Metal Wheels? A Look at Skateboarding’s Past

The skateboard has long toiled in the shadow of its longer and sleeker cousin, the surfboard, but on Saturday the skateboard finally got its place in the sun.

The International Surfing Museum opened a yearlong exhibition on the sport, “The Evolution of the Skateboard.” The show charts the evolution of skateboarding from its birth in the 1960s as an offshoot of surfing to its present status as a curb-jumping diversion for millions.

The show drew hordes of young enthusiasts from around Southern California and some old pros as well.

“A lot of these kids don’t even know what a metal-wheel skateboard is,” said Dale Smith, 44, a former professional skateboarder.

The exhibit features dozens of skateboards, from the old wood-and-metal clunkers to the high-tech rockets of today. There are also some fine shots of skateboarders doing aerial acrobatics in drained swimming pools, along with books and movies on the sport and even a photo of a nun riding a skateboard.

“We want to show a lot of the kids where the sport came from,” said Eric “Arab” Groff, the curator of the exhibit.

Groff, 34, got on his first skateboard when was 3, and he has since ridden in 17 countries and 48 states. He attributes the rise of skateboarding to the desire of people to be part of the beach scene--whether they are near the ocean or not.

“Kids may not be able to surf, but they want the lifestyle,” Groff said. “Skateboarding allows them to be part of it.”

Groff said the first skateboard was probably created when a surfer somewhere nailed his old roller-skate wheels onto a piece of wood. Indeed, the names inscribed on the older skateboards on display--Sidewalk Surfer, Surfbird and Surfskate--make clear the sport’s roots in California beach culture.

Most people agree that the key turning point in the sport came in the 1970s with the invention of urethane wheels, which give a smoother and safer ride than metal ones.

Some of the people who came to the exhibit Saturday stared at the older skateboards as though they were dinosaur bones.

“I used to ride those,” said Chris Kelly, shaking his head. Kelly rode to the exhibit on his skateboard.

Since the early days, the sport has taken off, and skateboarders are as common a part of the urban landscape as the sidewalks they traverse. Find an empty swimming pool, and likely as not you’ll spot a skateboarder doing “ollies” and “aerials.”

At 33, Steve Alba is a professional skateboard rider from another era. His knees are marked by scars from his many falls, and he has broken his ankle once and his wrist three times. He says skateboarding has a bright future.

“The kids who skateboard now are better than ever,” he said.

“The Evolution of the Skateboard” will be at the International Surfing Museum, 411 Olive Street in Huntington Beach, for most of the year.