From its origins in the California hills in the US to its acceptance on urban streets worldwide, the history of skateboarding spans(跨越) seven decades over which it has developed from an unwelcome sport to an Olympic event in 2020. Now a London exhibition is to show the path from those humble homemade boards of the 1950s to today's hi-tech professional modes.
The exhibition will feature about 90 rare and unique boards along with more than 100 other related objects, including safety equipment and magazines. Half of the skateboards will be on loan from the Skateboarding Hall of Fame Museum in California. A highlight will be a 1967 Bilbo board produced by European Surfing Company, which was set up at Newquay in Cornwall in southwestern England in 1965 and marketed the first skateboards in the UK.
Also on display will be the famous skateboarder Tony Hawk's first professional model, from 1982. with its adaptations for the vent style of skateboarding which uses vertical ramps (垂直坡面) rather than level ground; early homemade boards from 1950s California modeled on the design of roller-skates and surfboards; and the first two models to feature a kick tail-the raised tail enabling skaters to turn or balance the board on the back wheels.
It will also feature Laura Thorn hill's Logan Earth Ski from the 1970s, the first women's professional model. Sky Brown. who at 13 won bronze for Team Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is represented through her first professional model, the Sky Brown&. Skateistan Almost model.
"Skateboards, often misunderstood as being just toys are now hi-tech products responding to constantly changing urban environments," said Jonathan Olivares, the show's director. "This exertion is centenred around a single question; how did the skateboard get to be the way it is? This exhibition takes you on a journey through time, design and space-positioning the skateboard as a truly unique object."
