While the history of skateboarding can be traced back about 40 years, this article is going to focus more on the last ten years of the sport. Society in the past use to look upon skateboarders as troublemakers, even criminals. I remember first when I started, about 8 years ago one of the most popular stickers you could buy to go on your board stated that "Skateboarding Is Not A Crime." And at the time it rang true to all those who would spend any time in the streets skateboarding.

It seemed that if you stayed in one place for more than ten minutes people would either be yelling at you to go away or they would be phoning the cops! For example, a friend and I one day were in an empty parking lot of a local business, it was after hours and hardly anybody was around. It was just the two of us there on our boards, we were not yelling or making any noise, we were not drinking or doing drugs, we weren't even close to the building the parking lot was in front of. We were just enjoying the great space to practice our tricks. About fifteen minutes later a truck pulled up and the driver said that if we were not out of here when he came back in ten minutes that he would phone the cops! Of course we were only young at the time and couldn't really do anything to defend ourselves so we just left.

That is only a minor situation compared to the dozens of stories I've heard. So what is it about the sport that makes it so 'illegal'. I have yet to figure it out. Today however it seems like it is finally becoming more accepted, like its ok to skateboard now as long as you are not running over pedestrians. More towns are building 'skate parks' to provide skaters with a place to go instead of mall parking lots or the streets. Televised competitions are finally getting plenty of airtime on popular stations, along with many other new and 'extreme' sports. There is also a subculture of people who have their own style of clothing, music, and attitudes. They have been standing up for their right to skate ever since the sport was invented and now finally it seems their dedication has paid off. Skateboarding is finally a mainstream sport accepted by society.

--Lestat