Freestyle skateboarding (or freestyle) is one of the oldest styles of skateboarding and was intermittently popular from the 1960s until the early 1990s, when the final large-scale professional freestyle skateboarding competition was held.

Description

The emphasis in freestyle is technical flat ground skateboarding. Often a freestyler will need little more than a board and a smooth, flat surface.

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

and choreography have always been an essential part of the professional freestyle routine.

History

1950s and 1960s

Freestyle in the 1950s was created by members of the surfing culture who sought an alternative during times when conditions were not conducive to surfing—surfers would imitate their water-based maneuvers on

skateboards A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...

when ocean conditions were poor. In the 1960s, many freestyle tricks were derived from

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

and dancing.

1970s and 1980s

The following two decades were defined by a progression towards technical, fluid, and more creative routines. Influential freestyle skateboarders of the 1970s and 1980s included

Russ Howell Russell Wayne Howell (born September 1949) is a professional skateboarder. While working towards his degree in physical education, Howell competed and won many freestyle skateboarding competitions throughout his skating career. Life and career ...

, Rodney Mullen, Joe Humeres and Per Welinder. The style changed significantly in the 1980s, when

ollie Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver, Olive, Olympia, Olga or Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly and Olly. People Given name * Ollie Marie Adams (1925–1998), American gospel and R&B singer * Olli ...

s and ollie-based

flip trick A flip trick is a type of skateboarding trick in which the skateboard rotates around its vertical axis, or its vertical axis and its horizontal axis simultaneously. The first flip trick, called a kickflip but originally known as a "magic flip", ...

s were invented and introduced to the discipline, with Mullen playing a significant role in this process.''Stalefish: Skateboard Culture from the Rejects Who Made It''
by Sean Mortimer ( Chronicle Books, 2008)

Organizations

California Amateur Skateboard League (C.A.S.L.) was founded in 1982 by Frank Hawk with the help of two other "skater parents", Sonja Catalano and Jeanne Hoffmann. C.A.S.L. is where most of the top professional skateboarders from around the world started competing and is still run today. In 1995, professional freestyle skateboarder Stefan "Lillis" Åkesson started the International Network for Flatland Freestyle Skateboarding (INFFS) and, with Daniel Gesmer, produced Flatline and the online version Flatline Online. Following the inception of these initiatives, freestyle skateboarders connected and interacted on a global scale in a manner that had not been experienced previously. The World Freestyle Skateboard Association (WFSA) was then founded by Bob Staton, Åkesson, and Gesmer in the year 2000, thereby attracting further interest in freestyle skateboarding.

References

External links

World Freestyle Skateboarding associationFreestylesk8.in.ua – the only one information resource on the territory of former Soviet Union devoted to the development of freestyle skateboarding worldwide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freestyle Skateboarding Skateboarding styles