Go Skateboarding Day

Skate Punk culture is in full bloom, and there are skate parks appearing all over the world as this sport takes on a growing popularity.

We thought we had seen it peak with video games and skateboarding greats like Tony Hawk, but that was really just the beginning.

Controversy surrounds it, with bumper stickers that carry such slogans as “Skateboarding Isn’t A Crime”.

If you’ve never been skateboarding, get on out into the world and start learning the glories of this amazing sport. After all, if you can’t beat them, Go Skateboarding Day is your opportunity to join them.

Late 1940s – Early 1950s
From Crate Scooters to Sidewalk Surfing
Surfers and kids in California and Hawaii begin riding homemade boards with roller‑skate wheels, evolving from “crate scooters” into the first skateboard-style “sidewalk surfing.”
1959
First Mass‑Produced Skateboards Hit the Market
Commercially manufactured skateboards with clay or composite wheels appear in U.S. shops, turning a street pastime into a consumer product and seeding a new industry.
Early–Mid 1960s
Skateboarding’s First Boom and “Sidewalk Surfing” Craze
Fueled by surf culture, brands like Makaha and Roller Derby promote skateboards, contests are held, and “sidewalk surfing” becomes a national fad before safety worries trigger a decline.
1972
Frank Nasworthy Introduces Polyurethane “Cadillac Wheels”
Engineer Frank Nasworthy launches Cadillac Wheels, using polyurethane to give boards smoother, grippier rides, widely credited with sparking skateboarding’s 1970s revival.
1978
Alan Gelfand Lands the First Ollie
Florida skater Alan Gelfand invents the hands-free aerial “ollie” in pool skating, a foundational move that makes modern street tricks and technical skateboarding possible.
Early 1980s
Rodney Mullen Revolutionizes Flatground Street Skating
Freestyle prodigy Rodney Mullen adapts the ollie to flatground and invents key flip tricks like the kickflip, heelflip, and 360 flip, defining the language of street skating.
1995
X Games Bring Skateboarding to Global TV Audiences
ESPN’s inaugural Extreme Games (later X Games) features skateboarding, broadcasting vert and street contests worldwide and helping cement skating as a major action sport and youth culture.

How to Celebrate Go Skateboarding Day

Seriously, do we even need to answer this question? It’s right there in the name, get out there and grab your favorite board and Go Skateboarding on Go Skateboarding Day!

Get a New Skateboard

There’s a hundred million different designs, and if you’ve never gone skateboarding this is your best opportunity to start!

Check out your local sports stores and find a board that really says ‘you’. Whether you prefer a longboard or a standard one, you’re going to have a great time learning how to speed through your day with this excellent sport.

Watch Video Tutorials

If you’re a complete beginner when it comes to skateboarding, do not fear! You can hit up a whole host of handy video tutorials online.

Use Go Skateboarding day as a way to kickstart a brand new hobby that you absolutely love. It takes time and practice to get up to speed with skateboarding, but don’t give up. It’s a well known fact that boards don’t cooperate in the beginning, so keep this in mind!

Once you find your flow, you will soon get the hang of it. As soon as you’ve mastered the basics, you can start with the more complex tricks!

Learn Health Benefits of Skateboarding

There are some amazing health and social benefits to skateboarding that you might not know about.

Not only does it help you burn calories as part of a great exercise routine, but it can also build core muscles in your legs and torso. Slaving away at the gym is so yesterday when you got a skateboard close by!

Skateboarding is also an amazing stress reliever; many people who suffer from anxiety can use skateboarding to give them a sense of freedom and release.

It can also keep your mind busy and encourage you to get outdoors when you aren’t in the greatest of moods.

Try Some Cool Tricks

Before you try and master any grand tricks, you need to accurately learn the techniques involved in skateboarding.

You need to be able to balance, push, 10 and execute positive falls. As soon as you have mastered these simple moves you can move on to the fun stuff! Here are some of the easiest but coolest skateboarding tricks you could try if you have never given it a go before:

The Kick Flip Trick

If you are a beginner this is the trick for you! This involves lifting up the wheels of your board up to 180° off the ground. You simply raise the nose of the skateboard and slip it round quickly and accurately!

The Heel Flip Trick

In this trick you raise the nose of the board with your back foot. Using your back foot to lift the face of your skateboard up from the ground as you jump; as you’re up in the air place your thumb for it on the nose of the board and flick it up.

Make sure you use your feet to land straight back on the board once you have completed the flip!

