Art Style Stoke

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Art Style

Ben Marcus Photography by Lucia Griggi Stoke Skateboard legend Tony Hawk sits in his own private half-pipe, 3 holding his first skateboard. Tony Chapter was introduced to skateboarding at age 8 by his older brother, who brought home a used skateboard from a garage sale. Their father constructed a ramp for them in In the their backyard, and by the time he was 14, Tony turned pro. Beginning

Round and Round

In 1947, a California surfer named Peter Parkin wanted to get down to the beach to catch some waves. Surf was up, and he was missing the sets. Inspired, he appropriated a pair of old roller skates, found a suitable wooden board, and screwed the skates onto the bottom, front and rear. He hoisted his surfboard under his arm, and took off down a hill to the ocean off La Jolla Beach. With great power comes great responsibility, but Peter Parkin had no idea what he had started. In his desire to get to the waves quicker, surfer Peter Parkin became the first skateboarder.

2 Winged Feet Peter Parkin owed a debt of thanks to a Belgian inventor named John Joseph Merlin who pat- ented in 1760 the first roller skates. And actually, Merlin’s skates were way ahead of their time, being more like a modern inline skate. Merlin was born September 17, 1735 in Huys, Belgium. He was the first recorded person to invent a roller skate, doing so in the 1760s in London, England. His fast shoes bore three small metal wheels on each, lined up in a row. Merlin wore a pair of his new skates to a masquerade party at Carlisle House in London. But although he was a well-known inven- tor, he was not at all a good skater. He could not control his speed or direction, and crashed into a large mirror, severely injuring himself and possibly setting back the sport of roller skating for years. Merlin’s grandson, Bernard Tyers, was the better test pilot for the first roller skates. But roller skates then did not go far. Some 250 years ago, inventors didn’t have rubber or urethane or any modern materi- als to work. And most roads were cobblestone anyway. In 1819, a Frenchman named M. Petitbled patented a roller skate, which still had three wheels in a row. During the next four decades years, all roller skates had an inline set of wheels, varying in number—some had as few as two or as A phalanx of rebel kids on their “skooter skates” ride down a California hill in 1922. The luge-like contraptions appear to have a single many as six—and in their design. These skates, roller skate attached to a seat. National Photo Company/Library of Congress however, lacked the ability to turn easily. Turning is important when you are hurtling down a hill, even on metal wheels. Only history In the summer of 1866, the NYRSA leased a contraption. The push scooter, or kick scooter, knows how many disasters and skinned knees fashionable resort hotel, the Atlantic House in was propelled by the back foot, while the front there were until 1896 when Yankee inventor Newport, Rhode Island, and converted the dining foot stayed onboard, and the driver steered with James Plimpton invented the “rocking” skate. room into a skating area. This was the first roller a handle attached to the front, over the wheels. Frustrated by the roller skates available, Plimp- skating rink open to the public in the United States. The scooter followed a similar evolution to roller ton created a new type of roller skate, one that skates, although its history started much later. The would revolutionize the sport. In January 1863, The Kick Scooter Connection first United States patent for a scooter was filed in he patented a four-wheeled skate that was capable Surfer Peter Parkin may also have been inspired by 1921. Still, the kid’s transportation choice most of turning. The mechanism had a pivoting action a child’s push scooter in creating his skateboard. likely goes back into the 19th Century, and even dampened by a rubber cushion, permitting the skater The truth is, a skateboard-like base is the founda- before that. But perhaps it took the roaring economy to carve a curve by leaning in the desired direction tion for all scooters, so going back to the turn of of the 1920s for someone to patent the scooter. of travel. Plimpton built a roller skating floor in the 19th Century into the 20th, kids and parents Just as skateboarding would be popularized the office of his New York City furniture business around the world were laying the foundation for by songs and movies and TV from the 1950s into Roller skaters, circa 1910. and leased out his skates. To promote the sport, he skateboarding, when they attached wheels to a the 1960s, in the 1920s, the kick scooter got a kick George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress founded the New York Roller Skating Association. piece of wood or metal as the basis for a wheeled forward from Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and the

5 CHAPTER 3 IN THE BEGINNING 6 Fourteen-year-old Nathan Pratt was the first Z-Boy. Hired by Skip Engblom to work at the Zephyr shop after school every day, over the next six years he became an apprentice surfboard maker under Jeff Ho and the founding member of the team that would become the Dogtown-based Z-Boys. Here he holds his first skateboard.

From his surfboard shop in the “Dogtown” Venice Beach area of Santa Monica, Jeff Ho launched the famous Zephyr Skate Team, that became widely know as the Z-Boys and was legendary for popularizing the skateboarding. The shop building was designated a City Landmark in 2007.

9 CHAPTER 3 IN THE BEGINNING 10 Surf’s Up! Surfing was not far removed in concept from roller skating or scooting. All three were emblematic of humans seeking new modes of transportation or fun, with their feet suddenly propelled by nature’s forces. Surfing as a sport evolved out of old Hawaii but nearly died off at the turn of the 19th into the 20th Century—the popularity of the sport dying, because the Hawaiians were dying out due to the missionaries’ presence in their island. But in the early years of the 20th Century, writers like Mark Twain and Jack London wrote glowing stories of surfing in Hawaii, and as tourist traffic increased to the Hawaiian islands, more and more outsiders caught a wave to sit on top of the world. And some of those people brought boards and ideas back to the mainland, and tried riding waves there. The Great Depression of the 1930s seemed to stimulate surfing on the mainland. The first mass- manufacturer of surfboards began producing beautiful hardwoods under the Pacific System Homes Surfing became the rage on the West Coast following World label. There were surf contests on the mainland and War II. Many a tourist fell in love with waveriding at Waikiki Beach, surfing on a Pacific System Homes Swastika board like magazines and books and it’s likely this popular- this mammoth wooden monster. ity was inspired by the fact that no one had any money: for the price of a surfboard you could have all the fun and exercise you wanted—with abalone World War II also accelerated the popularity of and lobster there for the picking on the rocks. surfing, because wartime materials like fiberglass The Pacific System Homes company used and polyester resin reduced the weight and length of a Swastika as a logo on their surfboards, and surfboards, and the cost, but increased their strength while they engraved the boards with this age-old and performance and availability. The year 1947 symbol of health and well being, the emer- was an important year for surfing as this was a time gence of the Nazi party in Germany put the when California innovators like Bob Simmons, Matt kibosh on their logo. Pacific System Homes Kivlin, and Joe Quigg began experimenting with changed their boards to the Waikiki Model. balsa wood, fiberglass, and resin—and also wartime Before World War II, the Hawaiian Islands and theories about planning hulls. In 1947, Howard the South Pacific might as well have been Saturn Hughes took his huge, heavy Spruce Goose for a short to most Americans, as it took money and time flight in Long Beach Harbor and then grounded it for to get there. But the war in the Pacific gave free good. That same year, Chuck Yeager broke the sound passage to hundreds of thousands of Americans, barrier in the X1. The same transition was happen- who were exposed to new ways of living and having ing in surfing, as the old, heavy hardwood boards The Nash Manufacturing fun. A lot of soldiers and sailors and Marines tried were being replaced by lighter, faster surfboards. Company of Fort Worth, Texas, launched its Shark line of surfing in Waikiki—as depicted in both the novel All of that was going on in the surfing world skateboards in the early 1960s. and movie From Here to Eternity—and those men in 1947, and that was the same year surfer Peter This circa 1963 Black Shark rode and women who survived the war and came home Parkin attached the roller skate wheels to the piece atop the then-state-of-the-art in one piece, continued those ways in California. of wood, and become the first skateboarder. metal wheels.

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