50 Fun Facts About Skate

What did Californian surfers originally call skateboarding?

Early skaters rode barefoot and copied surfing moves, and the first manufactured boards were ordered by a Los Angeles surf shop.

What were the very first skateboards made from?

The rough home-made contraptions date to the late 1940s or early 1950s.

In the early 1970s Frank Nasworthy revived skateboarding by developing wheels made from what material?

He called his company Cadillac Wheels; modern wheels are extremely hard, around 99A on the durometer scale.

A 1976 California drought helped launch "vert" skating because skaters started riding what?

Ty Page, Bruce Logan and the Z-Boys were among the first to carve the vertical walls of pools left empty by water restrictions.

The Z-Boys skate team was sponsored by a surf shop in which California neighbourhood?

Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk opened the shop in 1973 and recruited local kids from the "Dogtown" area.

Which future filmmaker was a member of the Z-Boys alongside Tony Alva and Jay Adams?

He later co-founded Powell Peralta and directed the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.

Who invented the no-hands aerial that became known as the ollie?

He developed it in Florida in the mid-1970s, and it stayed a largely Florida trick until his first trip to California in 1978.

Rodney Mullen debuted the flatground ollie at the 1982 Rusty Harris contest in which California city?

He adapted the vertical version by combining the motions of some of his existing freestyle tricks.

What did other skaters nickname Rodney Mullen's 1982 kickflip because they couldn't work out how he did it?

Mullen himself initially called it the "Ollie Flip".

Rodney Mullen has been given what nickname for his influence on the sport?

He is credited with inventing the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible and 360-kickflip.

On which attempt did Tony Hawk finally land the first documented 900 at the 1999 X Games?

He performed what he said would be his final 900 exactly 17 years later, aged 48.

How many mid-air revolutions does a 900 involve?

900 degrees of rotation, hence the name.

What is the name of Tony Hawk's skateboard company?

He refinanced his house to keep it afloat; within five years of skateboarding's comeback it was making $25 million a year.

At what age did Tony Hawk turn professional?

He signed with Powell Peralta and became famous through the Bones Brigade videos.

According to Bobby Kotick, how much was Tony Hawk offered for his name on the original Pro Skater?

Kotick claimed Hawk was living in his car at the time due to money problems; the franchise went on to spawn eight annual sequels.

Which studio developed the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, released in 1999?

It launched on the PlayStation and was later ported to the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast and N-Gage.

The Skate video game series is known for what trick-control system?

Players perform tricks with quick movements of the analog sticks rather than button combos, and a "Hall of Meat" system tracks broken bones.

Where were the inaugural X Games held in the summer of 1995?

They were staged in Providence and Newport, and the Winter X Games followed in 1997.

Which network founded the X Games?

The property was sold to a private equity firm in late 2022, though the events still air on ESPN and ABC.

Thrasher magazine was founded in 1981 mainly to promote which business its founders owned?

Fausto Vitello and Eric Swenson used the magazine to push their trucks; it also hands out the coveted Skater of the Year title.

A standard skateboard deck is usually made from how many plies of maple plywood?

The wheels are attached beneath by a pair of metal trucks, which riders can swap and tune to taste.

What are the metal parts called that hold a skateboard's wheels to the deck?

Tracker made the first purpose-built ones for skateboarding in 1976.

Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at which Games?

The decision to add it was approved in August 2016, and it was one of four new sports on the programme.

What are the two skateboarding disciplines contested at the Olympics?

Each event had 20 competitors, with one place reserved for the host nation.

How old was Momiji Nishiya when she won the first-ever Olympic women's street gold in Tokyo?

At 13 years and 330 days she became Japan's youngest Olympic champion and the third-youngest gold medallist in Olympic history.

Sky Brown became Great Britain's youngest-ever Olympic medallist by winning which medal in Tokyo?

She repeated the feat with another park bronze in Paris in 2024, and had already won Dancing with the Stars: Juniors.

Street-skating star Nyjah Huston won his first Olympic medal at Paris 2024. Which medal was it?

By then he had already won 15 X Games golds and more contest prize money than any skateboarder in history.

The 1975 Del Mar National Championships, a landmark comeback contest, drew up to how many competitors?

It was where the Zephyr team's aggressive surf-style skating stunned a crowd used to freestyle spins.

Which 1964 song by Jan and Dean reworked a Beach Boys tune with skateboarding lyrics?

It borrowed the melody of "Catch a Wave" at the height of the first skateboard craze.

Which company made the first purpose-built skateboard axle hardware, in 1976?

Until then boards borrowed roller-skate hardware.

Which surfboard maker's founder, Larry Stevenson, sponsored an early skateboard exhibition in Hermosa Beach in 1963?

The event was held at Pier Avenue Junior High School.

Tony Hawk was National Skateboarding Association vert champion for how many consecutive years?

His run lasted from 1983 to 1995, and he has invented 89 tricks.

Which two 1970s skaters developed the grabbed aerial in California around the time the ollie appeared in Florida?

Together the two innovations made airs on vertical ramps possible.

Which real-life surf-and-skate shop's team was the subject of the film Lords of Dogtown?

The Zephyr surf team turned into the skate team whose members lived in Santa Monica's Dogtown area.

Per Oxford and Milan researchers, who first made ice skates from animal bones 5,000 years ago?

Finland's roughly 188,000 lakes separated villages, so gliding across the ice saved enormous effort.

Figure skating was the first winter sport in the Olympics. At which Games did it debut?

It appeared at a Summer Games sixteen years before the first Winter Olympics existed.

Sonja Henie won how many Olympic gold medals in women's singles figure skating?

The Norwegian won in 1928, 1932 and 1936, added ten world titles, and then became a Hollywood film star.

Who was the first figure skater to land a clean quadruple Axel in international competition?

The Axel is the only jump taken off facing forwards, which is why the quad version was the last to fall.

Which 1948 and 1952 Olympic champion was the first skater to perform the double Axel?

He also pioneered the triple loop and the flying camel spin.

How many skaters does each roller derby team field during a jam?

One jammer, marked with a star on the helmet, tries to lap the other team's four blockers.

In roller derby, what is the scoring player on each team called?

A point is scored for every opposing blocker they lap.

Which promoter created the Transcontinental Roller Derby, ancestor of the modern sport?

Sportswriter Damon Runyon later persuaded him to change the rules to increase skater contact.

The four-wheeled "quad" roller skate was first designed in 1863 by whom?

He opened the first public roller rinks in 1866, starting in his own New York furniture store.

Who created the first recorded roller skate, a primitive inline design, in 1760?

Roller skates reached the ballet stage in Berlin by 1818 and the first patent followed in France in 1819.

How long is a standard long-track speed skating oval?

Shorter tracks of 200, 250 and 333⅓ metres are occasionally used.

The Elfstedentocht, the legendary Dutch skating tour, links the eleven cities of which province?

The International Skating Union itself was founded in the Netherlands in 1892.

Roughly how many women took part in the first known women's speed skating competition, in 1805?

They raced knockout-style on a frozen canal before a crowd said to number 10,000 or more.

Which country banned the use, ownership and sale of skateboards from 1978 to 1989 over injury fears?

Skaters responded by building ramps in forests and other hidden spots to avoid the police.

On what date is Go Skateboarding Day, founded in 2003 by the International Association of Skateboard Companies, held?

By 2001 more Americans under 18 rode skateboards (10.6 million) than played baseball (8.2 million).

Which pioneering female skater made the cover of Life magazine in 1965 while touring for Hobie and Vita Pak?

One of the first sponsored skaters, she travelled the country giving exhibitions and safety demonstrations.