Skate Bylines

Skateboarding studies are becoming more common. However, the benefits of such research might seem disconnected from skateboarding at a grassroots level. With a view of making findings in architecture, health, design, writing and further fields related to skateboarding more accessible, Brian Glenney of Norwich University (Vermont, USA) compiled a primer on skateboarding studies and a comprehensive report of those published throughout 2024.

By Brian Glenney

Academic studies are one of several spaces where skateboarding has built a reputation in recent years. Popularised by the likes of Pushing Boarders in 2018 and 2019, events including Slow Impact organized by Ryan Lay (Tempe, Arizona) and recently Connect (Bordeaux, France), headier conversations around skateboarding have increasingly become the subject of events, research, social activism and more. Furthermore, Alexis Sablone speaks at the Guggenheim Museum a year after launching a signature shoe there, hardback books studying skateboarding through the lens of religion are published, Bryggeriets Gymnasium in Malmo, Sweden is a high school with skateboarding at its core. The days of university-educated skateboarders crowbarring former pro-skater Ocean Howell’s quote about skateboarders being Love Park’s “shock troops of gentrification” into their assignments are long gone. Now, a wealth of academic material exists around skateboarding. There’s even an organization of skaters, College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF) dedicated to giving skaters scholarships.

This research on skateboarding involves an interdisciplinary community of students and scholars who, foremost, are skateboarders seeking to understand skateboarding as a medium for creating culture, leisure activity, and spatial design. This includes idealising skateboarding as a form of sport, as a technology, as a method or practice of teaching, as an illicit urban activity, and progressive political activism, all on the edge of social norms.

But how, exactly, do academia, research and skateboarding studies connect with the everyday act of skateboarding? What could thinking and writing contribute to skateboarding writ large? If you are a skater, you may need evidence that building a skatepark will bring money to local businesses to convince the city council to fund your local skatepark, and you’ll find dozens of case studies this year like Thomas Kemp’s on “the benefits associated with larger public skateparks”. Or, you might find inspiration in the various characteristics of skaters, such as my own which compares skateboarders with pirates. If you are a student, skateboarding studies can provide an example for your course of study, such as community building in skate crews, such as Paige O’Neil’s undergraduate thesis where the significance of fist-bumps made the headline. If you are a journalist, you can consider the ethics of the labour market of various skate media sources, like L. Dugan Nichols’ paper on the working conditions in professional skateboarding. If you are a scholar, skateboarding studies can synthesise a range of disciplines using skateboarding as a case study, like Paul O’Connor’s paper on skaters as a case study for Carl Jung’s concept of the “trickster”. There’s more practical information, like the complexity of muscle movement in basic skateboard tricks like the ollie, by Paul Kaufmann et al. 2024 or if you just want to know how to make better skate pants, Xiao Wei and Jin Zhou can help. The topics are mesmerising and smart people seem to care a lot about skateboarding.

These papers can also suggest interesting trends in how the wider scholarly world thinks about skateboarding. For instance, 2024 may go down in history as the year skateboarding studies began a shift away from a “core” study of skateboarding’s definitional “spatial appropriation of the city” (ie: how skateboarders interact with urban and public spaces; 21 Articles in 2024 / 34 Articles in 2023) to related community-building efforts and related “Inclusivity, Diversity and Activism” (21 Articles in 2024 / 20 Articles in 2023). In a way, this shift pivots from a core founded on Iain Borden’s Skateboarding and the City (2001) — a key text in this field to a distinctive core founded by the seminal articles of Becky Beal — “the OG skate scholar” — in the 1990s on skateboarding’s potential for alternative masculine identities and community inclusivity.

This shift to Beal’s ideas may also be influenced by a growing sportification of skateboarding as represented by a predictable rise, with skateboarding in the Olympics now, in studies on Sport, Fitness, and Injury (39 Articles in 2024 / 29 Articles in 2023). Skateboarding as a sport no doubt platforms women’s skateboarding in ways that provoke these Bealian ideas, even as we observe Iain Borden’s recent papers following these sportification trends and related benefits of skateboarding such as community and creativity. Either way, the lineages of both Beal and Borden are indeed powerful and foundational in the study of skateboarding and the fact that they remain active scholars is a real boon to our specialization.

The Skateboarding Studies Scene

This robustness of 2024’s studies are particularly surprising given skate study’s significant discipline variety and global diversity. This scene includes various happenings and initiatives that promote our community and are essential to the continued progress in skateboarding studies.

There were four main skate conferences in 2024: 

·       Slow Impact in Arizona in February (Thanks, Ryan Lay and co.) 

·       Common Grounds in London in May (Thanks, Esther Sayers and co.)

