The skateboard , also called Rouli-travelling (Registered trademark) with the Quebec, or - out-of-date term board with casters (according to the '' the Petit Robert ''), is composed of a plate (or board) under which are fixed two axles (known as also trucks or axes) making it possible to maintain on each one of them two wheels. It can be used to move, but especially to carry out figures (Tricks) of all kinds, in urban environment or in specialized parks, the Skatepark S . The practitioner of these disciplines is called skator (or skater of the English term).

Composition of a modern skateboard:

Generally the boards of skate are out of Canadian maple wood. They are composed of seven fine layers wood to stick and placed under a press then to stick. Then one gives a more or less concave form to the board (one raises the bordsdans the direction the length according to the style of wrinkle). The part with before is called the " Nez" (English Nose) and on the other hand the " is; Queue" (English Tail). On the top one sticks non-skid called Grip, left " paper of verre" sticker, one generally sells it with the cut.

History

The board with casters was invented in summer 1961 by two Californian surfers (Mickey Muñoz and Phil Edwards) who were wearied days without waves. To fill their trouble, they decided to create the “board with casters”, which would enable them to practice their discipline on the dry land, without that not requiring particular weather conditions. Thus had been born the board with casters.

After a lose speed, due to few innovations during the Years 1970, the board with casters returns to the mode in the Années 1980, with the freestyle . This “under-discipline” it board with casters being a discipline as such sees its apogee in the years 1975 - 1985, but also characterizes the majority of the current figures. At this time, much of followers go down again in the street, testing and creating new figures, like the Boneless , the No-comply , the footplants , etc These figures are categorized today as belonging to the old school even if they are always current. It is also at that time that the practice in Rampe appears.

The board with casters knows then a second hollow period. A significant reduction in the mediatization and a lack of new recruits are undoubtedly the causes. However, certain pioneers - as Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen or Natas Kaupas - however continued to practice and invent new figures.

Towards 1988, the skateboard returns once again to the mode. The discipline being blown a little, the innovation, very important factor, are more than ever with the day order. Stars such as Natas Kaupas or Mark Gonzales see very far: the handrails, the rails , etc They push their boards in a new direction, more insane. The practice remains primarily urban, but this time the skateurs use to the maximum the configuration of the city. If this time makes the prerogative of the use of the rails (see low), the new generation of the end of the year 1980 also shows its level on gaps : jumps of spaces, steps, etc

In parallel, the practice on slopes has success more and more, becoming very quickly with the mode.

Appear Mike Carroll, Colin McKay, Salman Agah, skateurs today médiatisés but always in activity.

Between 1992 and 1995, the skate stresses the technique, giving up the esthetic side somewhat. This time will see the emergence of new hundreds Tricks : flips (see Tricks ), are created and improved, one invents the switch (the fact of practicing with the leg opposed to that of call, with back to some extent).

The appearance of the skateboard it also evolved/moved. This one henceforth presents tiny wheels and boards known as “matches”. On another side, perhaps in an implicit search for unit, the skateurs start to adopt a clean style, more or less inspired of the mode of the surfers. This time is called big pants, small wheels (“large pants, small wheels”).

After these a few last years to perfect their tricks , the skateurs - imitating stars as Pépé Martinez - return to their first loves, seizing more than ever of the street. Once again, “the large” gaps and the rails are put at the honor, coupled this time with the any novel method.

If the slope, very with the mode in the years 1980, seems to be marginalized with the beginning of the year 1990, this one is finally seen drawing a radiant sky. It is the time, of Danny Way (considered by some like the “larger ramprider of the History” or the “Master of the vert'”), but also of Rune Glifberg, Bucky Lasek, Tony Hawk, John Cardiel, Tony Trujillo, of the celebrities having given the taste of the “curve” to hundreds of skateurs .

The year 1998 will always see the beginning of the festival Jamie Thomas - name of its creator, a skator which also created the mark Zero Skateboards - sails about it aujourd'hui.
This time will also mark the beginning of the end for the multinational of the skate , “Powell Peralta”.

