A History of Victorian Skateboarding from Clay Wheels to the Pro Era
	The “Craze” (and aftermath) – 1974-76

Part 1 - Chapter 1

The first wave of skateboarding in Australia and the U.S. was short lived, spanning the years 1964 to 1966. A small competition scene focused on slalom and freestyle riding, but faded out almost as quickly as it had begun, leaving little trace other than a couple of newspaper articles and short TV “general interest” features as evidence.

The early to mid 70’s saw a new resurgence, and skateboarding was “on” once again, going from the long -forgotten toys tucked away in the shed, and developing into a massive craze that swept the country virtually overnight.

The emerging ”sport” grew rapidly off the back of Australia’s already fairly sizeable surf industry. Skating was quickly transformed from being an offshoot of the well established local surf scene, to a fully fledged movement in itself.

Just prior to the “craze”, around the time I began skating in the summer of 1973/74, equipment had remained essentially unchanged since the mid 60’s. The only skateboards commonly available were Surfer Sam (pin tail timber deck with rubber wheels and wobbly, pressed metal trucks ) or G.T. – a locally made iconic product of only slightly higher quality. The GT had a heavy, cumbersome flat solid ash deck with vertical geometry slush cast metal trucks, crudely caged bearings and “clay” or “chalky” wheels.

These boards were just barely rideable, but any bump, crack or ledge in the riding surface would stop them dead and send you flying. The basic design fault behind this dangerous characteristic was the very low profile stance, with tiny, rock hard wheels and a protruding kingpin that would snag on any obstruction. Skating rapidly got a reputation as a dangerous pastime, but realistically, most of the blame for this could be laid at the feet of the inherently unsafe skate equipment of the time.

Photo Gallery - click on an image to view.

John McGrath	GT Board for Xmas - 1975	Melbourne's own equipment the GT 73 -  - Peninsula Surf	Ian Cochrane - Peninsula Surf - 1975	John McGrath - Noble Park 1975
John McGrath - Noble Park	Spillway filming 1975 photo peninsula surf