Skateboard History

1990's

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Once again skating as a sport had an upward swing in 1995. This mainly due to the first ESPN transmission of the first Extreme Games. Skating popularity now soared again, for the sports transmission to public served to eliminate the idea of skateboarding being a rebel sport. And once again in 1996 the Extreme Games where transmitted to millions of people over the world, exposing the sport of skateboarding to the world. In 1997 skateboarding was also included in the Winter X Games, further promoting it through media. The media impact of the sport moved it from being an underground sport to a spectator sport. Skateboarding also became an advertisement tool, for a large number of the worlds male youth followed the sport.

And once again changes occurred in the skating history. After a brief moment of Vert skating being forgotten, it now began to find its way back into the skating world. This was so for it became easier to have skating parks in more places. This bigger variety in skate parks led to the incentivation of the skating society to grow. These changes also led to a big modification of equipment. Today a large variety of skateboards can be seen on the streets, yet most are already different from the early 90’s style, where small wheels and thinner decks were the style of the moment, today wider decks and bigger wheels are popular. And each year a different style gains more popularity, lately Longboarding has been gaining the most popularity in beach communities and towns made up of different levels, were downhill skating has also been gaining popularity.

Today the business of skating has become one of the biggest businesses of the decade. It ranges from clothes and shoes to all kind of accessories; however footwear is the one with the biggest market currently. Skateboarding also has had a big number of supporting organizations and governing bodies through its history. Today the two biggest are IASC and the World Cup Skateboarding, which is the leading competition organization. Competitions today involve great sums of money, due to the growth of sponsorship and prizes. Skateboarding has begun to gain respect for its professional athletes.