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         With nothing more than a two-by-four on roller skate wheels, the sidewalk surfers of the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s had simple goals -  to stay on their boards and avoid collisions. Modern skateboarding began in California in the 1950’s. It took it’s balancing and tricks from surfing, which requires the same kind of skills. Over the last fifty years, skateboarding has grown into a major sport with many young people becoming skateboard masters.

        A skateboard is still a glorified plank with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom. A skateboard has three main parts: the board, the trucks, and the wheels. All real skateboards have at least seven plies of sugar maple veneer glued together with polyvinyl glues. These are pressed in metal or concrete forms to give them the right shape. Epoxy, fiberglass, and carbon loaded thermoplastic nylon have all been tried for the board. But, nothing matches the feel, response, elasticity, and toughness of a laminated sugar maple board. The trucks hold the wheels to the skateboard. Some skateboards also have rubber plates called risers.

      It may seem that modern skateboarders are defying the laws of physics, the truth is that they’re just using them to their advantage. When an object is balanced at its center of gravity, the object will remain balanced. Skateboarding is the skillful balance between gravity and centrifugal force. Centrifugal force is the force that keeps a body moving in a circular path.

        When doing tricks, there is a set of terms that help explain how the rider is using the board. We will discuss a few of the more important terms. Regular foot means riding with the left foot forward. Goofy foot means riding with the right foot forward. People determine how they will ride by running alongside a moving board and jumping on. Whichever way their feet land on the board is the way they will prefer to ride; regular or goofy foot.

        A grind occurs when the rider scrapes one or both axles on a curb, railing, or other surface. A 50-50 grind is grinding on both axils, or trucks, equally. A crooked grind is grinding on only the front truck, while sliding on a surface. A nosegrind is grinding only on the front truck, and a 5-0 grind is grinding only on the back truck.

        A slide is when the skater slides a part of the board on a ledge, lip, or slanted edge. A noseslide happens when you slide the underside of the nose end of the board on a ledge or lip. A tailslide is when you slide the underside of the tail end of the board on a ledge or lip. A railslide happens when the skater slides the underside of the board, between the trucks, along a curb or handrail.

        Mongo-foot is a kind of pushing, where the back foot is kept on the board while the front foot does the pushing. Fakie is skating backwards. The skater’s stance is the same as always, but the board is going backwards. For really difficult tricks, there is always the McTwist. This trick is named after its inventor, Mike McGill. To do the McTwist, the skater does a 540 degree turn off the top of a ramp.

        The last thing we want to talk about is ollies and nollies. An ollie is a jump that is performed by tapping the tail of the board on the ground. This is the basic move in many skating tricks. A nollie is like an ollie, but it is performed by tapping the nose of the board instead of the tail. A kickflip is built on an ollie. In a kickflip, the skater performs an ollie, then kicks the board into a spin before landing back on the board.

        Skateboarding has become very popular in the United States . Many cities have built parks for skateboarding. Local communities sponsor amateur skateboarding contests, and clubs hold professional tournaments that can include both tricks and downhill racing.