Welcome to the

exciting world of

Inventive Thinking!

Ever wonder where the

ideas for inventions come

from?

Narrated by: Brandon Funk, Grade 7 StudentGeneral John Stricker Middle School

A good example of how inventive thinking works is the

story of how the SKATEBOARD was

invented.

Source: Scholastic News

Once upon a time, there was Once upon a time, there was no such thing as a no such thing as a

skateboard. Seriously!skateboard. Seriously!So, you’re probably So, you’re probably

wondering, wondering,

““When and where was the When and where was the skateboard invented, who skateboard invented, who invented it, and how did invented it, and how did they get their ideas?”they get their ideas?”

Well, it all started in ancient Hawaii with an earlier invention: the SURFBOARD. The Hawaiians had been surfing

in the ocean waves on long wooden boards for centuries.

Source: Bishop Museum

Visitors from the “mainland” brought the surfboard and surfing from Hawaii to Southern California in the 1930’s.

Surfing quickly became a TOTALLY popular pastime at Southern California

beaches.

Surfers did have one problem, though:

sometimes the ocean was flat and there were NO WAVES to

surf on.

Bummer

In the 1950’s, a group of young surfers in Southern California had an idea for what to do when there were no waves. They

figured out a way to go “sidewalk surfing” !

Surfers created the first skateboards by modifying two existing inventions.

They made their “sidewalk surfboards” by removing the wheels from roller skates and nailing them to planks of wood, or by removing the handlebars from scooters.

Thus, the SKATEBOARD was invented. But the inventing didn’t stop there! Over

the years, different inventors have thought of many AWESOME ways to make

skateboards safer, faster, and easier to maneuver.

For example, the first skateboards had steel wheels, which dented easily. These were replaced with baked clay wheels, which did not dent but had poor traction.

Clay wheels came to a dead stop when rolling over even small pebbles, and sent skaters FLYING off their boards.

Skateboarding almost died out in 1965 because there were SO many injuries!

YIKES!

Luckily, in 1973 a surfer named Frank Nasworthy developed a skateboard wheel made of polyurethane, a type of plastic

that gripped concrete really well and made skateboards WAY easier to ride. Frank’s invention made skateboarding

popular again!

Skateboard decks were also improved in the 1970’s. A dude named Larry

Stevenson introduced a concave deck with slightly curved sides, and an upward curve at the ends called a kicktail. Both

of these improvements made skateboards a lot easier to control and enabled skaters

to do GNARLY tricks.

Inventors will probably keep thinking of new ways to improve the skateboard, just like skaters keep thinking of new tricks to

do. Come to think of it, I have an idea for an invention myself, so that’s the end of my

story. How about YOU? Are you ready to GET INVENTIVE?