History of longboarding

A Brief History of Longboarding

The sport of long-boarding was born, unsurprisingly, in Oahu, Hawaii. When the waves weren't curling, a few enterprising surfers decided to put a board on wheels to stay gnarly. In its infancy, this activity was called "side-walk surfing," and was characterized by fluid movements and fast carving. The surfers went so far as to drag their hands on the concrete, imitating the feel of a wave. This motion is still in use by long-boarders, but for different reasons; mainly sliding. After a few years of bumpy and frequently painful rides, people decided that long-boarding was dangerous and risky, possibly because early boards were crude and lacked the shocks and urethane wheels of modern boards.

A couple of decades later, in the early 70's, boarding was reborn and soon became vastly popular. By the 80's boarding (mostly short-board skate-boarding) had become associated with rule-breaking and, to some extent, counter-culture in general. This development certainly aggravated the die-hard boarders of yore, but they kept cruising and passed on the real soul of long-boarding to future generations. In the past decade, skate-boarding has mostly lost its negative associations, and long-boarding has grown increasingly in popularity and acceptance.