Street skateboarding

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The golden age of street skateboarding: mid-1980s

In the early 1980s, skateboarding was almost dead.[citation needed] At this time, the title 'professional skateboarder' was little more than a formality, and no pro could make a living through the sport alone. Not surprisingly, all contests, demonstrations, videos, and companies were underground, and far from mainstream. Vertical Skateboarding (aka, 'vert') dominated the professional scene and the magazines that covered it. However, it was at this time that upstarts such as Mark Gonzales (also known as 'the Gonz'), Natas Kaupas, and other top skaters in and around Los Angeles began to get creative with variations of vert and freestyle tricks on public terrain. The first "streetstyle" contest was held at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in 1983, and Tommy Guerrero won an upset victory as an unsponsored amateur. Guerrero, from San Francisco, also got the first, true, street skating part in a video, in 1985's "Future Primitive" by Powell Peralta. This video part coincided with a boom in skateboarding's popularity, and was a defining moment in influencing a new generation to street skateboarding.

Street skateboarding in magazines pre built cabins

Magazines throughout the 1970s and early 1980s were dominated by vert skating and to a lesser extent freestyle skateboarding. 1984 is seen as something of a watershed in street skateboarding's history as Tommy Guerrero made the July cover, Natas Kaupas made the September, and Mark Gonzales made the November cover of Thrasher magazine. This level of exposure was unprecedented for street skating and marks the birth of the golden age of street skating. service apartment shanghai

The impact of a new medium - videocassettes highland house furniture

Just as VCR's were being purchased as the latest luxury item, the skateboard video revolution began in late 1984 with the release of Powell Peralta's "Bones Brigade Video Show". In it, street skating serves as just the backdrop of the videos various vert and freestyle parts as Lance Mountain cruises around Los Angeles, doing little more than bonelesses and acid drops, but the video itself helped skateboarding make a comeback. By 1985, both street skating and skateboarding's popularity was making a resurgence[citation needed]. Overnight, street skating eclipsed freestyle in popularity, though vert remained the preeminent form that got most of the attention. Photos of street skaters like Mark Gonzales, Natas Kaupas and Johnee Kop were seen fairly often, but this emerging form of skating was still not taken seriously by most and considered a fad. Up through 1987, most street skaters did mostly handplant and kicker ramp tricks. Just one year later the dynamic began shifting dramatically. The release of Powell Peralta's "Public Domain" and H Street's "Shackle Me Not" videos were an eye-opener for the skateboard world. In them, a new generation of street skaters led by Mike Vallely, Ray Barbee, and Matt Hensley departed from the handplant and jump ramp trends to progress street skating to a respectable level with major ollies, handrail boardslides and freestyle flip maneuvers. This was the point of no return where street skating began to progress at an extraordinary pace through the early 1990s, while vert's popularity waned rapidly.

Street skateboarding takes over: the early 1990s

During the early 1990s, vertical skating nearly disappeared, and street skating was the dominant style practiced by successful professional riders[citation needed]. The mainstream popularity of skateboarding began to decline once again during the early 1990s. By 1993, the sports popularity was at an all time low point. But during this period, hardcore skaters continued to practice in any way they could, just as they had following the skatepark crash of the late 1970s. A strong foundation for street skating had been established from the mid to late 1980s, to the point where dozens of pros were known almost exclusively for their performance on the streets. Now, it was possible for pros to build upon that foundation, and take skateboarding to new levels. Young street professionals such as Frankie Hill and Ed Templeton had borrowed from freestyle, but also continued to push the limits of handrail skating. Plan B's 1992 production, The Questionable Video features some of the best skaters of the era, including a young Pat Duffy, who was then known as a "handrail destroyer"[citation needed].

Little flips and small wheels

Street skateboarding in the early 1990s looked nothing like that which was performed even a few years earlier in the late 1980s. Riders now rode both in normal and switch stance and would perform flip tricks and ollie variations that were mostly invented in the 1980s by world champion freestyler Rodney Mullen. Mullen himself became a street skater during this period, due to the death of freestyle. Most of the tricks that were once street staples such as the streetplant and boneless as well as any trick that involved picking a board up from the ground, were now considered clich. Grace and speed were not encouraged in street skating at this time, and it was not uncommon for a rider to stumble off his board momentarily after landing an extremely technical flip trick. Another peculiarity of street skating in the early 1990s were the tiny wheels that were preferred as a light weight solution for flip tricks from 1991 to 1994. Such wheels were often smaller than 45 millimetres, some of which at their lowest point in 1993 were reduced to a tiny, nearly compression bearing size of just 38 millimetres.

Street skateboarding goes mainstream: 1995-2001

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The skateboarding industry experienced major growth starting in the mid 1990s, and many factors are to thank for this. The global recession that had affected so many during the decade's early years was coming to an end, which generally meant more disposable income for young people[citation needed]. As a result, more time and money could be invested into adolescent pastimes. Skateboarding related culture was becoming much more popular and visible mainstream media. Pop punk bands such as The Offspring, Rancid, NOFX, and Green Day began to sell millions of records in 1994, and this introduced many people to the "alternative" lifestyle, which included skateboarding[citation needed]. Although the mainstream has brought in money, many skateboarders feel that the mainstream has tainted skateboarding as a whole[citation needed]. Wanting to 'cash in' on a wealthy demographic, ESPN introduced the Extreme Games (later renamed the X-Games) in the summer of 1995. The games showcased skateboarding as well as other activities such as rollerblading, BMX biking, motocross. The X-Games initially hosted two skateboarding contests: a vert contest and a "street" contest held on a course constructed of a mix of rails, ramps, and banks. Accordingly, the X-Games played a major role in familiarizing the mainstream population onto the sport. The X-Games and other large scale contests created increasing polarization professional the professional skateboarding community. While there was some cross over between professional riders, most skaters chose to either seek coverage through industry sources (such as Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, Thrasher), and company videos or participate in the contest circuit.

