For those of you who assume that skateboarding is American in origin, you’re not entirely correct. The true origin skateboarding comes from the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre in the year 1944, toward the end of WWII. As reported by an American WAC, the predecessor of the modern skateboard was made by youngsters attaching roller-skate wheels to the bottoms of planks from wooden crates.
Sometime around the late 1940’s, early 1950’s, surfers in Southern California caught wind of the Parisian neighborhood fad and brought it to a whole new level. By the mid 1960’s, a Southern Californian skateboard entrepreneur began hiring groups of skaters to put on exhibitions at junior highs and high schools throughout Los Angeles. From humble high school events, the sport/activity took off to the Olympic-bound, $4.8 billion a year juggernaut it is today.
Which makes this entirely wonderful short film from the Atlantic Magazine of a how skateboarding is transforming the lives of impoverished South African youth in the city of Durban all the more amazing. Who would have thought that the skateboard could represent such a marvelous intercultural journey—sprung from the imagination of war-weary children in Paris, catapulted to prominence on the waves of post-war Southern Californian ingenuity and then returning to its roots–in a metaphoric way–to inspire the youth of Durban, South Africa. Sometimes life and culture are truly amazing!
