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 will be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for both male and female teams.
Robert Dean Silva Burnquist is a Brazilian-American professional skateboarder who competed for Brazil throughout his career. In 2010, he became the first skateboarder to land a "fakie 900", making Burnquist the fifth person in history to successfully complete the 900 trick.
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".
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, 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.
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, skating, and scooter riding.
Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a metal or plastic frame on the underside of a boot. The in-line design allows for greater speed and maneuverability than traditional roller skates. Following this basic design principle, inline skates can be modified to varying degrees to accommodate niche disciplines.
A vert ramp is a form of half-pipe used in extreme sports such as vert skating, vert skateboarding and vert BMX.
Christian Rosha Hosoi is an American professional skateboarder. He is also known by the nicknames "Christ" and "Holmes".
Dropping in is a skateboarding trick with which a skateboarder starts skating a half-pipe by dropping into it from the coping instead of starting from the bottom and pumping gradually for more speed. When a skateboarder drops in, they use their gravitational potential energy to gain initial velocity, allowing the skater to skate longer before exhausting themself and thus to take more runs.
Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of five disciplines: street, park, vert, trails, and flatland. In June 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced that freestyle park was to be added as an Olympic event to the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Lyndsey "Lyn-Z" Adams Hawkins is an American professional skateboarder.
Vert skateboarding, short for vertical skateboarding, is the act of riding a skateboard on a skate ramp or other incline and involves the skateboarder transitioning from the horizontal plane to the vertical plane in order to perform skateboarding tricks.
X Games XIII (13) took place from August 2–5, 2007 in Los Angeles, California at the Staples Center and the Home Depot Center. It was broadcast on the ESPN networks, EXPN.com, and ABC.
X Games XV was the fifteenth annual X Games extreme sports event. It took place from July 30 – August 2, 2009, in Los Angeles, California, at the Staples Center and the Home Depot Center. It was broadcast on ESPN networks, ABC, and EXPN.com.
A mega ramp, or megaramp, is the informal name given to any large-format vert ramp structure, often used in skateboarding and freestyle BMX. The name distinguishes a second generation of ramps which became increasingly popular during the 1990s-2000s transition years. They are so called to distinguish them from the more modest classic ramps used throughout the preceding decades of these sports and which were, at most, half-scale versions of these newer and larger ramps.
A skateboard style refers to the way a skateboarder prefers to ride a skateboard. Skateboard styles can be broadly divided into two different categories: skateboarding to perform tricks and skateboarding as a means of transportation. Styles of skateboarding have evolved over time and are influenced by a number of factors including sociocultural evolution, mass media, music, technology, corporate influence and individual skill level.
Anthony Furlong is an American professional skateboarder. He has been sponsored by 187 Pads, Triple 8, Skatepark of Tampa, Type S Wheels, Woodward, Ogio, Etnies, and Theeve.
Vert skating or vertical skating is a discipline using skates like inline skates or roller skates on a vert ramp, a style of half-pipe. In vert skating, the skater is able to achieve more air-time as compared to other styles of skating, meaning skaters can perform complicated aerial maneuvers and acrobatic tricks, such as spins and flips.
Tony Hawk: Vert is a mobile skateboarding video game created by Glu Mobile. It was released on November 17, 2009, the same day Tony Hawk: Ride released for consoles. The game features a unique camera perspective and a 3D visual style.
