Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A complete overview of the street sport of skateboarding and its surrounding culture. Looks at the equipement, the fashions, the logos, the staters and the tricks as well as the history of skateboarding from its humble beginnings in the 1950s to the current multi-million dollar industry.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• History and Development
• The Origins of Skateboarding
• Developments in Equipment
• Shoes and Safety Equipment
• All-terrain Vehicles
• Tony Hawk
• Mark Gonzales
• Waves of Devotion
• Eric Koston
• Chapter 2
• The Global Skate Village
• USA
• Canada
• South America
• Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
• Japan
• Europe
• Colin McKay
• Bob Burquist
• Chapter 3
• Skate Culture
• Music and Skateboarding
• The (Un)Importance of Skate Fashion
• Skateboarding Art and Artists
• Danny Way
• Skateboard Contests: Not an Olympic Ideal
• Authority and Rebellion
• The Nomadic Way: Couch Skating from City to City
• The Changing Urban Environment
• Chapter 4
• Skateboarding and Media
• Magazines
• Skate Videos
• Interview with Mike Manzoori
• Skateboarding and the Movies
• Digital Skateboarding
• Matt Hensley
• Tricks and Techniques
• Guy Mariano
• Tom Penny
• Acknowledgements

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Introduction This book covers every aspect of skateboarding, from technical board development to the waves in popularity during the last half-century. Read about some of the greatest skateboarders who ever lived, and experience skateboard lifestyles all over the globe. The book is intended to be many things, not just a history. It is a guide book covering areas of skateboarding from tricks to terrain, skate art to skate video, determination to satisfaction, past to future. I hope that it will make you want to go out skateboarding, so perhaps it's a kind of self-help book, too. Dip in and out like a magazine, or just look at the great photography. Either way, have fun with it. If you discover just one thing that makes you love skating even more, then we have succeeded. Skateboarding is everything. It is a pastime, a sport, a hobby. A craze, an industry and a toy. A profession, an excuse, a game. A lifestyle, a distraction. It is a reason, not a crime. The reason is why this book exists at all. If skateboarding means everything to you, then you need to ask why. If skateboarding means nothing to you, perhaps it soon will. If has taken more than 50 years to get where we are today in skateboarding. This book is not just about those years, but the next 50 too. Consider this a halfway point. We have the opportunity to shape the future; we're holding it in our hands and we're riding it with our feet. Let's go... Excerpted from Skateboarding Is Not a Crime: 50 Years of Street Culture by James Davis All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Included in YALSA’s 2006 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list, this celebration of both the sport and the subculture recounts the history of skateboarding, including profiles of legendary skaters, and explains the sport’s unique culture. Each page features dramatic action photographs of the boards and their riders, in competition and on the streets. Well-written, well-organized, and beautifully presented, this useful overview will be an invaluable resource on the subject, and the action images will draw readers and browsers of all ages.--"Engberg, Gillian" Copyright 2007 Booklist