Skateboarding

Skateboarding has the honourable reputation as being one of the oldest sports to be given the “extreme” label. Skateboarding started out in the 1950’s purely as a way of getting about in urban areas. It took influence from the surfing culture that was also growing at the time and the movement and the responsiveness of the boards was intended to mimic that of a surfboard on the waves.

It wasn’t until around a decade later that skateboards were used to perform tricks such as jumps, grinds and grabs. The infamous dried out swimming pools became hang-outs for skaters everywhere and the movement began to develop its own ethos, fashion, and even music. Soon being a skater was synonymous with being ‘cool’, and this fast tracked the sport into massive popularity and public awareness. However, given that the new, more-daring version of the sport carried with it elevated risk, the sport become known as an extreme one.

Over the years the shape of the common skateboard has changed and there have been myriad innovations in materials, designs and accessories. It has also bread some the biggest names in sport such as Tony Hawks and Rodney Mullen, who have gone on to star in films and have their own video games. As a whole skateboarding might be a whole lot safer than it used to be thanks to better equipment and safety precautions, but as long as the top riders continue to push the boundaries of the sport, it will always be considered ‘extreme’!