Unit 4 · From Clay Wheels to Urethane

In the late 1950s, many young people in California loved to surf. But the ocean does not always make good waves. Some days the water is flat. Surfers wanted a way to keep riding on those days.

So they rode on land. They stood on small boards with wheels and rolled down sidewalks and gentle streets. They bent their knees and leaned to turn, just like on a wave. People called this sidewalk surfing.

Sidewalk surfing spread along the beach towns of California in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The riders were not doing flips or jumps. They carved smooth curves and copied surf moves. The skateboard had begun as a way to surf without water.

The first skateboards were not bought in stores. Kids made them at home. They took an old pair of metal roller skates and pulled them apart. Each skate had a front set of wheels and a back set.

Next, they fastened the wheel sets under a plank of wood. Some used nails. Some used screws. A short piece of a two-by-four board worked. So did a wooden crate or a piece of old furniture.

These homemade boards were stiff and flat. They had no curved tail. The wheels were small and made of metal. But they rolled, and kids could ride them. That was enough to start something new.

People love to ask who invented the skateboard. You may hear a story about one boy or one town. These are stories. No record shows a single first inventor.

Historians look for proof, like dated photos, ads and newspaper stories. For the first skateboards, there is very little. Kids built boards in garages and did not write it down. Many people likely had the same idea in different places.

So the honest answer is that we do not know. What we do know is where the idea grew. It grew among surfers and kids in California in the late 1950s. A historian says what the proof shows, and says when the proof runs out.

Around 1959, the first skateboards made by companies showed up in stores. Now a kid did not need a hammer and an old skate. A family could just buy a board.

In 1963, a surfer named Larry Stevenson started a company called Makaha. It made skateboards. In the 1960s, boards also carried the Hobie name, from the surfboard maker Hobie Alter. Surf companies knew their riders wanted to skate.

Store boards were shaped better than planks. Their wheels were held by metal parts called trucks. Trucks hold the wheels and let the board turn when the rider leans. Early trucks came from roller skates, too.

By the mid-1960s, many store boards rolled on clay wheels. They were not made of plain clay from the ground. They were a hard, pressed mix of materials. People called them clay because they looked and felt like it.

Clay wheels were quieter than metal wheels. They felt a little smoother on a sidewalk. But they had a big problem. They did not grip the ground well. On a turn, a clay wheel could slide sideways and throw the rider off.

Clay wheels also wore down fast. They chipped on rough concrete. A rider might need new wheels often. These wheels were better than steel, but not by much.

The earliest boards rolled on steel wheels from roller skates. Steel is a hard metal. It does not squish at all. On a sidewalk, steel wheels made a loud clattering, buzzing sound.

Because steel is so hard, every bump went right into the rider’s feet. Riders felt each crack in the concrete. The board shook and rattled. On smooth, slick ground, steel wheels also slid easily.

The worst problem was small stones. A hard wheel cannot squeeze around a pebble. It hits the pebble and jams. The board stops in an instant, and the rider is thrown forward. Riders had to watch for tiny stones all the time.

Think about Ruth and the pebble. The board stopped, but Ruth flew forward. Why? A moving body keeps moving. It keeps going the same way until something pushes or pulls on it.

The pebble pushed back on the wheel. That stopped the board. But nothing pushed back on Ruth’s body. Her feet were only resting on the deck. So she kept going forward and fell off. This is called inertia.

You feel inertia in a car, too. When the car stops fast, your body leans forward. A seat belt is what stops you. Skaters learn to bend their knees and watch the ground ahead. That helps them catch their balance or step off safely.

In 1965, the first National Skateboard Championships took place in Anaheim, California. Riders came to compete in front of a crowd. It was a big step. Skating was becoming a sport, not only a toy.

The contest was shown on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. That was a popular TV show about many sports. Families all over the country watched skaters on their TV screens. Many kids saw skateboarding for the first time.

Contests of the 1960s had events like slalom and freestyle. In slalom, riders weave around a line of cones. In freestyle, riders show tricks on flat ground, like spins and handstands on the board.

Patti McGee was one of the best riders of the 1960s. In 1965, she won the women’s national championship. Women and girls were skating from the very start, and Patti showed how good they could be.

That same year, Patti McGee was on the cover of Life magazine. Life was one of the most-read magazines in America. Its covers showed big news and famous people. A skater on the cover told the whole country that skating mattered.

Patti was known for freestyle tricks, like handstands on a rolling board. She also traveled to show skating to new crowds. Many girls who saw her picture decided they could skate too.

In the early 1960s, huge numbers of skateboards were sold. People called this the first boom. A boom is a time when something grows very fast. Then, around 1965 and 1966, the boom faded almost as fast as it came.

One big reason was injuries. Clay and steel wheels slipped and stopped short. Many riders fell and got hurt. Few people wore helmets or pads back then. Some towns made rules against skating on streets and sidewalks.

Soon many kids put their boards away. Stores were left with boards no one bought. Skating did not disappear, but it got very small. A better wheel would bring it back in the 1970s.

In the early 1970s, a young surfer named Frank Nasworthy saw a new kind of roller-skate wheel. It was made of a plastic called urethane. He wondered how it would feel on a skateboard.

He tried urethane wheels on his board. They rolled smoothly and gripped the ground. They were much better than clay. Nasworthy started a company to sell them to skaters. He named it Cadillac Wheels, after a smooth-riding car.

