the.com/skateboard
a wooden middle finger to gravity, sidewalks, and anyone who said sit still
means A short narrow board mounted on four wheels, ridden by standing on it and pushing off the ground, used for transport, tricks, and general gravity-defiance.
from A plain compound: "skate" plus "board." The "skate" comes from roller skating — which itself borrows from "ice skate," traced back through Dutch "schaats" to an Old French word for stilt or leg-support, a cousin of Latin "scabellum," a little stool. The thing itself grew up in mid-20th-century California, when surfers wanting waves on dry days bolted roller-skate wheels onto planks — early ones were literally called "sidewalk surfboards" before the word "skateboard" rolled in and stuck.
- origin
- 1950s surfers wanting waves on dry land
- first decks
- roller skate wheels nailed to boards
- olympic
- became an Olympic sport in 2021
- the ollie
- named after inventor Alan Gelfand, 1978
- falls
- pros land tricks after thousands of failures
tony hawk's 900 — first person to land it in 1999, revolutionized skateboarding
bones brigade — legendary skateboard crew founded by george powell in 1970s california
street league skateboarding — professional competition founded 2010, $100k+ prize pools
chris cole kickflip heelflip — first person to land consecutive flip tricks in 2000s