Before being produced on an industrial scale, starting in 1959, skateboards were manufactured at home, with children and teenagers fitting skate wheels onto boards and crates. In the 1960s, the toy became a national craze in the US and was featured in the magazine Life. Radical maneuvers began to emerge in the 1970s, with surfers from California (USA) sliding through the streets and into empty pools – which inspired the current bowls and half pipes – on days when there was no beach.
In Brazil, skateboarding arrived with the nickname surfinho in 1968. The first track was built eight years later, in Nova Iguaçu (RJ).
The reinvention of four wheels
IRON AGE (1880-1950)
In the era of scooters, you had to be daring to go down the streets on boards and boxes nailed to roller skates, without resting your hands on anything. With iron wheels and boards without aerodynamics, the falls were ugly. To make matters worse, many boys and girls played barefoot.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1959)
The first manufacturer of skateboards on an industrial scale was the North American Roller Derby. The shape (format) of the boards was smaller, with a nose (front) rounded and tail (rear) straight. At the time, the bet was hard rubber wheels, ultra-resistant, but not too soft.
AGE OF PLASTIC (1972)
The North American Frank Nasworthy attached polyurethane wheels, which are more adherent and therefore safer. In 1978, Alan Gelfand invented the “ollie”, the first aerial skateboarding maneuver, still basic today (it consists of jumping along with the board, without the help of the hands). The shape evolved to the current models, with tail and nose with the same inclination and curvature.
Curiosity: skateboarding did not just inherit roller skates and scooters: until the mid-1960s, movements were inspired by figure skating.
Consultancy: Leonardo Brandão, historian and author of The City and the Skater Tribe; Eduardo Yndyo Tassara, author of the blog Skatecuriosity.Com. Source: Guinness World Records.