Skateboarding began in the 50's in California. Surfers were not satisfied until they hit the streets with their boards. The first ones were made of wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels slapped on the bottom. The boxes later turned into planks and eventually companies started producing decks of pressed layers of wood, similar to the prototypes of today. During this period, surfing was transformed from a water sport to a street sport.

In 1963, skateboarding was at its peak of popularity. Companies like Jack's, Hobie and Makaha started holding competitions with mainly downhill slalom or freestyle as its form. Woody Woodward, Danny Berer and Torger Johnson were the stars of that time, performing more of a ballet on their skateboards. Only 2 years later, in 1965, the fad began to crash and die out. Still the diehards continued on, even though the quality of the wheels (made from clay) made it dangerous and hard to control.

In 1972, Frank Nasworthy of Cadillac Wheels invented a revolutionary urethane skateboard wheel that sparked another boost for the sport. In the spring of 1975, Del Mar, CA held the Ocean Festival contest for slalom and freestyle skateboarding. The Zephyr team showed the world that day how creative skateboarding could be. Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralto became the popular members of the team. They were edgy, full of anti-establishment, thus giving excitement and seriousness to the sport. Everyone wanted to emulate them.

In 1978, a skater named Alan Gelfand a.k.a. "Ollie," with his style of low-to-the-ground skateboarding, invented a maneuver that gave skateboarding another trick. He would slam his back foot down on the tail of the board and jump, popping into the air. Thus, the ollie was born. He was inducted into the skateboard hall of fame in 2002.

Near the end of the 70's skateboarding faced its second crash and downfall. Due to the dangerous environment, public skate parks started closing due to insurance liabilities. But skaters could not be deterred and built their own ramps at home or made public areas their private skate park.

During the 80's, filming skaters such as Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacey Peralta, Kevin Staab (members of the founded Bones Brigade) became accessible through VCR and future videos were made. Visually witnessing these pros also started a wave in styles of skate clothing, music and culture.

By the 90's, with the rise of punk music, anger, and rebellion towards the times, the attitude of spectators towards skaters became increasingly more popular. A sport cult was on the horizon. The first Winter X Games in 1997 classifed it as an "extreme sport" and helped move it closer to the mainstream of public popularity. By 2005, people like Bam Margera, Rob Dyrdek and Ryan Scheckler have their own MTV reality shows centering around skating. Tony Hawks is the veteran of all, making millions from his video games and gear. Keep an eye on the stars and see where it's evolution will go next.

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