Did you mean: skateboard, Skateboard (performed by Jefferson Starship), Skateboard (1977 Comedy Drama Film), Skateboard (Album by Original Soundtrack)
Dictionary:
skate·board (skāt'bôrd', -bōrd')  |
A short narrow board having a set of four wheels mounted under it, ridden in a standing or crouching position and often used to perform stunts
intr.v., -board·ed, -board·ing, -boards.To ride or perform stunts on a skateboard.
skateboarder skate'board'er n.| How Products are Made: How is a skateboard made? |
Background
A skateboard is a small piece of wood in the shape of a surfboard with four wheels attached to it. A single person rides the skateboard, guiding the movement with his feet. While some use skateboards as transportation over short distances, most are used to perform stunts.
Skateboards consist of three parts: the deck (the actual board), the truck (a component usually made of metal that holds the wheels to the deck), and the wheels. The average skateboard deck is about 32 in (81.3 cm) long, 8 in (20.3 cm) wide, and is a little less than 0.5 in (1.3 cm) thick. The deck has a defined nose and tail with a concave in the middle. Skateboard wheels are usually made of polyurethane and range in width from about 1.3-1.5 in (3.3-3.8 cm). While nearly all skateboards have similar shapes and characteristics, their dimensions vary slightly based on use. There are skateboards built for speed, slalom, and freestyle.
Since skateboards first came into widespread use in the 1960s, their popularity has come in waves. Newfound interest is usually related to technical innovation, though a core constituency of skateboard enthusiasts has always remained.
History
Though there is unconfirmed evidence that a skateboard-like apparatus existed as early as 1904, the more commonly accepted predecessor to the skateboard was created in the 1930s. In Southern California, a skate-scooter was made out of fruit crates with wheels attached to the bottom. This evolved into an early skateboard that was made out of 2x4 ft (61x121.9 cm) piece of wood and four metal wheels taken from a scooter or roller skates. This version of the skateboard featured rigid axles which cut down on the board's maneuverability.
Recognizable skateboards were first manufactured in the late 1950s. These were still made of wood and a few were decorated with decals and artwork. Skateboards became especially popular among surfing enthusiasts, primarily in California. Surfers practiced on skateboards when the ocean was to rough, and they soon became known as "sidewalk surfers." One of the first competitions was held for skateboarders in 1965. While skateboards were popular through most of the 1960s, riders were not respected and the activity was banned in some cities. The first wave of skateboard popularity was over by 1967.
Five years later, in 1973, there was a renewed interest in skateboards when wheels made of polyurethane were introduced. These early polyurethane wheels were composites of sand-like material that was formed into a wheel with an adhesive binder under extreme pressure. With the advent of polyurethane wheels, boards became easier to control and more stunts were possible.
Also in the 1970s, skateparks were introduced. Skateparks were specially designed places that catered to skateboarders. They had obstacle courses, pools (empty bowls, usually below ground level like an empty pool), and pipes (large, circular type) to challenge skateboard riders. With skateparks also came more competition, recognition, and sponsorship. Skateboarders sometimes decorated the bottom of their boards with logos of their sponsors. By the end of the 1970s, skateboarding again became controversial after it became identified antisocial behavior. Due to the amount and severity of the injuries, skateparks closed in fear of lawsuits and the sport returned underground.
When popular interest in skateboarding briefly re-emerged in the mid-1980s, it was not due to any particular technical innovation, though skateboard manufacturers were always experimenting with different materials in the production of decks. Instead, skateboarding videos featuring skateboarders performing extremely difficult and dangerous stunts using ramps, stairs, and even handrails generated new interest in the sport. At the same time skateboard art had also emerged. The bottom of skateboard decks were now elaborately decorated with logos and other designs. Continued resistance to skateboarders led to another down-turn in popularity at the end of the 1980s, though not as severe as previous years.
By the middle of the 1990s, skateboarding again became popular mainly due to high-profile exposure like ESPN and MTV's X-Games competitions. These televised events of "extreme sports" showed the best of many kinds of skateboarding. Skateboarding was regarded as the first extreme sport. Though skateboarding was still banned or regulated in many communities, such exposure gave the sport an air of legitimacy. It is not as dangerous a sport as many think. In 1997 there were 8.2 million skateboards and around 48,186 reported injuries, 0.006% of which resulted in hospitalization. Compared to a more commonly accepted sport like basketball—which had 4.5 million participants in 1997 and 644,921 reported injuries (0.124% resulting in hospitalization)—the fear seems misplaced.
Skateboard art also continued to evolve. Art was based on street trends and whatever was hot at the moment: comics, bands, logos, and original art. In the mid-1990s, deck manufacturers would introduce an average of six board designs per month, making only 1,000 of each. While skateboard manufacturers experimented with different thicknesses of veneers that made up decks, little changed in the actual manufacture of skateboards at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Raw Materials
Most skateboard decks are made of glue and wood (usually maple), but some are made of composites, aluminum, nylon, Plexiglas, fiberglass, foam, and other artificial materials. They are usually decorated by screenprinting. Skateboard trucks are usually made of aluminum or other metal (steel, brass, or another alloy), though a few are made of nylon. Skateboard wheels are made of polyurethane (a synthetic rubber polymer).
