“Cultural Role Of the Skateboard”

The book is rammed full of photos of boards from the metal-wheeled adjustable roller-skates nailed to pieces of 2×4 (the Gnarly), to the evolution of the double kicktail, urethane wheels and skateboard-specific trucks.

Along with iconic skateboarding photos and heartfelt anecdotes from the interviewees you get a real feel for the roots of skateboarding and a deeper understanding of what we call ‘the skateboarding industry’ of today. As well as the focus on the actual skateboard this book provides insights on the social and cultural role of the skateboard in the past 7 decades.

I feel this sentence from the author really sums it up: “This book isn’t meant to identify the provenance of every deck, wheel, truck, and accessory ever made, but to detail the ‘arc’ of skateboarding – if I can use a Hollywood term – and highlight the most important people, events, boards, and innovations to show how skateboarding, begun as a crude sport invented by surfers in the late 1940s, became a multi-billion dollar industry and sport practiced by millions around the world.”

This book looks like a run-of-the-mill coffee table ‘extreme sports’ book you see every Christmas, but inside those pages is a story that needed to be told, to be documented and published, so that people like myself can truly understand that piece of wood that we love.

The authors own narrative can seem fragmented as it is divided between the interviews and photos and this can make the timeline difficult to follow, but this does not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book.

This book is a great buy for any diehard skateboarder – a young’n wanting to learn about their roots or an oldie wanting to relive their youth. Out of 10….? I’d give it an 8, pushing a 9.