The future of skateboarding, as seen in 1978
Skateboarding is slated to become an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games in 2021. But skateboarders have been predicting it would be in the Olympics since at least 1978.
A CBC report from 1965 referred to skateboarding as "skurfing," short for sidewalk surfing, showing that the sport has been around for over 50 years.
By August 1978, there were enough accomplished skateboarders that the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto hosted what CBC's Barbara McLeod called "skateboard championships."
A skateboarder was seen performing a rolling handstand with commentary from an unseen announcer as a handful of spectators looked on.
'We've got an international sport'
McLeod introduced a guest called Steve, who described the compulsory events in the championships.
"There's slalom, there's high jump, 360s, and then there's the freestyle event," he said. "The more events you win, the better chance you have of winning the overall championship."
McLeod marvelled at how skateboarding had "taken off" in recent years.
"I understand they're even thinking of putting it into the Olympics," she said.
"This is true," Steve said.
He went back in skateboarding history to say it had originally begun in 1961, but then "died out" because of safety concerns. He traced the problem to the "hard clay wheels" on the original skateboards
"They were not very safe at all ... and then the evolution of the urethane wheel cam around," he said. "The sport's just taken off from there."
As he talked, the camera captured skateboarders freestyling, skating on their back wheels and even doing tricks like moving with a board under each foot.
The recent "fad" of skateboarding was starting to "taper off," he said. But there were camps and schools offering lessons for the sport in other countries, although Canadians had been slower to adopt lessons.
"The sport is worldwide. We've got an international sport, just like the Olympics."
Skateboard success in Ottawa
By 1987, skateboarding had taken off enough that a new skatepark dubbed Rampage was opening in Ottawa. It was the second skatepark to open in a year, but the first one had already closed down.
"Residents complained about the noise," explained reporter Hamlin Grange.
But the new one was built on land in a public park that was donated by the city, and two "enterprising young men" were running it.
Andrew O'Neill, one of those young men, said Rampage Park would keep kids from "causing trouble."
"They just like to have a place to hang out," he said.
And there was no shortage of potential users for the skate park: Grange said Ottawa skateboard shops had sold 3,000 boards that year.
