Skateboarding developed in the early 50's in California. When surfers couln't catch a ride on the waves, they started to think of ways to ride on land and came up with the idea of using large peice of wood and adding some attatched metal rollerskating wheels to the bottom to roller on the sidewalks/streets. This creation soon spread like wildfire in the surrounding areas and others started to catch on to this new invention which soon after cointed the term "sidewalk surfing or "asfalt surfing".
In the late 50's skateboarding gained it's first form of main stream popularity when the toy the industry seen the potential of the wooden board with wheels and companies decided to take a shot at selling them to the public. The first of these companies sold the first official skateboard in 1959 by Rollerderby with an improved design from the homemade boards made prior.