Skateboard thumbnail 1
On display

Skateboard

1970s (made)
Artist/Maker
Pro Class, Inc. (manufacturers)
Unknown (maker)
Place of origin
Orange County (manufactured)

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
Play
Children & Childhood
Outdoor Games & Toys
Object type
Skateboard
Materials and techniques
plywood deck with urethane wheels
Plywood
Urethane Alkyd
Steel
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
  • Length: 59.3cm
  • Width: 13.5cm
  • Height: 9.6cm
  • Weight: 1.65kg
Style
Mid 20th Century
Production typeUnique
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'FREE ROLLER / URETHANE' (Moulded into sides of wheels)
  • 'PRO CLASS' (Trucks)
Gallery label
(01/07/2023)
Skateboarding

Skating originated in California around the 1950s as an outlet for surfers when the waves were flat. They experimented with scooters made from crates and roller skates.

Skateboarding has since captured the world. As an action sport, it centres on tricks, ramps and skateparks. Longboards are good for cruising around pavements and downhill racing.

3 Longboard
Manufacturer: MQLOON
Date: 2021
Location: China
Materials: Plywood, metal, plastic

4 Skateboard
Maker: Unknown, trucks reused from a Pro Class skateboard with Free Roller wheels
Date: Around 1975
Location: Possibly Orange County, California, USA
Materials: Plywood, metal, plastic
Museum no. B.11-2017

[Young V&A, Design Gallery, Design changes how we travel, group object label]
(01/06/2017)
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
Production
The trucks were manufactured by Pro Class and have Free Roller wheels.
Associated objects
Collection
Young V&A Collection
Accession number
B.11-2017

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Record createdDecember 21, 2016
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1375350/skateboard-unknown/
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