Skateboard
1970s (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Plain 9-ply plywood elliptically shaped board with one squarish end at the back. There are two sets of red plastic double wheels with metal trucks attached to the underside of the board, one at each end.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | plywood deck with urethane wheels |
| Brief description | Homemade plywood skateboard made in the USA in the 1970s |
| Physical description | Plain 9-ply plywood elliptically shaped board with one squarish end at the back. There are two sets of red plastic double wheels with metal trucks attached to the underside of the board, one at each end. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions |
|
| Gallery label | Skateboards
Many of the earliest manufactured skateboards had plywood ‘decks’ (boards). These designs, made of simple cut-out sheets of flat ply, could be easily recreated at home by attaching repurposed wheels to a sawn piece of plywood. Board shapes changed to suit new styles of skateboarding, most obviously in the late 1980s when they started to be moulded with kicktails at either end. From the late 1970s skateboarders began to build large, plywood-clad DIY ramps so they could skate in the freestyle way that increasingly defined the sport.
1. Roller Derby Skate Board
1959–60
Manufactured by Roller Derby
La Mirada, California, USA
Painted 5-ply plywood; steel trucks and wheels
V&A: B.9-2017
2. Junior Flyer Skate Board
About 1969
Manufactured by Mettoy
Solihul, Britain
9-ply plywood with printed graphic, steel trucks, rubber wheels
V&A: B.10-2017
3. Homemade plywood skateboard
About 1975
Maker unknown
Trucks re-used from a Pro Class skateboard, with Free Roller wheels
9-ply plywood, steel trucks and polyurethane wheels
USA (possibly New York)
V&A: B.11-2017
Plywood: Material of the Modern World
V&A 15 July - 12 November 2017(01/06/2017) |
| Production | The trucks were manufactured by Pro Class and have Free Roller wheels. |
| Associated objects | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | B.11-2017 |
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| Record created | December 21, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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