Skaters who tried the wheels did not want to go back. Word spread from rider to rider and shop to shop. By the mid-1970s, urethane wheels were everywhere. They helped start skateboarding’s second boom.

Urethane is a tough plastic that can bend a little and spring back. It is used for many things, like shoe soles and roller-skate wheels. On a skateboard, that small bit of give makes a big difference.

When a urethane wheel rolls onto a pebble or crack, it squishes around it for a moment. Then it springs back into shape. So the wheel rolls over small bumps instead of jamming. The ride feels smooth and quiet.

Urethane also has good friction with concrete. Friction is a force that pushes against sliding. When you lean into a turn, friction holds the wheels in place. The board curves instead of skidding out.

Not all urethane wheels feel the same. Some are softer and some are harder. Skaters measure this with the durometer scale. A durometer is a tool that presses into a material to test how hard it is.

Skateboard wheels use the A scale. The number is followed by the letter A. Soft wheels are about 78A. Very hard wheels are about 101A. A bigger number means a harder wheel.

Soft wheels squish more. They roll over cracks and rough ground well and grip strongly. Hard wheels squish less. They feel fast on smooth ground and slide more easily. Skaters pick the hardness that fits where they ride.

Early boards were flat from end to end. Then came the kicktail. A kicktail is a back end that bends upward. Larry Stevenson, who started Makaha, got a patent for it. The patent was granted in 1971.

With a kicktail, a rider can step on the tail and press down. The front of the board, called the nose, lifts up. The back wheels act like the middle of a seesaw. Pressing one end lifts the other end.

This small change opened up new moves. Riders could lift the nose to turn sharply or to get up a curb. Kicktails became normal on boards. Later, boards got a curved-up nose too.

Before you start, buckle a helmet that fits snugly. Wear wrist guards, knee pads and flat shoes. Set your board on grass or carpet so it cannot roll. Have a grown-up nearby. Riding with your left foot forward is called regular. Riding with your right foot forward is called goofy. Both are normal.

First, put your front foot across the board, just behind the front bolts. Bolts are the four screws that hold each truck on. Next, put the ball of your back foot on the tail. Then bend your knees and keep your shoulders right over the board.

Now press the tail down slowly with your back foot. The nose rises. Let your front foot ride up gently. Then press with your front foot to set the nose back down. If the board tips you backward, you leaned back too far. Keep your weight over the middle and press softly.

Inside each wheel is a bearing. A bearing is a ring of small steel balls between two metal rings. The wheel spins around the balls instead of rubbing straight on the axle. That means less friction and a smoother roll.

Early wheels had loose balls packed in by hand. Dirt and sand got in easily. The balls could fall out. In the mid-1970s, sealed precision bearings came to skateboarding. Each one was made with care and closed in by a cover.

The cover kept out dirt. The careful making kept the balls lined up. Wheels spun longer and more smoothly. Bearings are often marked with an ABEC number. That number tells how exactly a bearing was made. It is not a speed rating.

In the early 1970s, a surf shop called Zephyr stood near the beach in Santa Monica, California. The area of Santa Monica and Venice around it was nicknamed Dogtown. The shop had a surf team, and then a skate team.

The Zephyr team included Peggy Oki, Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta. They surfed in the morning and skated after. They rode their boards the way they rode waves. They crouched low, swung their arms and dragged a hand on the ground in turns.

Peggy Oki was the only girl on the team. She skated in the same low, strong style as the others. Several team members became famous. Stacy Peralta later helped start the Powell Peralta company.

In 1975, a big contest called the Del Mar Nationals was held in Del Mar, California. Skaters came from many places. Most freestyle riders did neat tricks standing up tall, like spins and handstands.

Then the Zephyr team rode. They crouched low and carved fast, sharp turns. They touched the ground with their hands. Their style looked like surfing on concrete. Many people at the contest had never seen anything like it.

After Del Mar, magazines wrote about the Zephyr skaters. Other riders began to copy their low, aggressive style. Skating started to look less like dance and more like surfing. That style would soon move into empty pools.

In 1976 and 1977, California had a drought. A drought is a long time with very little rain. Water was scarce, and people were asked to save it. Many backyard swimming pools were drained or left empty.

Skaters saw something special in those empty pools. The walls of a pool curve smoothly up from the floor. On urethane wheels, skaters could ride up those curves like riding up a wave.

Some skaters went into empty pools without asking the owners. That was trespassing, which means going on private property without permission. Today, skaters ride curved walls built for them at skateparks.

The curve where a floor bends up into a wall is called transition. Skaters call it tranny for short. A skater rolls fast across the flat bottom and up the transition. As the skater goes higher, the board slows down.

At the highest point, the skater stops for an instant. Then gravity pulls the skater back down, and the board speeds up again. Going up, motion energy changes into stored energy. Coming down, stored energy changes back into motion energy.

Each trip loses a little energy to friction and air. So skaters bend and straighten their legs at the right moments to keep going. This is called pumping. It is like pumping on a swing.

Skaters needed places where they were welcome. In 1976, two of the first skateparks opened. One was Carlsbad Skatepark in Carlsbad, California. The other was Skateboard City in Port Orange, Florida.

These parks had smooth concrete runs, bowls and curved walls. Many parks charged a fee to ride. They did not have to sneak into backyard pools. Builders shaped the concrete to copy the curves skaters loved.

Many more parks opened in the late 1970s. The second boom was in full swing. Better wheels, kicktails, smooth bearings and new parks all worked together. Skateboarding had come back bigger than before.