Skateboarding Culture

Skateboarding culture has developed over the years, and is an extremely diverse fusion of surfing culture, punk culture, street culture, hip hop culture, and hard rock culture.

You can see all the different strands blend into what is a firmly entrenched skateboarding culture now. It has taken most of the cool elements from these genres and created its own identity.

Initially it relied heavily on surfing culture in the 1950`s and 60`s, due to the fact that skateboarding grew out of and from surfing. So it used many of the same slang terms, which are still used today, and the whole ethos was tied to the apron strings of surfing.

As punk culture grew, and skateboarding culture moved away from its roots to embrace this, skateboarding began to be seen as a rebel thing, and this was conveyed in its attitude and clothes. The punk influence is still there now, especially in the kind of t-shirts skaters wear.
As some punk morphed into hard rock forms this hard edge became noticeable.

More fusion came in when street culture embraced skateboarding, and so then you had the hip hop culture having a huge influence on it, from clothes, to how you wear your clothes, how you act and move. It is exciting to see all the different strands merge into this fantastic, strong identity that skateboarding now has.

Skateboarding culture is now a thriving and constantly evolving subculture, that has movement, clothes, music and attitude at the heart of it.
As music and clothes subtly change, then so do skateboarders looks change, although their identity now is an extremely strong look, and any changes from this will be a very gradual process.

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How To Learn To Skateboard

Hmmm, how to learn to skateboard. A question that has been asked since the dawn of time---OK well maybe not quite that far back but you get my drift.

Let us take this question back to basics, how to learn to skateboard. Well the first thing you need to do is feel comfortable on your skateboard. We are assuming here by the way that you have already bought your skateboard, and it is a reasonably wide and heavy one to start with. And we are also assuming you have got your skateboard gear, such as helmet, knee pads, wrist braces etc, which are essential items mon brave.

So the way to feel comfortable on your board is to practice getting your balance right. Try different ways to get on the board initially, see how the balance changes when you have a wide stance on the board, or you have your legs close together on the board. Practice running at the board and jumping on it, and keeping your balance as long as possible.

You have to know that when you are finding out how to learn to skateboard you will fall off many, many times, and you will hurt yourself, it goes with the territory I am afraid. But faint heart never won fair maiden, or so the saying goes I believe?!

Find out what position on the board you feel most comfortable and balanced. Once you have done this for a while, you can then practice pushing off and getting some speed up. If you build your speed up enough the easier it is to balance and the longer you will be able to stay on your skateboard. Keep going and make yourself go faster and faster, and start to practice swaying your body backwards and forwards to see the effect it has. Bend your knees and lean forward for extra speed.

Practice pushing down hard with your back foot on the board so that you flip the front up, and see if you can stay on the board. Bend your knees forward again so that you dont fall backwards. All this is good practice,and once you have learnt some basic movements you can step up your activity.

Hope this has helped you in how to learn to skateboard. By the way if you want to be an expert in the next 8 weeks no finer guide has been written than the one you will find if you click on SkateSecrets

4 Ways To Skateboard

There are 4 main ways that people skateboard here on our planet, so let us have a look at each of them in turn.

1. Street Skating. This is an extremely popular sporting activity, and has blossomed even more with the genre merging with hip hop culture and fashion, and taking on a whole new life.
Street skating can provide endless variations to express yourself and your personality, and can take in skating on to curbs, and up on to rails, ledges and benches, and many other stationary objects found on our streets.
The ollie is used prevalently in street skating.

2. Vert Skating. This involves skating on ramps and other vertical edifices, which have been designed for skating. Vert skating became popular in the 60`s in the California area, and empty pools were commonly used for this at first. Vert skating has taken many of the street skating moves and adapted them for its own use.

3. Half pipe skating. This is a U shaped ramp of really any size. Originally they were just half sections of a large pipe, but as this has evolved they now have an extended flat bottom to them which gives the skateboarder more time and space to develop tricks in.

4. Vert Ramp Skating. This is a half pipe with steep sides that are completely vertical at the top. They are normally around 10 to 14 feet in height. The sheer sides can give skaters a thrilling ride, and can send the board straight up into the air off the top of the vert ramp.

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