Skateboarding in New York City
Sidewalk surfers on the streets and in the parks of NYC
Chris Wild
1965
Today's skateboarders are founders in this sport—they're pioneers—they are the first. There is no history in Skateboarding—its being made now—by you. - John Severson, "The Quarterly Skateboarder", 1964
"Sidewalk surfing" — the original moniker for what we now call skateboarding. In the 1940s, when the waves were flat, Californian surfers took their skills to the sidewalk. Then one enterprising surf store owner struck a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company, and the first commercial skateboard was soon available in the stores.By the 1960s a number of surfboard makers were creating and selling skateboards. An early exhibition in 1963 generated positive media, as did the boarders featured on 1964's Surf's Up TV show.
The first skateboarding magazine was published in 1964. And in 1965 — when these pictures were taken — the National Skateboarding Championships, in Anaheim, California were broadcast on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.Bill Eppridge took these photographs for a LIFE magazine edition, which featured Patti McGee, then 19 and the 1965 national girls’ champion, on its cover. In 2010, she would become the first woman in the Skateboard Hall of Fame.By the end of the decade, though, sales were in decline, due primarily to fears over safety. It wasn't until the mid '70s that the board underwent its revival.
The skateboard is the most exhilarating and dangerous joyriding device this side of the hot rod. The effect of having stepped on a banana peel while dashing down the back stairs. - LIFE Magazine, 1965
