For more than twenty years, Tony Hawks has been mistaken for Tony Hawk, the American skateboarder. Even though it is abundantly clear on his website that he is an English comedian and author, people still write to him asking the best way to do a kickflip or land a melon. One mischievous day he started writing back in a pompous tone, goading his correspondents for their spelling mistakes and poor grammar, while offering bogus or downright silly advice on how to improve their skateboarding. Featuring entries on parents' pain, disappointment, underachievers, Quorn and the Vatican, this is his A to Z guide to the world of skateboarding, as seen through the eyes of someone who knows absolutely nothing about it.

A study of the history and development of the sport of skateboarding and its surrounding culture. It includes information on techniques, equipment and clothing and it is illustrated with colour and black and white photography.

Skateboarding is both a sport and a way of life. Creative, physical, graphic, urban and controversial, it is full of contradictions - a billion-dollar global industry which still retains its vibrant, counter-cultural heart. Skateboarding and the City presents the only complete history of the sport, exploring the story of skate culture from the surf-beaches of `60s California to the latest developments in street-skating today. Written by a life-long skater who also happens to be an architectural historian, and packed through with full-colour images - of skaters, boards, moves, graphics, and film-stills - this passionate, readable and rigorously-researched book explores the history of skateboarding and reveals a vivid understanding of how skateboarders, through their actions, experience the city and its architecture in a unique way.

The world-champion freestyle skateboarder and the man who brought the ollie - the trick that revolutionised the sport by taking it from the ground to the air - to street skating shares the history of skateboarding, as he tells the dramatic story of his life.

At the age of 13, Rodney took the freestyle skating world by storm. He won 35 world titles in less than five years. But through it all, his father looked down on his son's love for skating and pressured him to walk away from the sport and leave behind his fans and status as the most famous skateboarder of his era. After years of stress and conflict, Rodney gave in and promised his father he'd quit for good. But by the time he finally broke free from his suffocating and abusive home life, the popularity of freestyle had waned and given way to vert and street styles. So Rodney picked up his board and started from scratch. With the help of mentor Mike Ternansky, Rodney used his freestyle background to usher in a whole new era of street skating.

Today Rodney is more popular than ever. The videos in his series Rodney Versus Daewon are among the most popular skateboard videos ever produced. He won the 2002 Transworld Skateboarding readers' choice award for favourite street skater and is the most popular character on the top-selling Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games.

Skateboarding is one of the fastest-growing activities for youth in America and throughout the world. This fun and exhilarating activity is a great way of fighting childhood obesity while providing a practical method of transportation. The increased popularity of skateboarding has created an unprecedented demand for more skateparks, sound instruction, and access to safe opportunities for skating. "Skateboarding: Instruction, Programming, and Park Design" provides safe and effective skateboarding instruction and programming as well as information on building and managing skateparks. You'll get all the tools you need to do everything from teaching fundamental skateboarding skills to designing and running a park to meet the needs of your community.

In "Skateboarding: Instruction, Programming, and Park Design, " author Ben Wixon, an experienced skateboarder, instructor, and skatepark consultant and advocate, provides you with

-a full curriculum with progressive lesson plans and practice strategies to help you teach skateboarding safely and correctly;

-guidance through the planning and design process, including an overview of the pros and cons of various skatepark styles and construction types;

-information on key management issues such as supervision, staffing, scheduling, and maintenance; and

-strategies for managing risk through appropriate skateboarding instruction, supervision, and park maintenance.

Proper instruction in skateboarding fundamentals is the first step in providing a safe experience for all participants. "Skateboarding" begins with a ready-to-use curriculum that can be implemented in a variety of settings, including schools, public parks, and camps. The step-by-step lesson plans make it easy to teach everything from basic techniques to intermediate and advanced skills. The lesson plans are educationally sound, meet NASPE standards, and can be used either in or out of a skatepark. The curriculum also includes practice strategies to help participants acquire new skills and perfect their techniques, and it even includes guidelines on safety and skatepark etiquette so students will learn that avoiding risk is an important part of skateboarding fun. The book's glossary makes technical jargon and skateboarding slang easy to understand for administrators and new instructors and gives them insight into the idiosyncrasies of skateboarding culture.

"Skateboarding" also features thorough coverage of skatepark management and administration. Wixon offers expert advice on planning and designing a skatepark. He presents factors and questions to consider, information on the various types of skateparks so you can choose the one that best fits your needs, and help with budgeting for construction and maintenance costs. You will also find tools and resources to help you manage both new and existing facilities. Skateboarding covers the most essential management areas. You'll find recommendations on scheduling and programming, staffing and supervision guidelines, and instructions on establishing a maintenance routine. The book also contains helpful forms, including participation waivers and safety and maintenance checklists, and a list of recommended vendors to make it easy to order the equipment you need. Throughout the book you'll find tips for managing risk and promoting safety in the skatepark.

