Skateboarding Clothes FAQs
Where did skateboarding begin, and when?
Skateboarding began in California near the middle of the 20th century. The exact origin of the skateboard is vigorously debated, but it is generally understood to have developed around 1952 or 1953. Skating wheels were attached to the bottom of a wooden plank and then individuals skated around town. The preliminary models of skateboarding were to replicate the surfing that was always taking place on the beach, and skateboarding quickly earned the nickname of “street surfing.” The sport was slow to start however, and didn’t gain wide acceptance until an innovation took place. In 1972 polyurethane wheels were incorporated into the sport. The dilemma is that with the soft air wheels, skateboards couldn’t move as quickly as riders wanted to, preventing serious aerial tricks because the wheels couldn’t transfer the rider’s energy to the ground. The sport didn’t attain any official status until the 2000 X Games sponsored by ESPN. Still, the sport is dominated primarily by young male enthusiasts.
Where did the “Ollie” come from?
The “Ollie” is a handless, foot-only, aerial trick that was invented by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand in 1978. He created the trick when the sport was being revived with the invention and utilization of polyurethane wheels. The wheels greatly increased the capacity of the rider to push downward onto the ground without the tires simply decompressing. This meant that the Ollie was possible. The wheels revolutionized the sport because tricks became widely practical for even the common recreationalist or enthusiast. The wheels now come in a variety of harnesses’, but typically in skateboarding the harder the better. For the sport of longboarding, softer wheels are better, because they roll continually. The softer the wheels the better the grip on the pavement and the better the street carving that the boarder can enjoy. Since longboards use longer wheels, they are not good for tricks, although the determined could manage a small Ollie. The Ollie is now the basis for almost all tricks that a typical street boarder will do. The Ollie is a simple jump with the board, and varying amounts of force on the front and back of the board enable you to manipulate the board into a widening variety of spins and grabs which are at the heart of the modern tricks.
Has the military ever used skateboards?
As a matter of fact they have. In the 1990s under a military project the United States Marine Corps attempted to use skateboards in a military exercise called Urban Warrior. The exercise meant to demonstrate that the military could defend a military establishment, as much of the United States is, as well as it could a military installation. The vulnerability of the United States is that it is so urbanized that weapons could easily be used to target population centers are a means to increase the damage done. However, the military exercise used new and different materials to create a mobile and efficacious warrior that could circumvent common obstacles and reassert military dominance in an urban setting. The skateboards were used by the Marine Corps to maneuver within buildings to detect tripwires as well as to assist in the locating of snipers and their firing patterns.