Your Guide for Skateboarding to the Extreme

Get Fit and Play Sports » Miscellaneous Extreme Sports, Skateboarding

When you think of extreme skateboarding, do the images of young boys with jeans and t-shirts skateboarding everywhere but in an actual skateboard park come to mind? Some of you might even have those teenagers living next to you, or down the street, or most likely in your own home.

Skateboarding has been around for at least a century. It dates back to the 1900s when inventive kids took apart their roller skates and nailed, glued and taped whatever they had available - those wheels on to two pieces of wood and off they went. Suffice to say, movement was limited and do not forget about painful splinters from trying to hold on or falling off. Not to mention other injuries such as broken bones.

The term sidewalk surfing became popular due to the increased popularity of surfing. The only difference was that either you were surfing the waves or the sidewalk. Now, the way the skateboard is put together has gone through hundreds of modifications to get what they use today. This provides for a smooth ride and allows for all the extreme moves that are accomplished.

The very first professional skateboard and skateboard team was formed in the 1960s and the first skateboard contest was held at a junior high school in California. Now you can say this lit a fire in the kids of the day and they began skateboarding on and in everything, including empty swimming pools. Empty swimming pools are still used for those who may not have access to a skate park. Perhaps those who began skateboarding in swimming pools actually began the concept of extreme skateboarding.

For a few short years, skateboarding was being banned from cities all over the country due to safety hazards. Back in the day, the skateboards were not constructed as they are today, nor had the concept of safety gear come into play and there were fatalities. However, that was all about to change as the manufacturers of the skateboards began experimenting until that perfect board emerged and skateboarding, in all its glory, filled the hearts, minds, and wallets of teenagers and their parents everywhere.

The state of Florida gets the claim to fame of having built the first outdoors skate park. This is ironic since most of the boom of skateboarding occurred first on the west coast. Soon, however, they would not be able to hold this claim for long because skateboard parks began exploding all over North America. The kids were no longer content with skateboarding horizontally, they now needed to move to vertical - they wanted “air”.

Now, as the skateboarders are flying through the sky, they are also connecting with the new music craze of punk rock. This new wave sound serves to fuel their passion all the more, as well as their hair and clothing styles.

As extreme skateboarding continued its climb, so did the salaries of those who were top in their chosen sport. If you knew what you were doing, your income was guaranteed to be no less than several thousand per month. They began flying off the ramps that were built. Flipping, not only one time in the air but several times and contorting their bodies and boards into what appears to the normal eye, unnatural. The adrenaline rush kept them coming back for more.

The extremeness of the skateboarding world came full force when it became a part of the Extreme Games on ESPN2. There was no stopping these daredevils of the skateboarding world and every day, somewhere in our world another skateboarding champion is born - it could be your child.

In conclusion, skateboarding has died several times since its inception, but like a fine wine, it never really goes out of style. This extreme sport has rebounded several times to become the popular sport it is today. There are magazines, videos, movies, and even cartoons that show kids of today how to perform the awesome moves that are done in the skateboarding world. There are hundreds of skateboards to choose from every shape, size, color you can even have skateboards special ordered! There is no limit to what is available or as it seems to what can be done on a skateboard.