Skateboarding As a Lifestyle 1Skateboarding As a Lifestyle 1

Initially when skateboarding started to catch on, it caught on in areas that were predominantly inhabited by surfers. Many of the early parts of skateboard culture were tied to

the surfing culture, and it was not until skateboard branched out to other areas of the world that were not influenced by surfing that it developed its own personality.

The first injection of skateboarding into mainstream culture came through movies and music. Starting in the late 1980’s, movies began to appear that portrayed skateboarding culture as a group of reckless punks that were bent on destruction. This image was deepened when heavy metal bands, and punk bands, began to appear in conjunction with skaters on videos and in the ever growing library of movies.

But by the middle of the 1990’s, there was

a movement among skateboarders that wanted to become civilized business people and successful inspirations to others. While some skateboarding magazines maintained the rebellious image, others countered that with information geared towards the more serious skater who was more interested in improving their technique than in breaking the law. As skateboarding videos started to branch out into hip hop and reggae music, the people influenced by those genres of music started to take an interest in skateboarding. This helped skateboarding to grow even more, and the next level of exposure brought wealth to those that looked as skating as a business instead of a thumb at the nose of society.

As video games and fashion become more popular in the 1990’s, skateboarding kept pace by being the foundation for several successful video game titles and offering fashion companies such as Vans Shoes

that eventually found their way into mainstream society. Today skateboarding video games are among some of the most successful titles being sold, and there are new skateboard fashions being introduced regularly that make it well into the mainstream of American culture. Skateboarding received a huge boost when the X-Games made it to ESPN in 1997, and reached the television sets of millions of impressionable skating hopefuls. Since 1997, the X-Games have moved to major network television and are now seen by millions of people all over the world each and every year.

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Modern decks vary in size, but most are 7 to 10.5 inches (17.78 to 26.67 cen-

timeters) wide. Wider decks can be used for greater stability when transition or ramp skating. Skate-board decks are usually between 28 and 33 inches (71.12 and 83.82 centimetres) long. The underside of the deck can be printed with a design by the manufacturer, blank, or decorated by any other means.

The longboard, a common vari-ant of the skateboard, has a longer deck. This is mostly ridden down hills or by the beach to represent the riding of a wave in the ocean on a surfboard. This was created by two surfers; Ben Whatson and Jon-ny Drapper. One of the first deck companies was called “Drapped” taken from Jonny’s second name. “Old school” boards (those made in the 1970s–80s or modern boards that mimic their shape) are gen-erally wider and often have only one kicktail. Variants of the 1970s often have little or no concavity, whereas 1980s models have deeper concavities and steeper kicktails.[citation needed]

Grip tape when applied to the top surface

of a skateboard, gives a skater’s feet grip on the deck. It is most of-ten black but can come in a variety of colors including clear, allowing the top of the deck to be decorated. It has an adhesive back and a sand-paper-like top.

Grip tape is a sheet paper or fab-ric with adhesive on one side and a surface similar to fine sand paper on the other. Grip tape is applied to the top surface of a board to al-low the rider’s feet to grip the sur-

face and help the skater stay on the board while doing tricks. Grip tape is usually black, but is also avail-able in many different colors such as pink, yellow, checkered, camo, and even clear. Oftentimes they have designs die-cut to show the color of the board, or to show off the board’s company logo.

Trucks

Attached to the deck are two met-al (usually aluminum alloy) trucks, which connect to the wheels and deck. The trucks are further com-posed of two parts. The top part of the truck is screwed to the deck and is called the baseplate, and beneath it is the hanger. The axle runs through the hanger. Between the baseplate and the hanger are bushings, also rubbers or grom-mets, that provide the cushion mechanism for turning the skate-board. The bushings cushion the truck when it turns. The stiffer the bushings, the more resistant the skateboard is to turning. The soft-er the bushings, the easier it is to turn. A bolt called a kingpin holds these parts together and fits inside the bushings. Thus by tightening or loosening the kingpin nut, the trucks can be adjusted loosely for better turning and tighter for more stability. Standard Kingpin nut size is 3/8” - 24tpi.

