The story of skateboarding

From the slogan “skateboarding is not a crime” to the sport’s Olympic debut, this is how skate culture entered the mainstream.

Transcript

00:00He was a skater boy

00:30Skateboarding has the speed of skiing without the need for snow, the grace of surfing without

00:47the need for water.

01:01Skateboards are miniature dry land surfboards fitted with four plastic rollers to take the

01:05place of the real ones, wheels instead of waves.

01:20How did you get started with something like this?

01:22Well, I took it up because I've been surfing for about seven and a half years now and I

01:27took it up from practice.

01:28Pick up your foot and put it right on the front of the board.

01:30Now this is going to be just like a scooter that you used to use.

01:33Skateboarding, or skurfing, really reached the crest of a wave in 1965.

01:38That year, America held its first national championships.

01:43Thousands turned out to watch and the event was televised to millions more.

02:03The technology of the 70s gave skateboards a new lease of life in the States and launched

02:28them across the Atlantic.

02:42In the 60s, it was standing up, you know, people standing on a board and they were doing

02:46tricks on the board and running up and down like a longboard and doing like little tic-tacs

02:49with the skateboard, right?

02:50Early 70s, it started being like surfing style.

03:14I'm calling skateboarding one of the most highly physical things I've ever done in my

03:17life.

03:19And people don't realize it, but it is high performance.

03:22I mean, heavily high performance.

03:31The first thing people want to learn besides just riding a skateboard is how to ollie and

03:35that's basically snap the board with your back foot so that it gets up in the air and

03:39As it's up in the air, you slide your front foot forward and that levels it out.

04:09I'm going to start putting people in jail for skating over here.

04:20I'm getting disgusted with having to tell people the same thing over and over again.

04:24This is not a skate park.

04:47I'll get it back to you, all right?

05:00They've been seeing this stuff on skateboard parks for years.

05:04Finally, the world got to share it.

05:27I never really set out to make a career out of skating because when I started skating,

05:33the best you could do was to maybe get some free stuff.

05:37There were no rich or famous skateboarders.

05:49My next big thing is our video game, obviously.

06:12The whole world is skateboarding.

06:32Skateboarding is just straight creativity, art, and architecture.

06:35The whole world is a skate park.