The History of Longboarding

According to the proper longboards website, longboarding originated in either California or Hawaii in the early 1950s. Riders looking to find a closer connection between snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing struck a happy medium with the invention of the longboard. Subsequently, surfers began to use longboarding as a cross-trainer when the surf was poor, imitating the techniques of surfing a wave to maintain a smooth ride. Thus the longboarding phenomenon began.

  1. History

    • Longboarding entered the marketplace in 1959, and boards were distributed in a range of toy and convenience stores. Fiberglass boards were the first type of longboard to go on sale, although they were soon found to be dangerous. Comprised of trucks (the metal parts that connect the board to the wheels) that came from roller skates and the metal wheels that were attached to them, they were later replaced by clay wheels and newly developed trucks designed specifically for the sport. These amendments contributed to a safer, smoother board. Urethane, a rubber-like component, was eventually adopted as wheel material, gripping concrete floors for polished rides.

    Function

    • The longboard functions as an elegant form of transportation. Its wheels tend to be larger and softer than those of a skateboard, and thus create less noise. Indeed, longboards tend to be more stable and adhesive, in addition to being more capable of traveling longer distances without requiring any movement from the rider. Moreover, its trucks are wider than those of a skateboard, enabling the rider to perform techniques such as the crooked grind, a trick that involves the longboarder sliding on the hangers of the trucks. The board tends to be flexible, pressed of veneers from various tree types.

    Significance

    • By 1973, longboarding experienced a second wave of popularity. Thanks to the discovery of the urethane wheels and the proliferation of trucks being designed specifically for longboards, fewer people were questioning the safety of the sport. America’s first skate park was built in March 1976 in Carlsbad, California, further increasing the popularity of the activity and leading to the creation of many more parks across the country.

    Culture

    • By the late 1970s, longboarding–alongside skateboarding–had become a subculture linked to a rebellious lifestyle. Hard-edged punk bands inciting crime and violence found a place in the longboarding scene, where anarchy was a respected mentality. Nevertheless, the rebellious image linked to longboarding has seen a gradual dilution, resulting from the media’s more diverse and controlled representation of the sport. Furthermore, an increasing number of professional longboarders began to use reggae and hip-hop music in their videos, moving away from punk ideologies.

    Trends

    • At the beginning of the 1980s, longboarding suffered another temporary slump in the market. This was largely because of matters of health and safety, which meant that many skate parks were forced to close due to an increase in the cost of insurance. Nevertheless, by 1983 longboarding had regained its popularity and, aside from an occasional blip, has remained a popular sport.