While some low-end skateboards are assembled by manufacturers, most components are sold separately to consumers who put them together on their own. To assemble a skateboard, the consumer also needs ball bearings (usually full precision and made of metal) and a piece of grip tape. Grip tape comes in a large piece bigger than the deck and looks like a piece of sandpaper. It is put on the top of the deck to provide traction.
Design
Skateboard decks, trucks, and wheels have different designs depending on how the skateboard will be used. Decks differ in their angle of concavity and the shape of the nose and tail. Manufacturers design their own boards with their own signature styling. They use templates to impose their design on the shape of the board. Companies that manufacture decks and wheels also make their products stand out by their individual art designs. While some of this artwork is created on computer, some is also done by hand.
The Manufacturing Process
Decks
Trucks
Wheels
Assembling the skateboard
Quality Control
When the components are purchased separately, the consumer must follow all instructions for his own safety. All screws must be tightly secured so that they will continue to hold the trucks in place while stunts are being preformed. Manufacturers continually check the finished boards to see that they are secure and meet safety requirements.
Byproducts/Waste
In the production of wheels, any polyurethane left over is sent to a landfill. At the present time, it is too costly to recycle.
The Future
Decks might be made of more artificial materials inside a wood exterior. One deck of the future has Nomex honeycomb at its core, with Kelver as one of the structural materials. Even with traditional wood decks the number of veneer layers may increase or decrease. The most noticeable difference might be the art on the bottom of the skateboard. Instead of being applied with a screenprinting process, decks might use a sublimation printing process.
Wheels may change in their shape, color or decoration, but not much will improve on polyurethane itself. If a new material comes on the market, this may affect how wheels are manufactured.
Where to Learn More
Books
Cassorla, Albert. The Skateboarder's Bible: Technique, Equipment, Stunts, Terms, Etc. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1976.
Periodicals
Brower, Steven, and John Gall. "Skateboard Art." Print 50, no. 6 (November-December 1996): 52.
Stoughton, Stephanie. "A Wheel Challenge to Succeed: Manufacturer Finds Momentum is Critical." Washington Post 5 (May 28, 1998).
Other
Skateboard.com: Frontside. http://www.skateboard.com (June 10, 2000).
[Article by: Annette Petruso]
| Wikipedia: Skateboard |
A skateboard is a four wheeled piece of wood used for the activity of skateboarding. The modern skateboard originated in California in the late 1950s. By the mid 1960s they were mass produced and sold throughout the United States.
A skateboard is propelled by pushing with one foot while the other remains on the board, or by pumping in structures such as a pool or half pipe. A skateboard can also be used by simply standing on the deck while on a downward slope and allowing gravity to propel the board and rider.
There is no governing body that declares any regulations on what constitutes a skateboard or the parts from which it is assembled. Longboards are a type of skateboard with a longer wheelbase and larger and softer wheels.
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There is no definitive origin or inventor of the skateboard. One proposed origin is that skateboards arose in the 1930s and 1940s, when children would participate in soapbox races, using soap-boxes attached to wooden planks on rollerskate wheels. When the soap-box became detached from the plank, children would ride these primitive "skateboards". Another suggests that the skateboard was created directly from the adaptation of a single roller skate taken apart and nailed to a 2x4, without the soapbox at all and that it was often surfers looking to recreate the feel of surfing on the land when the surf was flat.
Retail skateboards were first marketed in 1958 by Bill and Mark Richard of Dana Point, California. They attached roller skate wheels from the Chicago Roller Skate Company to a plank of wood and sold them in their Val Surf Shops.[1]
Five years later mass produced skateboards were sold nationally. These early models were often made in the shape of a surfboard, with no concavity and were constructed of solid wood, plastic, even metal. The wheels were usually made of a clay composite, or steel and the trucks (axles) were less sturdy and initially of a 'single-action' design compared to today's 'double-action'.
Descriptions of the following skateboard parts are the ones most prevalent in popular, modern forms of skateboarding. Many niche disciplines exist with exotic or alternative constructions and designs that fall outside of much of the descriptions listed. The usual parts to design a complete skateboard are the deck, trucks, wheels, and the bearings. After that is the hardware.
Most decks are constructed with a seven to nine-ply cross-laminated layup of Canadian maple. Other materials used in deck construction, fiberglass, bamboo, resin, Kevlar, carbon fiber, aluminum, and plastic, lighten the board or increase its strength or rigidity. Some decks made from maple ply are dyed to create various different coloured ply. Modern decks vary in size, but most are 7 to 10.5 inches wide. Wider decks can be used for greater stability when transition or ramp skating. Skateboard decks are usually between 28 and 33 inches 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 variant of the skateboard, has a longer deck. This is mostly ridden down hills or by the beach. This was created by two surfers; Ben Whatson and Jonny 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 generally 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.
Grip tape, when applied to the top surface of a skateboard, gives a skater's feet more grip on the deck. It is most often black but can come in clear, allowing the top of the deck to be decorated. It has an adhesive back and a sandpaper like top.
