Word: fad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...summer comes, skateboarders are grabbing air all across the country in a fad that is fast, funky and sometimes risky...
Skateboarding, once a skill practiced mostly by becalmed surfers and, later, a teen fad, has entered its third phase, bigger, badder, radder and more streetwise than ever. For proof, drop by the Fallbrook, Calif., backyard of Tobin White, 15, and check out the ramp: 32 ft. wide and 12 1/2 ft. high, the Fallbrook ramp is a commanding curve of wood built last summer by Tobin and his father. It has turned into a challenging arena where amateurs like Tobin can mix it up with seasoned veterans, all of them working up thrombosis- teasing speed as they turn the course...
...them. "But every time around, the foundation and following of skateboarding keep getting stronger and broader." Down in Atlanta, Mark Lawrence, owner of Crazy Lou's Skateboards, is similarly optimistic. "Because of the skaters who've been around a while, the consensus is that this is no longer a fad," he says. "It's gotten to be a life- style...
Skaters may not be front runners for the high school citizenship citation, but there is an easy and equitable racial mix among thrashers. Rivalry seems to occur along geographical, not blood, lines. Eastern skateboarders smart about skateboarding's being seen as another sunny fad from Southern California, while the folks on the West Coast tend to rise above the controversy -- smoothly, natch -- as if they were crackin' an Ollie (standing on the board and bouncing straight into the air) over a large fire hydrant...
...question of whether the recent surge in student activism is merely a fad or capable of producing lasting change remains unanswered. "What we are looking at right now might become a new student movement," says Thelwell, who witnessed the beginning of 1960s movement...