About Me
read this shit if u want to know my life.Tony Alva is one of the original Z-Boys The Z-Boys were a group of skateboarders from Santa Monica in the 1970's who are credited with popularizing skateboarding and essentially creating the punk/skater subculture that now exists.
The Z-Boys grew up in what was known as Dogtown, an extemely run-down low-class area in Santa Monica. They initially devoted all of their energy to surfing at the local pier. Eventually the Z-Boys turned to skateboarding, which was a dead sport at the time, and brought over techniques they had learnt from surfing, namely riding very low on the board and cutting hard turns.
..... Click the link for more information. and one of the most influential skateboarders of all time. He was the first skateboarder to do an aerial (the frontside air in a pool). Widely credited as one of the original namers of "DogTown" skater's lingo for Santa Monica, California.My Own Brief Overview
Over the past decades, skateboarding has gone through many phases and swings in popularity. Riding styles have changed many times, and are still evolving, and as Piumarta related, skateboard designers have to change the design of boards to support and enhance those styles:"Considering that the early 70's were all downhill riding, slalom riding, we made boards that were almost like snow skis.
Tony Alva Pool SkatingThen skateboard parks and pools came along, we had flat 10-inch wide boards with no nose and a big kicktail, because everyone was just going forward and carving in pools and parks. Street skating took over, and we introduced the first street skateboard back in 1979, and it was called the Street Skate of course. As skateboard parks closed and people moved out into the street, the ten-inch boards wouldn't work. So all the boards got narrow, and eventually I started putting upturned nose into some of our early concaves. Which eventually migrated right over into narrow boards on the street with an upturned nose and an upturned tail, with concave, but all at around8 and one half to 9 inches wide.Vert, as pool riding was called, came back in the form of ramp riding back in the mid-80-'s, and boards got wide again, up to 9 inches wide. Again big concaves, upturned noses, a lot more tricks being done than in the late 70's, so the upturned nose stayed on those boards. Then with vert really dying down, and street skating going crazy, which is where we’re at right now, the boards have gotten down even narrower than what was called a freestyle board back in the late 70's. These boards are 7 1/2 -7 3/4 inches wide, big upturned nose, big tail, and a lot of concave, and again the thickness varying form 3/8 inch to 420/1000."modern skateboard
So the size and shape of the skateboard has been fluid, changing to fit the needs and demands of the riders, reflecting the changing interests and styles of skaters out on the street. Many former pro riders have gone into the design and production of skateboards; perhaps that is why skateboard manufacturers are so attuned to the needs of skaters.This profile was edited with Thomas' myspace editor™ V2.5