Attached to the deck are two metal (usually aluminum alloy) trucks, which connect to the wheels and deck. The trucks are further composed 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 grommets, that provide the cushion mechanism for turning the skateboard. The bushings cushion the truck when it turns. The stiffer the bushings, the more resistant the skateboard is to turning. The softer 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 control.
Longboard specific trucks are a more recent development. A longboard truck has the king pin laid at a more acute angle (usually between 38 and 42 degrees) to the deck, this gives a lesser degree of turning for the same tilt of the deck. This adds stability and allows riders to go much faster while still maintaining stability and control.
The wheels of a skateboard, usually made of polyurethane, come in many different sizes and shapes to suit different types of skating. Larger sizes like 65–90 mm roll faster, and also move more easily over cracks in pavement. Smaller sizes like 48–54 mm keep the board closer to the ground, require less force to accelerate and produce a lower center of gravity, but also make for a slower top speed. Wheels also are available in a variety of hardnesses usually measured on the durometer 'A' scale. Wheels range from the very soft (about 75a) to the very hard (about 101a). As the scale stops at 100a, any wheels labelled 101a or higher are harder, but do not use the appropriate durometer scale. Some wheel manufacturers now use the 'B' or 'D' scale, which has a larger and more accurate range of hardness.
Modern street skaters prefer smaller wheels (usually 45–53 mm), as small wheels can make tricks like kickflips and ollies easier. Street wheels are often quite hard as this allows the wheels to 'break away' from the ground easier. Vert skating requires larger wheels (usually 55–65 mm) as vert skating involves higher speeds. Vert wheels are also usually very hard, which helps with maintaining speed on ramps. Slalom skating requires even larger wheels (60–75 mm) to sustain the highest speeds possible. They also need to be soft and have better grip to make the tight and frequent turns in slalom racing. Even larger wheels are used in longboarding and downhill skateboarding. Sizes range from 65 mm right up to 100 mm. These extreme sizes of wheels almost always have cores of hard plastic that can be made thinner and lighter than a solid polyurethane wheel. They are often used by skateboard videographers as well, as the large soft wheels allow for smooth and easy movement over any terrain.
Each skateboard wheel is mounted on its axle via two ball 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 bearings 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 higher numbers are better for skateboarding, as the ABEC rating only measures tolerances, which do not necessarily apply to skateboards. The ABEC rating does not determine how fast or how durable a bearing used for skateboarding will be. 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 Bearings, who makes bearings specifically for skateboarding. These bearings are usually called swiss or ceramic and are better for skating
Mounting hardware is a set of eight 10-32 bolts, usually an allen or cross head, and matching self-locking nylon lock nuts. They are used to attach the trucks to the board. Some have a different colored bolt to show which side is the nose of the skateboard.
Narrow strips of plastic or metal that are attached under the deck lengthwise along the edges. They are used for additional grip for grabs, and to enhance sliding while protecting the deck's graphics at the same time.Although rarely used anymore, they are useful.
Slip tape is a clear piece of self adhesive plastic that sticks to the underside of a deck. It helps protect the board's graphics and can allow the board to slide better.
A lapper is a plastic cover that is fastened to the rear truck and serves to protect the kingpin when grinding. It also prevents hang-ups by providing a smoother transition for the truck when it hits an obstacle or a metal pipe or bar used to grind.
A plastic bumper used to protect the front of a skateboard. Used in old school boards.
A tail guard is a plastic skid plate used to prevent wearing of the tail; they can also be used as a means to stop the board on old school boards.
Angled riser, or a milk dud are risers that alter the turning geometry of the truck they are bolted to. A thin side out results in more turn per board lean, thick side out results in less.
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| Translations: Skateboard |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - skateboard, rullebræt
v. intr. - stå på skateboard
Nederlands (Dutch)
skateboard, rolplank
Français (French)
n. - planche à roulettes, skateboard
v. intr. - faire du skateboard
Deutsch (German)
n. - Rollerbrett, Skateboard
v. - Skateboard fahren
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - τροχοσανίδα, σκέιτμπορντ
v. - κάνω τροχοσανίδα
Italiano (Italian)
skate-board, andare in skate-board
Português (Portuguese)
n. - skate (m)
v. - andar de skate
Español (Spanish)
n. - monopatín
v. intr. - usar el monopatín
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - skateboard, rullbräda
v. - åka skateboard, åka rullbräda
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
滑板, 用滑板滑行
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 滑板
v. intr. - 用滑板滑行
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 스케이트 보드
v. intr. - 스케이트보드를 타다
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) خشبه تزحلق يستطيع ألشخص أن يقف عليها للتزحلق (فعل) يذهب
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - לוח גלגיליות
v. intr. - נסע על לוח גלגיליות
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Did you mean: skateboard, Skateboard (performed by Jefferson Starship), Skateboard (1977 Comedy Drama Film), Skateboard (Album by Original Soundtrack)
 | Board Crazy (1991 Sports & Recreation Film) |
| boarder |
| Skateboard Safety (1976 Sports & Recreation Film) |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| How Products are Made. How Products are Made. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Skateboard". Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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