Skateboarding

As well as big contest Rampworx also runs a series of more low key events throughout the year. Our “Skateboard Only Sessions” usually take place on a Monday night and allow all of the inline skaters to ride the park without any other sports in the building, the atmosphere at these events is amazing, everyone is cheering each other on to land tricks and try new things. Make sure you keep checking out our events page for our latest Skateboard Only Session.

Rampworx Skatepark offers Skateboard coaching on specific days during the week, all equipment is provided and our skilled coaching staff will help you get the confidence to use the skatepark like a pro in no time! It doesn’t matter if you have never skated before or you just want a little help to perfect your technique we are here to help you achieve your goals!

Skateboarding developed by accident when surfers in California decided to add wheels to boards so that they could ride when the waves were flat. This happened around the late 1940’s, early 50’s. No one knows who made the first board, but this was the start of skateboarding as we know it  today. Funnily enough, the very first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards that had roller wheels attached to the bottom. These boxes soon became planks, which, in turn became decks of pressed layers of wood, which are very similar to the skateboard decks of today.

During the early days, skateboarding was often referred to as “Sidewalk Surfing” and was seen as something to do for fun besides surfing. In 1976, Alan “Ollie” Gelfand transformed the face of skateboarding following the invention of the ‘ollie’. This was largely a Florida trick until he decided to visit California in 1978 when he showed off his revolutionary-type maneuvers capturing the imaginations of the West Coast skaters and related media where it began to spread worldwide.

In 1982, Rodney Mullen adapted the Ollie to flat ground who invented the “Magic Flip”, which was later renamed the kickflip, as well many other tricks including, the 360 Kickflip.

Crucially, it was the creation of the the ‘flat ground ollie’ that allowed skateboarders to perform tricks in mid-air without the need for any other equipment other than the skateboard they were using and this has formed the basis of many street skating tricks we see today.

Rodney Mullen was a true pioneer and ensured that freestyle skating remained hugely popular throughout this period by inventing many of the basic tricks of modern street skating such as the ‘impossible’ and the ‘kickflip’. It was during the mid eighties, the influence freestyle on street skating became apparent. However, this was still performed on wide vert boards with short noses, slide rails, and large soft wheels. The majority of modern skateboards are 7¹⁄₄ to 8 inches (180 to 200 mm) wide and 30 to 32 inches (760 to 810 mm) long and the wheels are made up of a hard polyurethane. Wheel sizes are now smaller to ensure that the boards are lighter enabling riders to perform tricks easier. Since the 70’s the styles of skateboards have changed dramatically. Todays modern shape of skateboard is a simple evolution of the freestyle boards that existed in 80s with their familiar symmetrical shape and relatively narrow width which was firmly established in the 90’s.