The Tick Tack Trick

This is probably the first trick you should try out as a beginner. “Tick Tacking” will come naturally as soon as your balance and agility skills come into play. This move is essentially moving from side to side as the cruise along the pathway on your skateboard.

Make sure you check out some video tutorials to improve your skateboarding skills and see some of these funky tricks in action! Whether you’re just starting out or completely new, there will always be some form of skateboarding trick for you to try out.

Don’t forget to wear knee and elbow pads and a helmet, it’s Go Skateboarding Day, not Go To The Hospital Day!

History of Go Skateboarding Day

This event was started by co-creators Don Brown and Per Welinder, with the first celebration taking place in 2004. Go Skateboarding Day has been aligned with the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) since its inception.

Skateboarding is a sport with a long history, starting off with some of the most basic of designs, wooden boxes and boards with wheels. Originally they were formed from Crate Scooters, which were pretty much exactly what they sounded like, wheels attached to a wooden crate with a pair of rudimentary handlebars.

By the time the 1950’s rolled around it had taken on an indelible bond with surf culture, so much so in fact that it was called “sidewalk surfing” and the skaters of that time took to embodying surfers culture without hesitation.

The real revolution for the sport happened in the 1960’s, when skateboarding started taking on a larger and larger following. The first competition was started in 1965, and John Steverson said of this era:

Today’s skateboarders are founders in this sport—they’re pioneers—they are the first. There is no history in Skateboarding—it’s being made now—by you. The sport is being molded and we believe that doing the right thing now will lead to a bright future for the sport.

Already, there are storm clouds on the horizon with opponents of the sport talking about ban and restriction. The sport has gotten so incredibly popular in the years that followed, and now more people under 18 have picked up the skateboard than played baseball. That’s a sport come into its prime!

Facts About Go Skateboarding Day

Concrete Helped Turn “Sidewalk Surfing” Into Street Skating

Modern street skateboarding grew out of skaters reimagining everyday concrete architecture as terrain, from Los Angeles schoolyard banks to San Francisco’s Embarcadero plazas and New York’s Brooklyn Banks.

Instead of relying only on skateparks, riders used handrails, ledges, stairs, and banks built for pedestrians, which pushed board design toward the symmetrical “popsicle” deck and made the ollie and flip tricks central to the discipline.

Polyurethane Wheels Sparked a 1970s Skateboarding Revival

The introduction of cast polyurethane (urethane) wheels in the early 1970s transformed skateboarding from a shaky ride on metal or clay wheels into a smoother, more controllable activity.

Urethane’s grip and shock absorption let skaters carve backyard pools and steep hills with far more speed and confidence, creating the foundation for modern park, vert, and downhill styles.

The Ollie Made Modern Street Tricks Possible

Before the late 1970s, most aerial skateboard tricks required grabbing the board with a hand. Skater Alan Gelfand’s invention of the ollie, a no-hands jump where the tail snaps against the ground to lift board and rider together, gave skaters a way to pop onto curbs, rails, and ledges.

Nearly every modern street trick, from kickflips to big stair sets, builds on that single technical breakthrough.

Skateboarding Now Has an Olympic Stage

Skateboarding shifted from counterculture pastime to recognized sport when it joined the Olympic program at the Tokyo 2020 Games, with park and street contests for men and women.

World Skate, the international federation, oversees Olympic qualification, and the IOC promotes skateboarding as part of its push to attract younger audiences and spotlight urban, youth-oriented sports.

Cities Are Learning That Skate Spots Can Revive Public Space

Urban planners in cities like San Francisco and Paris have begun deliberately designing “skateable” plazas and ledges instead of trying to exclude skateboarding.

Reporting on these projects shows that when skaters are welcomed rather than pushed out, previously empty or unsafe corners often become busier, more social places that feel safer for a wider range of residents.

Skateboarding Has Left a Lasting Mark on Fashion

What started as practical skatewear in 1970s and 1980s California—loose T‑shirts, sturdy sneakers, and roomy jeans that would not rip on concrete—has become a template for global streetwear.

Brands rooted in skate shops and scenes helped normalize baggy silhouettes, logo-heavy graphic tees, and vulcanized shoes, influencing everyone from luxury designers to mainstream sneaker lines.

Punk and Hip‑Hop Shaped the Soundtrack of Skate Culture

Skate videos and sessions have long been tied to music, first with the surf rock and garage bands of the 1960s, then with the hardcore and skate punk of the 1980s, and later with hip‑hop and alternative acts.

