Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States 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. 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.
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".
Roller skating is the act of traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sidewalks, and bike paths.
A Snakeboard, also known as streetboard, or pivotboard is a board that was invented in South Africa in 1989 by James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith. The concept was to fuse the original skateboard with elements of snowboarding and surfing to create a fun riding experience. The first prototype was constructed using two square wooden boards, an old roller skate chopped in half, and a piece of plumbing pipe to join them together. Many variants were tried before manufacturing began. The first boards to be mass-produced were made from a strong plastic nylon known as Zytel ST801.
A longboard is a type of skateboard typified by longer decks and wheelbases, larger-diameter and softer (lower-durometer) wheels, and often lower riding height compared to street skateboards, though there is wide variation in the geometry and construction of longboards. Among the earliest types of skateboards, longboards were inspired by surfing, with early longboards drawing from the design of surfboards, resembling and mimicking the motion of riding a surfboard, but adapted to riding on streets in a practice known as sidewalk surfing.
Mike Vallely, also known as Mike V, is an American professional skateboarder and musician. Since November 2013, he has been the lead vocalist of hardcore punk band Black Flag. Vallely is the second-longest-serving member of the band, although he has not appeared on any albums.
Dirtsurfing is the sport of riding a Dirtsurfer brand inline board. This new Australian boardsport is correctly known as inline boarding because Dirtsurfer is a trademark protected brand name.
A kick scooter is a human-powered street vehicle with a handlebar, deck, and wheels propelled by a rider pushing off the ground with their leg. Today the most common scooters are made of aluminum, titanium, and steel. Some kick scooters made for younger children have 3 to 4 wheels and are made of plastic and do not fold. High-performance kickbikes are also made.
Mark Gonzales, also known as "Gonz" and "The Gonz", is an American professional skateboarder and artist. He is known as the godfather of modern street skateboarding and was named the "Most Influential Skateboarder of All Time" by the Transworld Skateboarding magazine in December 2011.
Roller skiing is an off-snow equivalent to cross-country skiing. Roller skis have wheels on their ends and are used on a hard surface, to emulate cross-country skiing. The skiing techniques used are very similar to techniques used in cross-country skiing on snow.
A caster board, vigorboard or waveboard is a two-wheeled, human-powered land vehicle. Other names are J-board and RipStik, both of which are derived from commercial brands.
The International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) is a for-profit trade association that seeks to promote skateboarding as a leisure activity. Its board of directors includes representatives of a number of skateboarding companies who in turn represent a membership base of "skateboard manufacturers, distributors, contest organizers, ramp designers and individuals".
Ty Scott Page was a professional skateboarder who was known as one of the most innovative skateboarders in the world. Ty Page was a leader in the skateboarding scene during "the golden era" of skateboarding in the early 1970s. He is best known for creating a freestyle trick called the Ty Hop, which nowadays is known as the "shove-it."
Hobart "Hobie" Alter was an American surf and sailing entrepreneur and pioneer, creator of the Hobie Cat catamarans, and founder of the Hobie company.
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.
A fingerboard is a scaled-down replica of a skateboard that a person "rides" with their fingers, rather than their feet. A fingerboard is typically 100 millimeters (3.9 in) long with width ranging from 26 to 55 mm, with graphics, trucks and plastic or ball-bearing wheels, like a skateboard. A fingerboard can be used to do traditional skateboard tricks, such as an ollie, kickflip, and more.
Kryptonics was founded in 1965 and originally manufactured polyurethane products for the mining and computer industry.
A Penny board is a type of skateboard that is characterised by a short and narrow plastic deck. Although such skateboards were first manufactured during the 1970s, their name and contemporary popularity comes from the Australian brand Penny Skateboards, founded in 2010. The company's name has since been widely genericised to describe all small plastic skateboards.
World Skate is the only governing body in the world for all sports performed on skating wheels. The organisation is the successor of the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) founded on the 21 of April 1924.
