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Skateboarding is a popular action sport in which a rider balances on a skateboard, a flat board with rollers attached at the bottom. It is a popular pastime, but also performed competitively.

Skateboarding started in the 1940s when wooden boxes or boards were attached to roller skate wheels. Nobody really knows who started the sport, but with time, it became prevalent and there began developments in skateboard design. The materials are now better: boards can withstand stronger shocks, wheels are tougher, and designs are cooler.

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In the early times, most skateboarders skated on streets. As time went by, cities started to create skate parks, competitions were held, and the most talented skateboarders became well known. There are official associations that keep the sport and community active and growing.

There are various forms of competition skateboarding.

• Park Skateboarding — skaters perform tricks in on a course like a familiar skate park containing bowls and pools in a complex combination with ramps and course bends.
• Street Skateboarding — skaters perform tricks on a street-like course with stairs, handrails, curbs, benches, walls, and slopes.
• Freestyle Skateboarding — performing tricks with a skateboard while flat ground skateboarding.
• Vert Skateboarding — in which athletes ride a skateboard up and down a large ramp and perform various tricks while being airborne.
• Longboarding (downhill) — a skateboarding sport in which athletes use a longboard to compete in downhill races.
• Mountainboarding — an action board sport like a snowboard with wheels or a cross-country skateboard.

There are different tricks involved in skateboarding. The basic tricks involve the following:

• Ollie – this is where the skateboarder pushes down the back of the skateboard and controls the upward motion of the front board. The skateboarder is basically elevating his whole body together with the board.
• Aerials are tricks where the skateboarder performs different tricks while in the air.
• Flip tricks basically involves flipping the skateboard. It could be a kick flip, heel flip and backside flip.
• Grinds are tricks in which they perform an Ollie through a bench, handrail, and the same structures, then slides down.

Skateboarding will make its olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, with both men's and women's competitions in street skateboarding and park stakeboarding.

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Similar Sports

• Kite Landboarding — using a kite and wind power to manoeuver a huge skateboard-type board over land.
• Streetluge — participants race downhill feet first on a sort of modified skateboard.
• Vert Skating — acrobatic inline or roller skating sport performed on a ramp.
• Scootering — doing tricks, over obstacles and terrains, on a scooter.

Related Pages

• More about Roller Sports
• Complete list of sports
• The Encyclopedia of Sports
• Skateboarding at the Olympics