Skateboarding Facts

Tony Hawk kept getting emails from kids who had been ticketed or even arrested just for skateboarding in the street. So he started funding places where they could skate legally instead. His foundation, now called The Skatepark Project, has helped build nearly 700 free skateparks in all 50 states. That free skatepark in your town? He probably helped pay for it.

Skateboards were flat planks. In 1969 a Venice Beach lifeguard named Larry Stevenson bent the back end upward. He patented the bend. It gave the back foot something to slam. Thirteen years later a Florida teenager slammed it on flat pavement and the whole board came off the ground with him. Every ollie still starts on that tail.