From this time, and always today, several different styles emerged: technical skateurs , go-ahead types, etc Today, the question which installation is to know what counts more in the discipline: style or the performance? This question is even less obvious than it appears to with it. Indeed, so some regard the technical practice as not very esthetic, others on the contrary cannot conceive technical and style separately. Fortunately, today, this question is more source of diversification than of discord.

For the moment, the skate , recovered by the Publicity and the fashion for its “rebellious” image, is seen over-exposed. But it is difficult to envisage the future. The skateboard will it fall down in the lapse of memory or, on the contrary, it will take importance so much that it will become one day about it a sport like another? Is it possible that one goes one day to the skatepark as at the stage, to be involved?

In any case, nothing prevents us from believing it. Indeed, the skate will be present for the first time at the Olympic Games in 2008, of category “Crawls” (only).

Sport or art

Is the skateboard a Sport or a Art? The question arises as soon as one wishes to approach the style and the philosophy of the discipline. A sport is a discipline stressing the performance, while an art aims at reaching an esthetic ideal, by a technique, a clean style. As an art, the skateboard would approach the dance, in what the search for beauty is done through the movement.

The systems of evaluation of the skateurs at the time of the competitions shows the ambivalence of the discipline. Thus, at the conclusion of sound run (passage, service), the skateboarder will be judged not only on the technique and the performance, but also on the creativity and the style (esthetism). Limited in time, a run can be compared with a program of Figure skating, with however less strict rules and the absence of dichotomy between free program and imposed program.

If the majority of the followers of skate do not regard their discipline as a sport with whole share - from where many criticisms with respect to Chad Muska, which seems to seek only the height and the difficulty - it would seem that the current evolution tends to modify this idea, tendency perhaps that OJ of 2008 will accentuate. Two parallel ways thus take shape. If the skateboard could not become a sport with the 100% - all aspects of the discipline not being quantifiable in term of performance - practice of the discipline as visual esthetic object (photographs some in particular) is spread.

The style skator

Recovery by the media of the image of the board with casters and the profusion of the marks of skate (Black label, Blind, cd., DVS, Element, be, Etnies, Flip, Girl, Globe, Independent, Matix, Osiris, Spitfire, Venture, Volcom, WESC, World Industries, Zero, and so much of others) also turned into to “style skator” a fashion with whole share. Indeed, the practices stylistics of the followers, resulting from the cultures popular Californian and urban American, are seen reproduced by a multitude of young people, the majority not being even interested by the practice of the skate . This new generation is seen of funny of eye by certain “true” skateurs , which qualifies them then “frimeurs” (“layers” or “pseudos”). This style being developed in mode, the vestimentary implements of the skateurs is expensive, which leads sometimes to situations where only the “layers” wear really clothes of skate , while the practitioners do not see inevitably the interest of it. But one should not see there-behind a désœuvrée imitation or a ridiculous reproduction. The recovery of this fashion is a way of showing its adhesion with a philosophy, more still than with a discipline in oneself. The spirit of the skateboard thus inspired the new generation much, becoming a social phenomenon, and a reference among the young people.

Concretely, and since ten years, the style skator is characterized by full clothing. The preference is thus given to the long tee-shirts and the pants “baggy” (going down under the buttocks and letting appear the pants), style which one will describe as " Big pants, small wheels" (literally large pants, and small wheels). The shoes of skate , as for it, are very particular. Conceptualized to hold as well as possible on a skateboard and to damage themselves the least possible, it are large and present thick laces. However, the marks of shoes of skate turn today into to more discrete or more traditional, symptomatic models of the adoption of the style skator by people practitioner not. However the pants greenhouses or " slim" “punk” style (or “Thrasher”) returns to the mode as well as the leather jackets. The skateurs Corey Duffel and Jim Greco and Eric Ellington gives of it the example, so considered as " worse drunk" literally " pisseux bourré".

The amalgam is often made and all the styles " then are gathered; underground" under name " skateur".

