What is Skating?

     Many people have heard of a skateboard and of the skating community, but what people don’t realize is that there is much more than what meets the eye.

     Skateboarding is not only a sport, but is used as a way to commute to places, and in some cases, is considered an art form.

  Skateboards were invented in the late 1940’s when kids started screwing a set of roller-skate wheels to a plank of wood and riding the new-found invention around town. Surfers soon caught on to the hobby and would “sidewalk surf,” when the ocean’s waves weren’t at a high swell. By the early ‘60’s, skateboards were gaining in popularity and companies started to manufacture and sell them worldwide. With the rise of skateboarding, John Severson, a director, started a magazine issue specifically for the new-found sport, which helped further the popularity of the sport. Because skateboarding was becoming relatively normal in society, skaters didn’t just use their boards to simply get from point A to B anymore. Riding rails, jumping stairs, or racing downhill were some of the tricks being performed till the first skate parks were built in 1970. By 1975, skateboarding had become so popular that it was now being viewed as a competitive sport and has continued to increase with fame since. (Skateboarding, 2017, Wikipedia.org). 

     As mentioned earlier, skateboarding has also been involved in some pretty innovative ways as well. Taekwondo, and longboard dancing have been a commodity that only started in recent years, but is already well on its way to being enjoyed by many skaters. Curtis Head, former X-games skater, came up with the idea of performing Martial Arts with the use of his longboard when looking for a way to combine two of his favorite pastimes. Meanwhile Longboard dancing erupted in Europe and has been slowly making its way to the States while steadily gaining many fans along the way.  

There are so many branches of skating to talk about, thus I plan on focusing on a specific skate topic each week, whether in the creative or historic side, or in helping to enlighten others on the community itself. 

References:
     Wikipedia (2017, September 11). Skateboarding.
               Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skateboarding#1940s.E2.80.931960s

Edit: For all my regular blog readers, part of my college English class it to write weekly blog posts. So get ready for me to start blogging again. 

(All watermarked "ThatSkateFairy," photographs are taken by the author of this blog.)