Skateboard history is chronicled through a series of boom and bust periods. Booms are associated with significant popularity and associated commercial sales of skateboards. Bust periods tend to correspond with decline in interest and subsequent sales. The first skateboard boom in 1963–1965 followed a lengthy initial gestation period that featured exploration of the potential for riding a piece of wood with mounted roller skate assemblies (see Figs. 1 and 2 for key skateboard terms). In 1963, Larry Stevenson was the first to develop what was widely considered to be a professional skateboard (the Makaha Phil Edwards model, named for the prominent surfer Phil Edwards) featuring a wooden deck shaped loosely like a miniature surfboard, Chicago trucks, and clay wheels. During the first boom other manufacturers explored alternative materials for board construction, the most famous of which was the Gordon and Smith “Fibreflex” skateboard produced for an initially short period and designed to flex using a fiberglass, epoxy, and a thin maple wood core. The first boom was short lived as parents became increasingly fearful of the devices, and with some good reason given the poor level of technology in this era. Larry Stevenson patented the kicktail in 1969, well after the first boom. This permitted skateboarders to gain better tail leverage (and hold for the foot) for riding slopes and walls as well as for doing tricks like “360” spins.
Skateboard historians (Brooke 1999; Weyland 2002) generally agree it was not innovation to the skateboard deck the triggered the second boom. Rather, it was the invention of a key innovation, the urethane wheel, by Frank Nasworthy in 1972 and its ready acceptance by a population of skaters and surfers in southern California. The urethane wheel permitted the rider to move far faster in a more controlled manner on varied terrain and it was far safer, meaning that it did not automatically stop cold upon encountering a small rock or other obstruction (and thus launching the rider). Innovations in urethane resulted in softer wheels for street racing and hard wheels for wall riding. Shortly after the innovation of urethane wheels, the first professional “high performance” trucks were debuted by Ron Bennett in 1973 offering greater height between the board and the ground as well as a far greater degree of maneuverability compared to the old Chicago trucks that had been originally designed for roller skates.
With the innovations of kicktail boards, urethane wheels, and high performance trucks, skateboarders had the tools to take the sport in new directions. This was facilitated by two developments in southern California unrelated to skateboarding. First, delayed development of housing tracts in hilly La Costa provided a mecca of freshly paved roads and sidewalks for skateboarders interested in downhill and slalom racing. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the regional drought of 1975 and 1976 provided a nearly endless array of terrain ranging from drainage ditches and spillways to empty swimming pools for those willing to find a way to get into these places. By 1977, skateboarding had branched into four distinctive pursuits: downhill, slalom, freestyle, and bowl or wall riding. For maximum performance, particularly at the emerging professional levels, each required specially designed boards. Downhill required long boards (greater than 36 inches in length) generally without kicktails given the goal of maximum speed and stability. It is not clear who first developed the long board though Tom Sims is often given credit for early experiments adapting long boards from water skis (Brooke 1999). Slalom required speed and maneuverability (much like the requirements for slalom skiing), favoring shorter boards than those used for downhill racing and very narrow ends to avoid wheels rubbing the base of the deck during sharp turns. While many riders and manufacturers explored slalom designs in the mid-1970s, Turner Summer Ski is typically given significant credit for innovations (Goodrich 2010) that included not only board shape but also development of cambered design (Fig. 2) to permit maximum flex for pumping through slalom courses.
Bowl/wall riding took off in the mid-1970s and several manufacturers quickly sought to capitalize. Innovations in deck design including kicktails originally associated with Larry Stevenson and Makaha and “rocker” shapes (loosely the inverse of cambered designs) innovated in 1973 by Zephyr and Z-Flex had already enhanced the ability of skaters to perform on steep terrain. In 1977, Gordon and Smith (G&S) added to these designs with new lines of somewhat wider and longer boards including the G&S Bowl Rider and shortly later, the Warptail. The Warptail was part of a new wave of boards that included the innovation of maple laminate construction likely from Canadian skater and board maker, “Wee” Willie Winkels, which reduced the weight of the board while maintaining some limited flex. The first bowl rider boards ranged in width up to around eight inches, but this was not to last for very long. By 1978, skaters and manufacturers from Santa Monica, California (especially Tony Alva) introduced the first “pig” boards (ten plus inches in width), offering maximum stability and hold for feet during vertical wall riding (as in empty pools and skateparks). Some manufacturers explored a concave deck surface (Fig. 2) for maximum foothold.
Meanwhile, freestyle boards, designed for doing tricks on flat ground, did not significantly change from designs in use during the early 1970s. Riders still preferred a smallish board, with a kicktail to facilitate rapid board movement in tricks like “walk the dog,” “Casper Disaster,” and “360s.” Minor changes included development of wider noses (compared to early generic board designs from the 1960s and early 1970s), occasional double (front and back) kicktails, and use of maple laminate manufacturing materials.
The second boom ended in 1980 as the United States economy declined leading to dramatic losses in the skateboard industry, bulldozing of most first generation skateboard parks, and shutting down of the 1970s skateboard publications like Skateboarder Magazine. A number of experimental designs (e.g., the Kryptonics synthetic board, Powell “Quicksilver,” etc.) went “extinct” at about this time. A third boom occurred between 1985 and 1990 associated with the return of vertical riding, now mostly on wooden ramps. No major design changes are associated with the 1980s. Interestingly, a significant design development occurred during the bust period of 1990–1995: the popsicle stick board. The popsicle stick board was developed as a response to the rise of the 1990s street skating culture where skaters sought to develop tricks working less with vertical terrain than street facilities like benches, stairs, and railings. The answer was a board that could easily shift between street and vertical contexts. Its shape was that of a stubby popsicle stick, somewhat long (generally 30–34 inches), with a 1977 bowl rider’s width (seven to eight inches), a double kicktail, and typically, a concave deck surface. By the final boom that began after 1995, long boards again became popular and consequently manufacturers borrowed a range of designs to increase options for riders including slalom board shapes, kicktails, concave surfaces, and occasional double kicktails. Finally, the post-1999 period can also be described as one of skateboard nostalgia where manufacturers reissued many classic designs going back to the early 1970s (e.g., the Z-Flex Rocker and the Logan Earth Ski Bruce Logan).