Talk:Skateboard

While "typically made of wood" might have been true of skateboards at some point, I don't think it's been true since the 1980s. Almost all the ones I see are composites. --Lee Daniel Crocker

Virtually every modern skateboard deck manufactured today is 7 plies of Canadian Hard Rock Maple. the only "major" (which is a bit of a stretch) company to use composites is the snowboard manufacturer Lib Technologies. They manufacture fiberglass-enhanced skate decks. Other companies have experimented with composite technologies, but none have proven viable.

I think Lee Daniel Crocker is referring to plywood, which is a composite of wood ply and epoxy glue (although a very common one). Tp 05:30, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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What's an "Ollie"? --the Epopt The foundation of all skateboarding tricks -- hard to describe in words, but basically the skater makes his board jump up into the air while he's riding it, up to several feet in the case of a particularly good skater.

Ollie: while riding forward, the rear foot presses firmly, sharply, suddenly, on the tail of the board, at the same time the rider 'unweights' the front leg, and in quick succession afterwards, unweights the rear as he pushes forward with the forward foot, all of which has the effect of causing the board board to first rotate upwards, front foremost, then rotate into a position roughly parallel with the riding surface. (this is what you are usually seeing if you see a skateboarder jump over a low obstacle on the rider's path)(I'm not a skater, I'm a juggler, but this is what it looks like to me when viewed in slow motion.)

Same/similar trick can be done riding backwards too. In combination with other 'moves' this is a core skateboarding skill on which higher order skills are based. nice article, guys, seems to becoming along, putting it on my watchlist.Pedant 21:40, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The key to the ollie (aside from timing of course) is dragging the front foot up the deck, lifting the deck higher and leveling it out. The basic timing is pop - jump/drag front foot - level it out - land.

How about approximate year ranges in the history? –Floorsheim 07:54, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)

seriously... this article needs {{attention}} or something... --Smooth Henry 03:59, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

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The extrenal links were worthless. Tp 06:39, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

This is a great explaination of a skateboard! yippeeeeeeeeeeee! jack

Hey all a ollie does is help you if your think that is a trick u must be trippin because it just helps you link other moves

Needs to catalogue more information

We need to catalogue more things about skateboards. Like tricks, skateboard culture, professional skateboarders, etc. Theres far more to skateboarding than it's components. A lot more to it.

In short, I think that Skateboarding should be merged into the Skateboard article.

Some edits

I've cleaned this page up a little and made it easier to understand. The two most significant changes are:

"The wheels, usually made of polyurethane, come in nine different sizes" to "The wheels, usually made of polyurethane, come in many different sizes to suit different types of skating"

And

"Inside each wheel are eight(2 for each wheel) precision ball bearings" to "Inside each wheel are two precision ball bearings of the type '608' (8mm internal bore)". Steve-g 16:36, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the suffix 'bone' from some of the obsolete plastics titles as this is the brand name for Powell plastics - lots of other companies made plastics Steve-g 19:05, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Cultural impact

Some history of the skateboard should be included here, especially the late-1970s skateboarding fad, and the association with skate punks in the 1980s. As I've never been on a skateboard without immediately falling on my behind, I leave it to someone else to write this...  ProhibitOnions  ^(T) 19:40, 18 May 2006 (UTC)