ancient cities

for the International Skateboard Championships
at Anaheim, and even appearing on the cover of
Life magazine. This first phase of skateboarding
was, however, very short lived; the boom in popularity
peaked at the end of 1965, leaving many of
the new skateboard manufacturers with large
amounts of unsold stock. At this point skateboarding
retreated back into being a marginal
activity, practiced largely in California but also in
other surf-related parts of the world, such as
South Wales in the United Kingdom.
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 purposedesigned
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
Skateboarding
729
response to this loss of urban terrain, many skateboarders
built their own “half-pipe” construction—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.
Other skateboarders took a different path and,
around 1984, extended skateboarding onto the
conventional elements of the city. Once again, this
new phase of skateboarding was particularly
focused on the western seaboard cities of California,
such as the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and Santa Barbara. Using the “ollie”
move, where the front of the skateboard is
unweighted to make it pop into the air (first developed
by the skater Alan Gelfand at the end of the
1970s skatepark phase of skateboarding), and
encouraged by the new magazine Thrasher, these
new urban skateboarders skated over fire hydrants
and curbs, onto bus benches and planters, and
down steps and handrails, thus enacting a radical
subversion of the intended use of architecture—
that is, using architecture in a way different from
that originally intended by architects, planners,
building owners, and urban managers. As Stacey
Peralta, a former professional skateboarder and
co-owner of the highly successful Powell–Peralta
company, described it, “for urban skaters the city
is the hardware on their trip.” In undertaking this
much more urban and city center–related activity,
skateboarding also assumed a more aggressive attitude
than it had during the surf-related periods of
the 1960s and 1970s: Firmly opposed to Little
League, paternalistic, and school-oriented teenage
America, the new street-based skateboarders reveled
instead in the role of outcast and rebel.
Brightly colored deck graphics, shoes, and clothing
helped announce a street skateboarder’s presence
and attitude, often reflecting other aspects of
urban subculture such as through gang-related
graffiti-style logos and designs. Skateboards themselves
also changed in shape and design at this
time: Now around 8 inches wide, they have a
sloped kicktail at both ends, glossy graphics on the
underside, and smaller, harder wheels around
55 millimeters or smaller in diameter.