Skateboarding is an action sport which 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 will be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Anthony Frank Hawk is an American retired professional skateboarder. He is also an actor, stuntman, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. Hawk completed the first documented 900, licensed a video game series published by Activision, and is one of the pioneers of modern vertical skateboarding.
A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scooter, wheelchair, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, spine transfers, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs, stairsets, and any number of other objects.
The Burnside Skatepark is a DIY concrete skatepark located in Portland, Oregon, United States. Burnside was the first do-it-yourself concrete skatepark project and has spawned other similar projects across the globe. 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 is free-admission and requires no helmet, protective knee-pads, or elbow-pads. The skatepark receives no funding from the city of Portland. The park is regarded as an on-going project that is funded by donations.
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 Harrow Leisure Centre in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, England.
Pedlow Skate Park is a skatepark in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was the first public skatepark in Los Angeles when it opened to the public on February 17, 2001, and was later reopened in August 2006 after extensive work and new features. It is a concrete park over 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) with a large pool, snake run bowl, pyramid and rails. It has hosted events such as the 2013 Southern California Summer Skateboarding Expo and OG Jam competitions
Reedville Creek Park is a municipal park in the Reedville neighborhood of Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Opened in 2003, the 9.6-acre (39,000 m2) park is along Cornelius Pass Road at Francis Street in the southeast area of the city. The park includes basketball courts, children’s play equipment, a picnic shelter, tennis courts, and sports fields among other amenities. Reedville Creek was the first and is the only park in Hillsboro with a skatepark.
Andrew Kessler was a Greek-born American skateboarder, a prominent member of The Soul Artists of Zoo York, which eventually broke up in 1980 and was featured in the documentary Deathbowl to Downtown.
Skateboarding arrived in China in April 1986 when an American skateboarder arrived in China to study Chinese at the Beijing Language Institute. He says, "When I arrived in China, there wasn't even a word in Chinese for skateboard. People were really interested in learning to ride, and in a few years Chinese skaters started appearing in almost every city I travelled to". Domestic skate companies and retailers began to appear at around the turn of the century, bringing the average price for a skateboard of ordinary quality down from an expensive 1000 yuan to around 280 yuan as of 2009. Skateboarding has been slow to develop in China because of the lack of a strong preexisting street culture and of skating infrastructure; nevertheless, it's estimated that as of 2009 there are 40,000 to 50,000 skateboarders in China.
The 'Bro Bowl' is one of the last remaining skateboard parks of the 1970s and the first public skatepark to be built in Florida. 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.
Street skateboarding is a skateboarding discipline which focuses on flat land tricks, grinds, slides and aerials within urban environments and public spaces. Street skateboarders meet, skate and hang out, in and around urban areas referred to as "spots", which are commonly streets, plazas or industrial areas. To add variety and complexity to street skateboarding; obstacles such as handrails, stairs, walls, flower beds, bins, park benches, picnic tables and other street furniture may be traversed as part of a single trick or a series of consecutive tricks called a line.
The West Beach Skate Park, also known as the Adelaide Shores Skate and BMX Park, is a skatepark in West Beach, South Australia, a beach-side suburb of Adelaide. It is located in Africaine Street, between Military Road and Tapleys Hill Road, 10 kilometres west of the city centre and near the Adelaide Airport.
The Rom is a Grade II listed skatepark in Hornchurch, east London, England. Built in 1978, and designed by Adrian Rolt of G-Force, it is the most completely preserved purpose-built skatepark in England. It is the first skatepark in Europe to achieve listed status and the second such structure worldwide.
Texas Beach Skate Park, also known as Treasure Island Community Skate Park, is a DIY skatepark located within the planned Riverview Community Park in the Texas Beach riverside area on the north bank of the James River in Richmond, Virginia, United States.
Millennium Skate Park, also known as Owl's Head Skate Park, is a skate park in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, located in Owl's Head Park, adjacent to the Sunset Park Greenway.
Skateparks in Virginia includes dozens of examples of skateparks.
Golconda Skate Park, known as Fat Kid, is a public skate park in the Downtown Brooklyn/Fort Greene neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City, that originated as a DIY skate spot. Built under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the 18,000 square foot professionally built skate park was completed in 2016 and sits within Golconda Playground.
