Skateboarding emerged in the late 1950s, with the first boards typically crafted by affixing roller skate wheels to short planks of wood. This DIY approach marked the humble beginnings of something that would become a global phenomenon - and eventually an Olympic sport.
Skateboarding would see opposition almost immediately. The term "skateboards" firsts appeared (in the press) in a 1959 Los Angeles Times report about efforts to ban them in Pasadena, California. Its justification? An increasing number of accidents and injuries.
Skateboarding culture grew rapidly through the 1960s, with the rise of competitions and magazines dedicated to this new sport.
The real risk of injury, coupled with the noise of boards hitting concrete didn’t just concern older generation, it irritated them - making skateboarding an easy target for prohibitions across the US.
The war on skateboarding didn’t stop this burgeoning industry and culture - after a brief industry slump in the mid-1960s - the skateboarding industry bounced back in the 1970s, by 1977 it was a $1 billion business.
The same year the United States Consumer Safety Product Commission reported 28 deaths and 100,000 injuries related to skateboarding - causing a new wave of concern and anti-skateboarding laws.
As skateboarding culture spread beyond the United States, this data was cause for concern - when skateboards came to Norway in the late 1970s, this data prompted a decade long skateboard prohibition between 1978 to 1989: their use, ownership, sale or marketing was strictly prohibited:
That didn’t stop some Norwegians skateboarding anyway: in 2016 Chris Stokel-Walker interviewed those that defied the ban in 2016 for the BBC - the piece detailed how some smuggled boards into the country, with one pointing out “Not even North Korea has banned skateboarding." Some built skateboard ramps in isolated forest areas, others were arrested and had their boards confiscated.
In the mid-1980s Norwegian skateboarders petitioned the government to allow skateboard clubs with their own ramps - they were granted the concession - which marked the beginning of the end of a ban. The law would be repealed by Norway in 1989, one official said in retrospect: “We were trying to stop the problem before it stated. There were so many pirates importing and selling skateboards that it was difficult to control.”