Skateboard

A skateboard is a single flexible board mounted on wheels and steerable by weight positioning. As a land alternative for surfing, skateboards developed in California in the 1960s and became a craze among urban youth the world over in the 1970s.

Skateboarding was once called "sidewalk surfing".

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Skateboard City skatepark in Port Orange, Florida and Carlsbad Skatepark in San Diego County, California were the first two skateparks to be opened to the public, just a week apart in March 1976.

Skateboarding started to appear in China in 1986 after an American skateboarder traveled to Beijing to study Chinese. There wasn't a Chinese word for skateboarding at the time he arrived.

The U.S. military experimented with using skateboards in combat situations. During a pilot program called Urban Warrior '99, the military experimented with the potential use of skateboards "for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire".

On June 27, 1999, Tony Hawk made history by becoming the first skateboarder to successfully land a 900, a highly difficult and dangerous trick involving 2-and-a-half rotations. This achievement was a major milestone in skateboarding and is remembered as one of the most iconic moments in the sport's history.

A 2009 report found that the skateboarding market is worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world.

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In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding would be represented for the first time at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

The longest journey by skateboard is 12,159 kilometers (7,555 miles). It was completed by Rob Thomson (New Zealand) starting in Leysin, Switzerland on 24 June 2007 and finishing in Shanghai, China, on September 28, 2008.

Thomson's attempt was part of a longer trip of 20,000 kilometers including legs by bicycle, sailing, rafts, train around the world, but only the skateboarding part, which was the last part of the journey was counted for the record.

The record for the most people riding on a single skateboard belongs to a group of 22 sidewalk surfers who achieved the feat in Los Angeles on August 21, 2008. This impressive balancing act was captured on film for the music video of Weezer's song "Troublemaker."

Peter Connolly set the record for the Fastest skateboard speed downhill (standing) at the 2017 L’Ultimate Descente competition, an annual gravity sports event held in Quebec, Canada. The English skater achieved the speed of 146.73 km/h (91.17 mph).

Jason Lee, the main actor in My Name Is Earl used to be a professional skateboarder and is credited with inventing the '360 flip'.

British comedian Tony Hawks became so frustrated with being mistaken for pro skateboarder Tony Hawk that he published a book on June 13, 2019  titled Tony Hawk's The A to Z of Skateboarding. It contains nothing about skateboarding.

At 92 years of age Kevin Bacon's father rode a skateboard in protest of the city banning skaters from the park that he had designed.

At the age of seventy-eight, Fred Astaire broke his left wrist while riding his grandson's skateboard. He was later awarded a life membership in the National Skateboard Society.