A Chris Yandall Project Undertaking.
Chris had an unparalleled energy when it came to being active for the well being of Skateboarding. He had this idea of building a website dedicated to the History of Freestyle Skateboarding for some years and gave me the opportunity to help develop this project in to a reality just before he passed away.
Here is a synopsis of what we wanted to achieve.
“The forgotten art of freestyle skateboarding continues to miss the mark in the general skateboarding media. This site will be a historical imprint of how freestyle began in the 60?s on less than state of the art equipment which really made the skill levels unique. It wasn’t until the birth of urethane wheels that the art really took off and this was approximately around the mid 70?s. Prior to the urethane wheel, the 60?s era was well marked with steel and composite wheels limiting the scope of the moves yet to come. After the 70?s and the invention of the ollie and kickflip, freestyle morphed into a new generation. This site will work from the mid 70?s before and after to bring focus on the years of pro’s of these generations.
There is a lot of info on the web here and there about freestyle…It would be cool to have one reliable “point of reference” for the freestyle history… You wouldn’t have to go anywhere else..
When it comes to skateboarding we are not historians which makes the responsibility of putting this website together a bit overwhelming, but weI love the idea of getting this project off the ground by gathering all of your stories together..It’s exciting.. It’s a huge undertaking but I think if we all work together to gather and record our stories it would make a great “reference site” for anyone seeking information about the history of freestyle skateboarding starting from the (60s &70s) then moving of course to the 80’s and beyond, that is after we get the foundation of the grassroots growing !”
Check out the “work in progress” Freestyle Skateboarding History
Check out Chris’ own personal site as well!