Music

From a musical point of view, it is not possible to stereotype the universe of the skateboard. So some will claim that the skateurs appreciate especially the musics of the “Street American culture” (Hip-hop, Rap), others will be able to only rise in front of this assertion. The musical culture which is behind the skateboard is the result of a long evolution, and thus is very diversified. Resulting from the Surfing, discipline with the culture deeply Rock' Roll, the skateboard then developed in the street, on rates/rhythms of hip-hop or rep. It does not have there thus an absolute general information to make. The hip-hop is recovered for its membership of the street American culture , while the rock'n'roll points out the euphoria of the beginnings. However, in Europe particularly, the rock'n'roll and its derivatives - Punk, metal - seem to supplant the hip-hop in the world of the skateboard, this kind of music being associated with the “style skator” (see not preceding).

The music (in the vidéos) often has an influence on the young people skaters, who sometimes discover and open towards a new musical genre. The music of each share (section of video), closely related to the image of the skater and the mark, influence certain young people who put themselves to get dressed as the skater that he likes and to listen to the same music.

The skateboard and the image

The vidéos which marked, with each generation, the history of the skateboard, testify to the bond between skateboard and images. Even if the innovation in the figures and their sequences became the measurement of reference of good a video, the esthetic aspect of this sequence, the returned general impression, and the style remain essential so that this one enters the history. It, in general, is associated with a band which “sticks” to the sequences of each skateboarder.

One notes the exit of the film the Lords of Dogtown, of Catherine Hardwicke, who recalls the evolution of the skateboard as from the years 1970 and the three founders of the discipline: Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta (which is scenario writer of film besides, and whose role is played by the young person John Robinson, main actor of Elephant of Gus Van Sant) and Tony Alva.

Anglicisms

From its American origin , the vocabulary related to the discipline is truffle of neologisms directly inspired by the English. Even on the level of its name, the skateboard asserts its anglophone origins. Indeed, this term today is used largely than original and official name: board with casters.

It is the same with regard to the names of the Tricks (easy way, in English): Varial kickflip with the Boardslide , all the figures are named with English. It is not even rare to intend a skator to qualify a simple rotation of 360° of “three-sixty” (three (hundred) sixty, in English).

Certain elements have also a double name. Thus, in a Skatepark, one will not hesitate to speak about Rampe S (French), but one will specify of which type it acts while speaking about half-pipe (English) and of quarter-pipe (English). In other cases, English name côtoie French name without preference for one or the other form (ex: truck (English) and centers (French)).

It is also noticed that certain words changed direction into passing from English to French. Thus, to name the various modules which strew the Skatepark S , some skateurs use the generic term deck (see below). However, in English, this one indicates the board quite simply (the part out of wood of the skateboard ).

Extreme sport

The skateboard is generally regarded as an extreme sport, even if it can be practiced on quite different levels. As a discipline, there remains close to its neighbors of “slips” such as BMX, the X-board , the Surf , the Skimboard and its alternatives: Windsurf , Kitesurf , etc Or even the Snowboard .

