Skateboarding

Skateparks

Around 1972 to 1973, skateboarding entered its second phase of expansion with the introduction of new technologies, including wheels made from polyurethane (introduced by Frank Nasworthy, a former surfer) to allow for greater speed and grip, stronger and more sophisticated “double-action” metal trucks to allow for greater stability and maneuverability and, in the late 1970s, larger decks around 10 inches in width and 30 inches in length to allow for greater stability. Around 1974 to 1975, also fueled by the reemergence of the now reissued SkateBoarder magazine, skateboarders appropriated the various concrete architectures of the urban world. These architectures included deserted swimming pools, river and canal drainage channels, and schoolyard banks, and even huge water pipes found out in the Arizona desert. Seeking to capitalize on this new nationwide craze, more than 100 purpose-designed commercial skateparks were built across America, including Pipeline and Del Mar Skate Ranch in California, Kona and Solid Surf in Florida, Apple in Ohio, and Cherry Hill in New Jersey. Similar skateparks were also constructed across the world, including in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These new skateparks, with their perfectly formed concrete runs and pools, allowed skateboarders to reach new physical heights, including aerial moves where the skateboarder flies beyond the top of a wall, turns around in mid-air, and reenters the pool some 12 feet below.

Once again, however, widespread interest in skateboarding lasted only a few years, and in the early 1980s many skateparks closed down, partly due to ever-increasing insurance premiums and partly due to pressures of land redevelopment. In response to this loss of urban terrain, many skateboarders built their own “half-pipe” construc-tion—a wooden ramp structure, with a U-section profile and two parallel side walls, usually between 6 and 12 feet high, and often topped with a platform on either side to allow the skateboarder to drop into the ramp from on high. A flat bottom is also normally inserted into the base of the U profile in order to both increase speed and to allow the skateboarder more time between the walls.

...