SKATEBOARDING

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) The use of a skateboard (a small board mounted on roller-skate wheels), for sport and recreation. Etymology: Formed on the noun skateboard, which was formed by compounding after the example of surfboard: a board which relies on skates to provide mobility. History and Usage: Skateboards first appeared in the early sixties in California, where they originally provided a substitute for surfing when the ocean conditions were unfavourable. In the mid seventies they enjoyed a short-lived worldwide craze, during which numerous skateparks were built in which skateboarders could practise tricks and manoeuvres in safety. The pastime never completely died out, and by the second half of the eighties had become fashionable again, perhaps because of its appearance in such films as Back to the Future (1985). Some of the special language used by skateboarders (such as gleaming the cube for 'pushing oneself to the limits') also enjoyed wider popularity as a result of films about skateboarding. Surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding looks have been so mass-marketed that the purists feel betrayed. Los Angeles Times 12 Sept. 1990, section S, p. 4