Influential videos

Like no other time before it, the period between the mid 1990s and the early 21st century saw an incredible amount of influence originating in promotional videos released directly by skate companies themselves. Whereas skate demos and competitions continued to maintain their important role that had been established in previous skate eras, many professional skaters now focused the majority of their attention on videos, and the tricks being performed in those videos. Skate videos in the mid 1990s were almost exclusively street based, with absolutely no freestyle, and very little vert to mention. Some videos, such as Girl Skateboards' Mouse (1996) directed by Spike Jonze, and World Industries' Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song (1997) followed the tradition of technical flatground skateboarding that had been spawned from the ashes of freestyle in the early 1990s. Tricks were executed faster and with more power. The boundaries of switch stance skating were being pushed and many skaters appeared equally competent in both their regular and switch stance. Others videos, such as Toy Machine's Welcome to Hell (1996), and Zero Skateboards's Thrill of it All (1996), represented the direction that street skating took in the late 1990s towards high impact stair and handrail skating.

Stairs and rails

Handrail skating originated in California in the spring of 1986[citation needed]. Although it is generally accepted that Mark Gonzales is the first to skate a handrail, it's also acknowledged that Natas Kaupas skated a handrail at this time too. Johnee Kop was the first to have a published handrail photo. Also, Julian Stranger was the first to do a frontside boardslide and have a published photo. Handrail skating continued to come into its own for the rest of the '80s, from more veteran pros like Chris Miller and Steve Caballero to then upstarts Andy Howell, Ed Templeton, and Frankie Hill. By 1990, the first kickflip boardslide on a handrail was performed. Handrail skating became much more common throughout the 1990s as it was further pushed into the limelight in by Pat Duffy's landmark part in the Plan B "Questionable Video" in 1992. By 1995 kickflip and shove-it variations were being 'thrown down' on a regular basis by advanced pros like Heath Kirchart who is responsible for the first kickflip backside lipslide on a handrail. Similarly, technical flip tricks were being taken down larger and larger stair sets. Handrail skating became so common in the mid-1990s that 1995 was actually declared the year of the 50-50 grind by Transworld Skateboarding Magazine due to the number of grinds that were being performed on rails at this time.

Handrail domination

In the late 1990s and early 21st century, handrail skating became a professional standard as well as a proving ground for young and up and coming skaters. Not only were rails a staple in pro street skating, but also in competitions and demonstrations. Indeed, for some time it seemed the larger the rail, and the bigger the stair set, the better. Some young skaters were able to capture attention from the industry though getting a trick on a notorious set such as El Toro, Wallenberg, and Wiltshire. Despite the strong interest in skate large stair sets, many skateboards still focused on extremely technical grinds and manuals. In the last few years, skating handrails has remained an important part of professional street skating, but is not as essential to a video part as it once was.

Street skateboarding today: 2001-Present

The skateboarding industry has now grown and flourished for nearly ten years without experiencing a major recession like those seen by previous skate generations (although minor financial losses were reported by several companies in the year 2003)[citation needed]. During the last 5 years, skateboarding has taken many interesting turns. Skateparks, which were a scarce commodity in the mid 1990s, are now present in both small and large communities throughout North America and Europe. Moreover, a significant number of female participants can be reported in a sport that has been largely male dominated throughout the course of its history. While hand rails and large stair sets are still widely popular, it is now obvious that other approaches are being taken by pros and amateurs alike. Recently, a number of professional street skaters have been seen performing old-school tricks (such as wallrides, bonelesses, no-complys and airwalks) in line with 1990s style flip tricks[citation needed], i.e. Jason Adams' part in Black Label's 2003 video Black Out. Recently, professional skateboarders have taken to skating different obstacles than in the late 1990s/early 2000s.[citation needed] While traditional ledges, rails, stairs, and gaps are still popular, there has been a recent push to skate more unusual terrain. Random banks and oddly shaped structures have become the canvas for street skaters to perform their art.

With the expansion of the skateboard industry, skate videos have become much larger productions. Videos like S Footwear's Menikmati in 2000, Adio Footwear's One Step Beyond in 2001, and Flip Skateboards' Sorry in 2002 are early examples of the production and process of creating a professional skate video in this era. Often these videos are filmed for over the course of a several years, feature a big budget, and contain skating spots from all over the world. Skits have long been a part of skate videos, however current big budget examples can be seen in Nike Skateboarding's Nothing But the Truth in 2007 and Lakai Limited Footwear's Fully Flared in 2007. Ty Evans, the producer of Fully Flared, is often credited for ushering in the new aesthetic of skate videos this decade. Krooked's Gnar Ganr in 2008 featured low film quality and loose editing and can be seen as reaction to the current trends of skate videos. Although, more recently, these big budget productions are becoming less common with large amounts of skate videos being downloaded or watched over the internet. An example of a smaller budget film in reaction to this process is Zero's Strange World in 2010, which wasn't filmed for many years, featured more traveling around the U.S. instead of the world, was much shorter (about 30 minutes) and was sold for a cheap price ($10-15) to try and maximize the amount of people who bought instead of downloaded the video.

References

External links

iSKATEhere.com An online directory of street skating spots

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Skateboarding

Skateboard Types

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Tricks

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Other

Skateboarding terms  Skateboarders / Female skateboarders  Skateboarding brands  Skateboarding sponsorship  Skateboarding styles  Skateboard shoes

Skateparks

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