonstrator at Expo 86, the world's fair held in Vancouver, Canada. He placed third in freestyle at the World Cup in 1987.
Skateboarding Hall of Fame, founded in 1997, is a museum and hall of fame located in Simi Valley, California, United States. The museum documents the history of Skateboarding and the skateboarders, photographers, and other notable figures, publications and companies who have influenced its development.
