Who created the first skateboard?

Friar Tuck

The skateboard was originally conceived as a means of surfing outside of water. In the late 1950s, Californian surfing enthusiasts, frustrated that the weather and waves were not always suitable for surfing, began nailing the bases of roller skates to the front and back ends of wooden planks. Unstable as they were, these boards allowed for 'sidewalk surfing' along streets and down hills. http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsR%2DZ/skateboard.html Aug 17 02, 8:48 PM

Friar Tuck

Found a site that gives a name this time. Back in the 1930s and '40s, kids attached roller skates onto two-by-fours -- try riding that down a railing -- but it wasn't until 1958 that the skateboard we know was born. Naturally, it was in a California surf shop. A surfer's gotta surf, even when the ocean's as flat as Nebraska. So shop owner Bill Richards and his son Mark made a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to produce sets of skate wheels. Then they mounted them to square wooden boards. Soon kids were rolling down hills acting like they had caught a tsunami. 'Sidewalk surfing' was officially a craze, although some preferred the more academically correct 'terra-surfing.' http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/toys/SKATEBOARD/shoulda.html Aug 17 02, 8:51 PM