A California import, skateboarding appeared in Milwaukee in the 1960s and rose in popularity in the 1970s.[1] Local authorities perceived skating as dangerous and wasted little time banning it from most public places.[2] According to contemporary accounts, this led to confrontations between skaters and authorities, which supported skateboarding’s outsider image.[3] Nevertheless, skaters careened down the smooth ramps of local schools until campus police intruded, while hotshots performed tricks at “the spot” in Greenfield Park.[4] The famous concrete pools at Turf Skatepark in Greenfield functioned as skateboarding’s area headquarters, attracting the nation’s top teams and local youth alike through the mid-1990s.[5] Forty years on, skateboarding’s rebellious spirit remains, but the growing number of well-maintained skate parks in the area attest to its increasingly mainstream status.[6]
Footnotes [+]
- ^ James Davis, Skateboarding Is Not a Crime: 50 Years of Street Culture (Buffalo, NY, and Richmond Hill, Ontario: Firefly Books, 2004), 10-12; Jay Scriba, “Skateboarders Set for Takeoff Here,” The Milwaukee Journal, April 27, 1979, accessed March 17, 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19790427&id=U10aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OyoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6894,5154795; Skateboarding enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Milwaukee in the mid-1960s, but the sport did not truly gain traction until the invention of the polyurethane wheels, which replaced clay wheels and gave riders vastly improved control.
- ^ Lee Bergquist, “Ramping It Up a Notch—Skateboarding Gaining New Acceptance,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 7, 2005, accessed March 18 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1QEdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VY4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6033%2C195468; As to the degree of danger inherent in skateboarding, see Neil D. Rosenberg, “Skateboard Injuries Soar,” The Milwaukee Journal, May 10, 1977, accessed March 24, 2014, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19770510&id=EcQqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mH4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2751,6578052, and Jay Scriba, “Skateboarders Set for Takeoff Here,” wherein the author notes that skaters began to wear pads by the end of the 1970s, making the sport safer.
- ^ Bergquist, “Ramping It Up a Notch.”
- ^ Jay Scriba, “Skateboarders.” The spot—an informal hotspot—featured an open concrete tube, where skaters could practice tricks such as the “Kamikaze” and “two-board daffies.”
- ^ Ken Darling, “Skateboard Enthusiasts Get Greenfield Park Rolling” The Milwaukee Sentinel, November 19, 1987, accessed March 16, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19871119&id=3EMxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nxIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5892,3739098; Kathy Nichols, “Surfin’ the Turf,” ThirdCoastDaily.com, September 10, 2010, accessed March 17, 2014, http://thirdcoastdaily.com/2010/09/10/surfin-the-turf/; Turf Skateboard Park was located at 4267 W. Loomis Rd.
- ^ Lee Bergquist, “Ramping It Up a Notch.” As of 2014, skateboarding on Milwaukee streets is illegal and skateboards are classified in the same category as unicycles.
For Further Reading
Brooke, Michael. The Concrete Wave: The History of Skateboarding. Toronto: Warwick Publishing, 1999.
Davis, James. Skateboarding Is Not a Crime: 50 Years of Street Culture. Buffalo, NY and Richmond Hill, Ontario: Firefly Books, 2004.
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