Technical sides of the skateboard

Board with casters

A skateboard is composed of several distinct parts, generally separately selected and then assemblées.
Citons:
  1. the board or board : it is about the principal element. There are several forms and sizes. It is out of wood (Canadian maple generally for the European boards) and made up of 7 fine layers or plys , several sizes of boards exist. To classify them, one refers to the width. This one varies from 7,4 inches (one speaks then about 7.4 quite simply), (190 mm) - generally used for the discipline in street - up to 8,5 inches (216 mm) (most solid quasi indestructible) and the price has nothing to do with the quality of the plate it is necessary to look at the concave one (the shape of the plate), for the “slope”. Let us note that the majority of the professionals at least use only boards of 8 inches. Other criteria which the width make it possible to distinguish various boards and they have also single forms (the concave one). Firstly, the reason, related to a mark or on a skateboarder celebrates (pro-model), but also the length and the curve. The edges and stop them boards are rounded, but generally these last become cutting through wear. The board is covered with a grip , an adhesive sheet “clutching” comparable with sandpaper, completely essential for the Ollie and person in charge of the fast wear of the shoes. Before board is called the nose the longest side of the plate (English for nose) and the back of the board names the the shortest tail of the plate (of the English word meaning tail). On the majority of the current boards, there is not real distinction between before and the back of the board (one will be able however to observe that the nose is slightly longer and less curved than the tail but on certain model the difference is very tiny). The words nose and tail do not intervene whereas according to the position and of the direction which the skator gives to the board.
  2. the trucks or axes : there are two by skate of them. They are directly screwed with the board and are used as connection between the board and the wheels. They must be solid to be able to box the shocks and enough light not to obstruct the skater, for this they are out of special aluminum (not welded, for the safety of the skater), sometimes painted. There also exists about it of several kinds, although their role is obviously always the same one. Certain marks propose more unexpected forms of them, as the axes of Blind , cut in the shape of character surrounded by letters forming the name of the mark, the whole in relief. Moreover, the way in which the skator tightens his trucks determines its way of skater. This is why those which want a maximum of stability choose tightened trucks (it is then necessary to support slightly on the tail to be able to turn), while others choose loosened trucks (they can thus turn without needing to support on the tail but just by leaning the body which much simpler to return some tricks like the manual or the nose manual). One can obtain the same result by installing more or less hard “gums”, however the price of these “gums”, or “doh-doh”, name of the mark of manufacturing, is rather high. The term centers also refers to the screw around which all the parts of the truck come to be assembled: base plate, hanger (left on which the Grind is done) and “gums”. In English the distinction is clearer because this screw is called kingpin , which means central pivot. This part is fragile.
  3. the bearings : they are rolls of the dice. There exist several types of quality, classified with according to the standards ABEC which go from 1 to 9, Abec1 being not very powerful but solid bottom-of-the-range bearings, Abec3 and 5 are most current, solid and fast, and Abec7 and 9 are less solid, but faster. Many current marks do not take really any more account of these standards for their top-of-the-range bearings. A board requires 8 bearings (two per wheel). The bearings are generally spaced by a spacer (kind of metal short period of Tuyau which is used to facilitate the slip between the axis and the bearing).
  4. the wheels : in urethan, they have a diameter which can vary from 45 to 60 mm for the most current models. In general the wheels of small diameter are preferred by the skateurs of street because they offer more reactivity to the skateboard by lowering the center of gravity of the board which thus comes more quickly into contact with the ground when the skator types his trick . The wheels of large diameter offer on the contrary a less reactivity but a greater stability as well as a speed of wrinkle more raised and are generally used by the ramp-riders where the skateurs who like speed. The hardness of the wheels also varies, the wheels of “filmeurs” being generally rather soft in order to decrease the vibrations and the noise related to the bearing on the ground with an aim of improving quality of film. Lastly, the bearings are inserted in the central part of the wheels. That Ci is sometimes reinforced by a plastic heart in order to improve the lifespan of the bearings. This hardness is written with a figure followed of an A. It exists several types about it: 92A (more for the street ), 95A, 99A and even 101A for hardest (used especially for the Skatepark ).
  5. screws and bolts : all screws used to make hold the skateboard. It can separately buy skateboard like all the other elements. This term ( hardware in English) refers more particularly to the screws being used to fix the trucks on the board. Those Ci can be different lengths, according to whether the skator installs plastic inserts ( pads in English) between his board and his trucks or not. These inserts have several functions: to raise the board, to decrease the vibrations, to deaden the impact of the landing to protect the board, inter alia. The traditional size of screws and bolts is of 1 inch (25,4 mm). One can also buy screws of which one is of a color different from the others, this in order to determine where are the nose and the tail of its skateboard.

tricks …

There is, at present, a number impressing of figures, or tricks . Simplest - but certainly not easiest is the Ollie (the jump) or quite simply the manual (to advance on the two aft wheels of the board while remaining in balance). The ollie is the trick that a beginner must learn if he wants to be able to evolve/move. Before its invention, the first skateurs rose in the airs by making a Boneless or a " No comply" , consisting in raising the board by typing foot on the ground, or with the hand for the boneless. Now, the ollie makes it possible to jump without it being question of touching the board with the hands nor to put the foot at the sol.
The other figures are divided into various categories, according to certain criteria. For more detailed explanation, you can consult the article on the Tricks .

