Skateboarding History: A Beginner's Guide to the 60s, 70s, & 80s

Question
Dear, Scott Shaw

Hi  my name is David Brakke and I am a freshman in highschool.  I have been skateboarding for about 3 years. In school I have been researching skateboarding and I have been wondering about couple questions.  I was wondering when skateboarding first got big the 60, 70, 80, and also the style of the boards for the fisrt couple years.

Answer
Watch "Dogtown and the Z-boys" (NOT LORDS OF DOGTOWN), it gives a great history of how skateboarding became what it is today.  It goes over everything, wheels, trucks, tricks, boards.  You can also pick up one of Glen Friedmans books (Lots of foul language, so make sure your parents don't get pissed), or Independent trucks put out a history book as well, I think it's called 25 years of independent...or something like that, find it at a skate shop or borders or something.

Good luck