Curated soundtracks in brand videos and DIY edits helped cement bands like Suicidal Tendencies in skate lore and turned skate media into an important channel for discovering underground music.

Go Skateboarding Day FAQs

What are some evidence-based health benefits of skateboarding as regular exercise?

Research on adult recreational skateboarders at community skateparks has found average heart rates in the moderate-to-vigorous intensity range, which is similar to other aerobic activities that meet public health guidelines for cardiovascular fitness.

In addition to improving aerobic capacity, skateboarding challenges balance, coordination, and lower-body and core strength, and descriptive health sources note that regular skating can contribute to muscle endurance and stress relief when practiced safely over time.

What injuries are most common in skateboarding, and how can people reduce their risk?

Medical and injury-prevention organizations report that most skateboard injuries involve the arms and legs, especially wrist fractures from falls onto outstretched hands, along with ankle and elbow sprains or fractures.

Head injuries, including concussions and more severe brain trauma, are a serious concern in both children and adults, particularly when skating without a helmet or near traffic.

Using a properly fitted, standards-certified helmet, wrist guards, knee and elbow pads, flat-soled skate shoes, and choosing smooth, designated skateparks instead of streets or rough, traffic-exposed areas are consistently recommended to lower the risk and severity of injuries.

Why do some cities build skateparks while also restricting street skating?

Urban-planning and cultural histories note that as skateboarding grew, many property owners and city officials viewed street skating as a nuisance or liability, leading to “no skateboarding” signs, fines, and hostile architecture designed to deter skating.

At the same time, municipalities recognized that skateboarding was a popular youth activity and that purpose-built skateparks could reduce conflicts in downtown areas while providing safer, supervised spaces.

As a result, many cities now combine restrictions on certain high-traffic or sensitive locations with investment in public skateparks, reflecting a compromise between risk management, property concerns, and supporting youth recreation.

How did skateboarding develop from “sidewalk surfing” into a global sport and culture?

Historical overviews trace modern skateboarding back to 1950s and 1960s California, where surfers attached roller-skate wheels to boards to mimic surfing on land, often calling it “sidewalk surfing.”

Over subsequent decades, technical innovations such as the ollie in the late 1970s, along with dedicated skateparks, magazines, videos, and professional contests, helped transform it from a niche surf offshoot into a distinct global culture.

Today skateboarding influences fashion, music, visual art, and advertising, and it is recognized both as a lifestyle and as a competitive sport featured in major international events, including the Olympic Games.

How is skateboarding included in the Olympic Games, and what does that say about the sport?

The International Olympic Committee approved skateboarding for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as part of a group of sports chosen to engage younger audiences and reflect urban culture.

Olympic skateboarding currently includes men’s and women’s street and park events, with courses designed to resemble real-world spots and concrete bowls.

Its presence on the Olympic program, which continues with Paris 2024, is widely interpreted by historians and commentators as a sign that skateboarding has moved from a marginalized counterculture into a recognized, globally organized sport while still drawing heavily on its street and DIY roots.

How can beginners choose the right type of skateboard for where they plan to ride?

Beginner guides generally recommend matching the board to the main environment and style: a standard “popsicle” street/park skateboard, about 8.0 to 8.25 inches wide with small, hard wheels, suits learning tricks and skating parks or smooth plazas; cruisers and longboards with wider decks and larger, softer wheels are better for transportation and rougher pavement, since they roll more smoothly over cracks.

Experts advise using rider height and shoe size, rather than age alone, to pick deck width, matching truck width to the deck, and choosing wheel hardness and size based on whether the focus is technical tricks (smaller, harder wheels) or cruising and commuting (larger, softer wheels).

What is known about the environmental impact of skateboards, and are there more sustainable options?

Life-cycle analyses and industry reports indicate that a traditional 7-ply maple skateboard deck carries a measurable carbon footprint from logging, kiln-drying, gluing, pressing, and transport, while polyurethane wheels, metal trucks, synthetic grip tape, and, in electric boards, lithium-ion batteries add further environmental burdens and complex waste.

In response, some makers experiment with faster-growing materials such as bamboo, bio-based resins, and recycled or upcycled boards that are turned into new products like jewelry, furniture accents, or accessories instead of going to landfill.

These initiatives can reduce waste and raw-material use on a small scale, but comprehensive, peer-reviewed data comparing the full life-cycle impact of alternative boards to conventional maple setups remain limited.