See also: Tricks

… and decks

The spirit of the discipline wants that one can practice the skateboard on any urban furniture (often against the local authority because of the Wax which blackens those, a kind of wax for better slipping, but some make use simply of candle or paraffin). However, the appearance of the Skatepark S.A. makes the prerogative of a new range of modules - or decks , inspired by traditional urban furniture but transformed to be used specifically for the practice of the skateboard and other extreme sports lending itself to it. These various modules are characterized by their form, their size, their matter, or by the tricks that they make it possible to carry out.

Pro Skateurs famous

Skateurs: rights and duties

The skator, when it circulates on the public highway, is a pedestrian taking into consideration highway code. It is in all the cases the direction of the response of the Minister of Interior Department to a written question 45849 published to the Official journal the 8/10/2004 page 6189 posed by the Marie-Jo Zimmermann deputy: “ In the absence of specific regulation, the users of machines with casters are, when they circulate on the public highway, assimilated with pedestrians ”.

For this reason the skator is subjected “ to the provisions of articles R. 412-34 with R. 412-42 of the highway code ” continues the minister. He thus has the obligation:

  • to use the R412-34 pavements,

  • when it borrows the roadway, to circulate close to the one of its edges. Except agglomeration and except if that is likely to compromise its safety or except particular circumstances, it must be held close to the left edge to the roadway in the direction to its R412-36 walk,
  • to cross the roadway by taking account of the visibility as well as distance and speed from the vehicles R412-37,
  • to use, when there exists about it with less than 50 meters, the passages envisaged with its intention. From the intersections in the vicinity of which does not exist passage envisaged with its intention, the skator must borrow the part of the roadway in prolongation of the pavement R412-37,
  • when the crossing of a roadway is regulated by traffic lights, the skator should engage only with green light R412-38,
  • when the crossing of a roadway is regulated by an agent in charge of circulation, it should cross only to his signal R412-38,
  • out of the intersections, it is held to cross the roadway perpendicular to his axis R412-39,
  • it is to him interdict to circulate on the roadway of a place or ofan intersection unless there does not exist a passage envisaged with its intention allowing him the direct crossing R412-39,
  • it must circumvent the place or the intersection while crossing as many roadways as he is necessary R412-39,
  • when the roadway is divided into several parts by one or more refuges or quay levels, the longboarder arrived at the one of those should engage on the following part of the roadway only by complying with the rules envisaged by the articles which precede R412-40,
  • the fact, for any skator, to contravene the provisions of this section is punished fine planned for the infringments of the first R412-43 class. “ the amount of the contractual fine for the infringments with the Highway code of the first class made by the pedestrians was fixed at 30 F by Criminal procedure code (R. 49). The ordinance n° 2000-916 of September 19th, 2000 fixing the correspondence in euros of the amounts expressed in francs in the legislative texts envisaged equivalence: 30 F ≈ 4,5 €. However the R-49 article of the reactualized Criminal procedure code lays down well a contractual fine of 4 € ”

Different regulations according to the cities

Certain cities set up a specific regulation. Thus at Paris , the services of the police headquarter estimate that the practice of the board with casters is comparable with a dangerous play, within the meaning of article 113 of the ordinance of the Prefect of police of July 25th, 1862 and thus, consequently, prohibited at the same time on the pavements and the roadway.

It is also interdict to use its board with casters to move. For the police headquarter, " this type of equipment cannot be used like a means of displacement ".

The practice of the skateboard can thus be done only on spots officially listed by the Town hall of Paris. The decrees of the February 3rd, 1978 and March 22nd, 1979 fixed the list of the sites where the users can be exerted with this activity.

See too

External bonds

  • National Commission of descent, decentralized body of the FFRS

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