Skateboarding has been around since the 1940s and has gradually become a mainstream sport. It was invented when surfers in California wanted something to do when the waves were flat. This was called “sidewalk surfing” and boards have evolved from a surfboard with wheels to the most iconic popsicle stick shape that is known today. Over the years, skateboarding has not only made a popular sport but also created new fashion trends that have become very popular in the modern day.

Throughout the history of skateboarding, special words for tricks and actions have been established and popularized by the community. For example, the “ollie”, which is a standard jump on the board using only feet to power it. The “ollie” has fueled major amounts of creativity in skateboarding throughout the years; subsequently; hundreds of tricks have been invented. These tricks have influenced so many people to get into skateboarding because they want to learn them.

Jack Dalton (24) said, “One of my older friends worked at an indoor skatepark and that influenced me to try and skate.” The influence skateboarding has on other people is crazy and it spreads throughout people when they see skateboarding first hand. 

He went on to say, “Skateboarding made me happier and taught me to never give up. One thing that makes me want to go out and skate is to learn new tricks or see if someone else is skating too. I like to skate around town and find spots that could be fun to ride” Skateboarding is not a forgiving sport, to say the least, but it pays off throughout the progression of tricks. 

Eaton, Colorado is a small town and its skateboarding community is very small-scale. With only a handful of kids in the town who skate, the skating community struggles to survive, but the ones who skate have a great passion for it. Although Eaton used to have a skatepark, it was taken down in the mid-2000s. Without a skate park, the recent years of skateboarding for Eaton haven’t been very successful. Skaters have to use either their front lawns or spots around the town to skate at.

Although Eaton is quite a small town, there are a couple of spots for skateboarding that are spread across the town. The newly implemented rec center in the town has a massive parking lot and curbs that allow skaters to ride around on. It is usually empty in the later hours of the day, so that is the best time to skate it. The Evangelical Free Church parking lot is good, too and the sidewalks around the high school and middle school create a great area for skaters to cruise around on. There are some more empty parking lots and smooth sidewalks around the town, but these particular parking lots are the best skate spots discovered so far.

Skateboarding is a growing sport in modern-day society and provides great happiness for the small skate community in Eaton, Colorado.