Invented in the 1950s by southern California surfers who sought a way to surf without waves, skateboarding has itself experienced several waves of popularity. Almost universally outlawed in the 1960s because it was perceived as dangerous, skateboarding enjoyed a revival in the 1970s and another in the 1980s, helped along by Marty McFly, the skateboarding hero of the Back to the Future movies. In the 1990s, skateboarding once again flourished, not only as a popular "extreme" sport, but also as a five hundred million dollar a year business. Perhaps because it was spawned by the bohemian surfer culture, skateboarding has always had a rebel image, and it is this that may be responsible for the continuing renewal of its popularity among youth.

In the 1950s bored surfers attached composite roller skate wheels to pivoting axles and put them on the front and back of a wooden plank. The...