While skateboarding has once been seen as a counter-culture or “punk”-like activity well-associated with Green Day music, skateboarding has long since moved into the mainstream’s consciousness, with competitions being shown on ESPN and other sports networks, to show the prowess of the sport of skateboarding.
While it may seem like skateboarding is an activity that poses less of a challenge than other sports, skateboarding requires skill. The ability to balance on a board, to shift weight according to different pathways in the skateboarding parks, the ability to “grind” on a rail or do an “Ollie” all requires a great deal of skill and athletic prowess.
The ‘X’ games, which is a popular counter-culture sporting event (counter-culture accepted, the meaning being), showcases skateboarders as athletes, rather than just a few people in a skateboarding park doing practicing different jumps and grinds. This has moved skateboarding into the mainstream.
Some may not like this movement. There are some that treasure skateboarding because of its counter-culture standing, an ability for people who did not “fit in” to society or within social groups to form together and skate and bond over the “full bowl.” Skating itself had built up a culture that promoted authenticity.
Of course, not all saw it that way. For them, skating was, and still is, a sport–something that demands athleticism, balance, muscle tone, grace, an opportunity to showcase what they could do with just a board and some wheels (and of course their wits about them). They were not necessarily against the counter culture image; but the sport remained the sport.
And unfortunately, for those skaters who saw it as a sport, there are fewer than 600 parks in the United States for those to choose from. That a little more than 10 parks per state, and many of the parks are so small it’s impossible to get a good “grind” from any of them. That limits the amount of skaters there are in the country.
While this definition is a little outdated–because the lack of some skating parks makes this definition not entirely the skater’s fault–there are two methods of categorizing a skater: core and casual. A core skaters skates 26 times or more per year. A casual skater skates between 1 and 25 times per year.
Skaters tend to be mostly male. 77% of all skaters are male, while just 23% are female. That number becomes even more lopsided when looking at it based off “core” skaters versus “casual” skaters. 83.4% of core skaters are male, with just 16.6% of core skaters being female. This seems to imply that skating is a male-dominated sport.
But female skaters are more widely recognized as they are few in the sport. Any female skater has proven she “has what it takes” and she can “hang” “with the boys,” those these antiquated notions are hopefully dying out here very soon.
For many skaters, the act of skating may have become a little rote and wearisome, especially if that person has only access to one park in the area. Fortunately, now, there is a new type of skateboard in town that allows for off-roading and even more power. It’s called the electric skateboard.
While the electric motorized skateboard had been around since at least 1997, it became only possible for mass production when the Lithium battery came out around 2006-7. This battery had a longer life span, was smaller and more affordable, and had a slow dying process, compared to other batteries that seemed to stop suddenly.
Today, the electric motorized skateboard contains a large battery, if not multiple batteries, which are affixed to the bottom of the skate board. This battery powers a motor, which is linked to the wheels of the skateboard. The skateboard then goes quite a bit faster than at a full bowl.
Generally, the new electric skateboard is made out of a motorized longboard. The longboard is generally used as the larger space allows for more batteries to be placed underneath the board.
Today, the electric motorized skateboard is fully equipped for off-road terrain. The wheels are generally a little bit bigger, with a tougher threading, which can handle dirt, rocks, twigs, and other off-road challenges that will threaten a smaller and less equipped board.
The electric motorized skateboard adds a new dimension to skating.