| Skateboard shed its transport equipment image of | | | | reality but for the grip tapes now you find on the |
| the late 40s and 50s to become what it is today, the | | | | decks, which prevent you from slipping even as you |
| recreational tool. The early skateboard championships | | | | takeoff. |
| were 'soap box derbies' held in cities during that era | | | | Did you know, what helped easy turning at such high |
| of crude skateboards, which sometimes used to | | | | speeds? Of course you do your skillful 'foot work' |
| double up as surf boards too. | | | | but the rubber cushion in between the two part |
| Skateboards as Sports Gear With mass production | | | | truck flexes when you turn by front foot while |
| becoming a reality in the 1960s skateboards | | | | pressing by the back foot. It is this flexibility that |
| underwent a lot of transformation for better; from | | | | gives you additional turn which was harder in older |
| solid wood or metals to plywood for decks, flat no | | | | skateboards. |
| shape to concavity, clay composite steel wheels to | | | | Skateboard Ramps If you are not on the streets |
| polyurethane made ones and finally single action | | | | you are skateboarding on the ramps. Ramps are |
| trucks (axles) to aluminum constructed two part | | | | carpentry constructions made in plywood. As you are |
| trucks. There is so much more in the safety, comfort | | | | aware, there are just as many ramp plans as you like |
| and durability departments that you need to look into | | | | and the simplest one is the obvious bank plan (flat |
| when buying skateboards. | | | | plan), half pipe, quarter pipe, pyramid plans etc, all of |
| Well, how do these things help? At first, the question | | | | which are named after their shapes. |
| may strike an irrelevant chord, but not so when you | | | | Then you have the 'launcher' ramp for the lion |
| see the difference. Just taste this for samples: | | | | hearted guys and girls. Skateboarding over this |
| Without that innovative concavity would it have been | | | | launches you into the skies vertically. If you don't |
| possible for those champion skateboarders to | | | | want to fly, you still have an option that interests |
| takeoff from flat ground? Forget that for a minute, | | | | you. You can ride the walls with two identical ramps |
| speeding along the streets wouldn't have been a | | | | placed at a distance apart. |