"Skateboarding" is the perfect all-in-one resource for administrators, youth instructors, and physical educators. It offers all the information you'll need to design, supervise, and maintain a skatepark as well as create skateboarding programs for the youth in your community.

Endorsed by the National In-Line Hockey Association and the International In-Line Skating Association, this guide is a complete introduction to in-line skating with an equal emphasis on safety and fun.

Once considered a kind of delinquent activity, skateboarding is on track to join soccer, baseball, and basketball as an approved way for American children to pass the after-school hours. With family skateboarding in the San Francisco Bay Area as its focus, Moving Boarders explores this switch in stance, integrating first-person interviews and direct observations to provide a rich portrait of youth skateboarders, their parents, and the social and market forces that drive them toward the skate park. This excellent treatise on the contemporary youth sports scene examines how modern families embrace skateboarding and the role commerce plays in this unexpected new parent culture, and highlights how private corporations, community leaders, parks and recreation departments, and nonprofits like the Tony Hawk Foundation have united to energize skate parks-like soccer fields before them-as platforms for community engagement and the creation of social and economic capital.

Skateboarding: the background, technicality, culture, rebellion, marketing, conflict, and future of the global sport as seen through two of its most influential geniuses Since it all began half a century ago, skateboarding has come to mystify some and to mesmerize many, including its tens of millions of adherents throughout America and the world. And yet, as ubiquitous as it is today, its origins, manners, and methods are little understood. "The Impossible" aims to get skateboarding right. Journalist Cole Louison gets inside the history, culture, and major personalities of skating. He does so largely by recounting the careers of the sport's Yoda--Rodney Mullen, who, in his mid-forties, remains the greatest skateboarder in the world, the godfather of all modern skateboarding tricks--and its Luke Skywalker--Ryan Sheckler, who became its youngest pro athlete and a celebrity at thirteen. The story begins in the 1960s, when the first boards made their way to land in the form of off-season surfing in southern California. It then follows the sport's spikes, plateaus, and drops--including its billion-dollar apparel industry and its connection with art, fashion, and music. In "The Impossible, " we come to know intimately not only skateboarding, but also two very different, equally fascinating geniuses who have shaped the sport more than anyone else.

In Party In The Back, celebrated skateboarder Tino Razo has documented -- and shredded -- abandoned backyard swimming pools throughout Southern California. The resulting body of work, showcased here for the first time in Tino's book, elevates itself beyond a bunch of thrill-seekers navigating the suburban landscape, juxtaposing renegade sessions by world class skateboarders with dramatic architectural photographs of a lost American dream. Party In The Back is a lyrical photo-eulogy for this disappearing pool culture, bathed in the golden Southern Californian light.

With sequential photos and step-by-step instructions, this guide to a performance cornerstone-the flip trick-benefits skateboarders of all skill levels. Often combined with curb tricks and applied to such obstacles as handrails and ramps, flip tricks are commonly used as the final touch on a more complex maneuver, and, with this guidebook, readers learn the basics of such tricks while progressing toward veteran moves. A section devoted to the history of skateboarding is included with an in-depth look at the individuals responsible for the creation of flip tricks and how they came to invent this aspect unique to skateboarding.

The Handmade Skateboard is the definitive book on building custom skate decks of all shapes and sizes, from the high-performance street deck to the classic longboard to a vintage pinstripe cruisers that will turn heads everywhere you go. When you make your own skateboard from scratch you have the opportunity to create something that is perfectly tailored to you: a deck that matches your height, your weight, your center of balance, your skill level and your intended use. More importantly, making your own skate deck allows you to design a perfect deck to fit your personal style, making a statement about who you are. There's nothing wrong with chosing off-the-shelf and mass produced, but who doesn't prefer to stand out. Be different. Be one of a kind. That's what you get with a custom handmade skateboard. Whether you're an accomplished woodworker or an absolute beginner, The Handmade Skateboard guides you step-by-step through building five skateboard designs -- from a simple "Hack Board" built in a few spare hours to a high-performance street deck pressed from seven layers of high-quality Maple veneers. A design guide covers everything you need to know about sizing and shaping your deck and choosing the right trucks and hardware. And detailed photos, illustrations and clear written instruction throughout provide all the information and motivation you need to make your own skateboard from scratch.

Read about the culture of modern skateboarding, daredevils who took the sport off the street, into empty backyard pools and beyond.