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.

Table of contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

SECTION ONE
Skateboard Scenes

2. Skateboards
Scooters and Surfing
Old School
New School

3. Living by the Board
Freaks and Geeks
Everything in Between
Home Turf and Foreign Lands
Beer and Barneys
Positive and Loving
Middle Age Shred
All Girl Skate Jam
Polycultural Practices

4. Affiliate Worlds
Being Professional
Companies and Brands
Organizations and Control
Boom Boom HuckJam

5. Media Worlds
Truth and Screw the Consequences
Wide-Angled Viewing
Skateboarding at the Movies
Video Worlds
Social Media

SECTION TWO
Skateboarding

6. Found Space
Asphalt and Concrete Waves
Forevers
Into the Deep End
Blue Tile Obsession

7. Skatopia
Concrete Utopia
Mutant Wood

8. Skatepark Renaissance
A New Dawn
Plazas and Paths
Terrain Vague
DIY
Skatepark Worlds

9. Super-Architectural Space
Body Space
Ask the Coping
Flow
Projecting

10. Skate and Destroy
The City is the Hardware
Zero Degree Architecture
Urban Rhythms
Writing the City
Decentred Objects
Speaking the City

11. Movement Without Words
Critical Citizens
Beyond the Shiny Product
Gifts of Freedom
Ban This
Skateboarding is Not a Crime

SECTION THREE
Skate and Create

12. Artistry
Graphic Design
Art
Skateable Sculpture
Creativity

13. Do It For Others
Public Space
Moving History
Healthy Living
Building Business
Building Lives

14. Skateboarding – a Magnificent Life?

References
Bibliography
Index