What 2 consecutive years would you say saw skateboarding “change the most?”

[JamesFardy]

I personally would say 1992,1993, but would love to hear other answers and why. Bless you, Slappers.

[Pipe Dreamer]

91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

[GrayCellGreen]

I was a too young to have witnessed the 91-92' era firsthand, but I would say 00 to 01' with the release of Baker2g. The start of the hesh v fresh era.

[SatanicPanic]

Whatever year the urethane wheel was put on a skateboard

Edit I think socially the last few years have been the biggest sea change in skate culture inclusivity. We finally are trying to fully live up to our claim that anyone is welcome in skateboarding.

[The Ghost of Lenny Kirk]

sometime between fully flared and mind field. it just seemed like flared was the end of one chapter and mind field was the beginning of another.

[manysnakes]

91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

Definitely this. I stopped skating a few months after Ban This came out in 1990, and I picked it up again when I was 12 (1993) and it was like a completely different sport, totally foreign to someone who hadn't paid attention in two years.

[peacepappies]

what year was fred gall born?

[Loady McGee]

I was a too young to have witnessed the 91-92' era firsthand, but I would say 00 to 01' with the release of Baker2g. The start of the hesh v fresh era.

Same for me but I'd like to change it to 97-98 sometime. The release of Misled Youth and The Warner Ave Mob/Pissdrunx era which was the start of the whole Baker/Bootleg thing. The Thrasher article about Warner Ave Mob and the 411 day in the life with Warner Ave Mob (both from 98) were, to me at least, a huge change to what I was used to seeing. And a very welcome change since I'd always been more hesh than fresh.

[Pat Eisenhauer]

72-73 or whenever the polyurethane wheel was widely available
76-77 the California drought and the birth of pool skating
91-92 I was there, it really did change that fast

[versacekid420]

2014 and 2015

[The Mexican Nancy Chin]

2019-2021 was a big change for skating in Mexico City. The growth of skateparks has led to the first generation where I see a large amount of kids who straight up never skate street. Also the olympics got our local industry incredibly hyped on opening skate schools advertising skating as an olympic sport and also sending anyone possible to olympic qualifiers even though a lot aren't even good enough to skate Tampa am. Oscar Meza is out here saying he'll win a medal next olympics but I think only once has he even made it to semi finals at these contest. We also have a bunch of skate tiktokers, mainly women. While they can be cringy I think they're pretty much harmless and have actually inspired a lot of girls to start skating. There is this one though who often talks about how she goes to the gym in order to train and get better at skating but has if anything gotten worse at skating since she took this up. She's one of the people they send out to olympic qualifying contests even though she an absolute 0% chance of making it

[Easy Slider]

91-92-93 somehow blend together as one transition from 10’ shaped decks with huge wheels via 9‘ footballs to 7,25’ toothpicks with 38mm wheels.

As this came to Europe with a delay it felt even faster and happened from 92-94. I had started in late 91 and just bought a shaped G&S deck with large G&S trucks but after a few months footballs with everslicks were omnipresent so I got a total of three such shapes between 92 and 94 (Channel 1 diamond team deck, Underworld Element Chris Hall and New Deal Danny Sargent which was from 92 but I rode it into 94). All of this still on the G&S trucks.

 After that it was mostly tiny shop blanks (the tiny decks often snapped and I could not afford pro models plus blanks were cool) and tiny wheels.

But not only the deck and wheel size changed and with it the tricks, but also the entire wardrobe of the skaters. At the same time the wheels and boards got smaller, the pants got bigger and the shoes puffier, all to an apex on the brink of the ridiculous (some might say well beyond that).

Then it kind of all mellowed out and in 94/95 we were mostly riding the same stuff and rocking the same pants as today.

[radcunt]

91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

yeah everything kinda changed overnight it felt like.  Wild to think Powells Celebrity Tropical Fish came out that year and they seemed so old and stale, but it was only a coupe of years after Ban This.  Nuts.

[Ok]

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91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

[close]

Definitely this. I stopped skating a few months after Ban This came out in 1990, and I picked it up again when I was 12 (1993) and it was like a completely different sport, totally foreign to someone who hadn't paid attention in two years.

Very similar experience

[Terminal]

Whatever year the urethane wheel was put on a skateboard

Edit I think socially the last few years have been the biggest sea change in skate culture inclusivity. We finally are trying to fully live up to our claim that anyone is welcome in skateboarding.

This is the correct answer. Urethane wheels changed the game. Anyone on here who has ridden a board with clay or metal wheels will understand, they are horrible. Skateboarding would not be where it is now without that one innovation. I've argued for a long time that the single most important person in skateboarding is the person that invented the urethane wheel.

[switchfakie]

19-20

covid skaters fucked the industry & overpopulated our parks. made a lot of friends that wouldve probably never skated before (even though they all quit skating now)

we all know of the great drought - its crazy that nobody mentioned this yet

[Slikk]

whenever the first full length skate video from a major company dropped on iTunes

it was a wrap for traditional media like dvds and tapes obv

every lil kid asking santa for a go pro or flip video camera for christmas

now every video on the internet is so similar to each other - some people are going back to analog equipment just to give skating a 'different' look again

guess VR skating is next, dirty ass POV angles so you can switch from your favorite adult site to thrasher seamlessly without taking off your oculus or pulling up your pants!

slikk slikk

[j....soy.....]

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91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

[close]

Definitely this. I stopped skating a few months after Ban This came out in 1990, and I picked it up again when I was 12 (1993) and it was like a completely different sport, totally foreign to someone who hadn't paid attention in two years.

[close]

Very similar experience

90-91 I noticed everyone was way better than me…..91-92 there was no way I was ever going to keep up. 

2002-2003 I think too every kid was jumping down rails was a wake up call…

If it wasn’t for those wheels though, nothing would have happened…l

[Chatbot]

19-20

covid skaters fucked the industry & overpopulated our parks. made a lot of friends that wouldve probably never skated before (even though they all quit skating now)

we all know of the great drought - its crazy that nobody mentioned this yet

me, personally? late 2012 through late 2014 - a hard shift to the internet/solo part model, the proliferation of instagram, the implosion of crailtap, the small board brand boon, the rapid globalization of skateboarding, and the rise of supreme/the cherry model of HD filming and editing

Came here to say the same. The popularity/ introduction of videos to IG in 2013 was a huge change. The covid era too. My park had so many new faces where only a small handful actually still skate.

[mooraga]

19-20

covid skaters fucked the industry & overpopulated our parks. made a lot of friends that wouldve probably never skated before (even though they all quit skating now)

we all know of the great drought - its crazy that nobody mentioned this yet

after years of planning, buying equipment, collecting contacts and people I decided to create a board brand with a friend.
We had a natural team, all young motivated locals with real chances to make a national movement out of this.

we started moving and filming on early 2020 but quickly became impossible to do anything in my country. By the time things were coming back to normal board factories were charging a lot more and containers went up like 1000%: the risk was too much. I had to quit the dream before it even started.

[SatanicPanic]

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91-92 for me, wholesale change of tricks and equipment all across the board.

[close]

Definitely this. I stopped skating a few months after Ban This came out in 1990, and I picked it up again when I was 12 (1993) and it was like a completely different sport, totally foreign to someone who hadn't paid attention in two years.

[close]

Very similar experience

[close]

90-91 I noticed everyone was way better than me…..91-92 there was no way I was ever going to keep up. 

Felt this too. And I was skating the whole time and Luke twelve. It was the flip tricks that did me in. I knew I’d never learn all that stuff