Skateboard trucks are manu-factured in a number of different axle widths. In general an axle width should be chosen that is close to the width of the deck it

will be used with.[1] For example, a 7.75” wide deck will usually be fitted with trucks that have axles between 7.5” wide and 8.0” wide. (Standard truck axel nut size is 5/16”-24tpi UNF, and the thinner “jam” style with an optional nylon lock.) Trucks that are too wide can make doing tricks difficult and can cause the wheels to get in the way when the skateboard is being rid-den. Trucks that are too small can be hard to maintain stability and can cause wheel bite to occur when turning.

Longboard specific trucks are a more recent development. A long-board truck has the king pin laid at a more obtuse angle (usually between 38 and 50 degrees[2]) to the deck, this gives a greater de-gree of turning for the same tilt of the deck. This allows riders to go much faster while still maintaining stability and control.

Giant strides have been made in the truck industry over the years. In late 2007, Gullwing Truck Company manufactured a truck named “Sidewinder” that can pivot on two different angles, thus greatly decreasing the turning ra-dius of the board, resulting in a greater feel between the rider and the sidewalk.

Wheels

The wheels of a skateboard, usu-ally made of polyurethane, come in many different sizes and shapes

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to suit different types of skating. Larger sizes like 54–85 mm roll faster, and also move more easily over cracks in pavement. Small-er sizes like 48–54 mm keep the board closer to the ground, re-quire less force to accelerate and produce a lower center of grav-ity, but also make for a slower top speed. Wheels also are available in a variety of hardnesses usually measured on the Shore durom-eter “A” scale. Wheels range from the very soft (about Shore A 75) to the very hard (about Shore A 101). As the A scale stops at 100, any wheels labeled 101A or higher are harder, but do not use the ap-propriate durometer scale. Some wheel manufacturers now use the “B” or “D” scales, which have a larger and more accurate range of hardness. Modern street skat-ers prefer smaller wheels (usually 51–54 mm), as small wheels with lighter trucks can make tricks like kickflips and other flip tricks easier by keeping the center of gravity of the skateboard closer to the deck, thus making the deck easier to spin. Street wheels are often quite hard as this allows the wheels to slide easier on waxed surfaces for bluntslides and nose/tailslides. Vertical ramp or “vert” skating requires larger wheels (usually 55–65 mm), as it involves higher speeds. Vert wheels are also usu-ally softer, allowing them to main-tain high speed on ramps without sliding. Slalom skating requires even larger wheels (60–75 mm) to sustain the highest speeds pos-sible. They also need to be soft and have better grip to make the tight and frequent turns in slalom rac-ing. Even larger wheels are used in longboarding and downhill skate-boarding. Sizes range from 65 mm

to 100 mm. These extreme sizes of wheels almost always have cores of hard plastic that can be made thin-ner and lighter than a solid poly-urethane wheel. They are often used by skateboard videographers as well, as the large soft wheels al-low for smooth and easy move-ment over any terrain.

BearingsEach skateboard wheel is mount-

ed on its axle via two bearings.

With few exceptions, the bearings are the industrial standard “608” size, with a bore of 8 mm, an outer diameter of 22 mm, and a width of 7 mm. These are usually made of steel, though silicon nitride, a high-tech ceramic, is sometimes used. Many skateboard bear-ings are graded according to the ABEC scale. The scale starts with ABEC1 as the lowest, 3, 5, 7, 9. It is a common misconception that the higher ABECs are better for skateboarding, as the ABEC rating only measures tolerances, which do not necessarily apply to skate-boards. The ABEC rating does not determine how fast or how durable a bearing used for skateboarding

will be.[3] In particular, the ABEC rating says nothing about how well a bearing handles axial (side-to-side) loads, which are severe in most skateboard applications. Many companies do not show the ABEC rating, such as Bones Bear-ings, which makes bearings spe-cifically for skateboarding, often marketed as “Skate Rated”. Each bearing usually contains 7 steel or ceramic ball bearings, although other configurations are used as well.