·       City Canvas, Public Art and Creative Sports Symposium in October (co-hosted by Dr Indigo Willing, SkateCER and Art/Play/Risk team)

·       Connect in Bordeaux in October (Thanks, Leo Valls and co.)

There were also several workshops, many during Vladimir Film Festival in Croatia in September including two held in collaboration with the Skateboarders for Palestine Alliance which covered ‘Resistance and Palestinian Existence’ and ‘Resistance as Skateboarding: A Path to Palestinian Solidarity’, amongst others.

There were two journal Special Issues* in 2024 (bleeding into 2025): 

·       “The Leisure of Grey Spaces, Urban Play and the Chromatic Turn” for Leisure Studies by Paul O’Connor, Indigo Willing, Sander Hölsgens, & Benjamin Duester 

·       “Skateboarding and Society: Intersections, Influences, and Implications” for Frontiers in Sports and Active Living by Jorge Ricardo Saravi, Dax D’orazio, Bethany Geckle, and Kevin Fang. 

There was one edited volume** in 2024:

·       Roberts, M. J. & Lawler, K. & Cline D. (Eds.) (2024). Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing. San Diego: San Diego State University Press.

* A journal issue dedicated to a particular topic

** A book of essays each written by a different author

2024 marks a recognition that the skate study scene’s conferences and collections are more than opportunities for skate scholarship. They also represent both practical and theoretical obstacles. Conference funding is a major challenge to attendance and participation. (Slow Impact has begun to address this with $500 presenter stipends for 2025.) Articles are rarely open access and thus can require financial resources that are unavailable (below I link to the full papers, but if only an abstract is accessible, then feel free to email the author and ask for the paper for free. Most are happy to do it.) And “Call for Papers” for collections and conferences are not always open, or can be missed, and thus can promote in-groupings rather than inclusivity. And, of course, peer review is a significant barrier for all researchers, particularly students who wish to contribute to the growing field of skateboarding studies. Discipline-specific assumptions, terminology, and theories discourage intersectional and interdisciplinary work as well and can lead to misunderstanding and confusion, not least of which is daunting difficulty. Many senior scholars, like myself, co-author with emerging scholars to help overcome this challenge, but this is also rather exclusive to areas of interest and specialization.

This report is another attempt to communicate and collaborate to meet these challenges together: as skaters, scholars, students and journalists. As we enter a new year, please know that most senior scholars in skateboarding studies are quite resourceful, helpful, and willing to support emerging scholars. If you are an emerging scholar and need a paper, email the author directly or one of the senior scholars can probably obtain it. If you need conference support, reach out to a senior scholar who has advertised that they are going: they may have an Airbnb to share (I usually do). We are all in this together.

Looking forward at the year ahead, Slow Impact 2025 takes place in Arizona from February 20th – 23rd, there’s Stoke Sessions 2.0 in San Diego (SDSU) during October 9th – 12th (Thanks Michael and co.), alongside various events and festivals around the world. (Vladimir usually takes place during mid-late September and although the dates are as yet unconfirmed, this year marks fifteen years of the festival which will surely be a doozy.)

A Report of 2024’s Skateboarding Studies

This report includes an exhaustive list of 2024’s 139 articles (books, peer-review papers, book chapters, conference proceedings, etc.) that uniquely contribute to skateboarding’s understanding (up from 136 articles in 2023). Like my previous 2023 report, I categorise the articles into five genres with three sub-genres, but this time I try to specify the unique disciplines of scholars in these areas. The genres, sub-genres, and disciplines are listed as follows:

I. Spatial Appropriation — The core of skateboarding studies

Senses and Phenomenology: ‘What it is like’ to skate in the city.

(Architecture, Criminal Justice, Ethnography, Geography, Philosophy, Urban Studies)

II. Cultural Studies — The lifestyle of skating that is often site-specific and about skateparks

Activism, Inclusion, and Diversity: Progressive elements of skaters’ lifestyles, often discussing aging, disability, gender, orientation, race and community building.

(Anthropology, Economics, Education, Leisure Studies, Religious Studies, Sociology)

III. Sport, Fitness, and Injury — Institutional developments in skating as an athletic pursuit

Sport for Development: Non-profit developments in skating.

(Business, Exercise Science, Medicine, Sport Studies, Occupational/Physical Therapy)

IV. Design and Technology — Innovation in skateboarding movement modeling and commodities

(Computer Science, Engineering)

V. Fiction, Creative Writing, Art, Popular Media, Podcasts —  Aesthetic responses to skating

(Communications, Media Studies, Writing)

I. Spatial Appropriation and Urban Studies

(Architecture, Criminal Justice, Geography, Sociology, Urban Planning, Urban Studies, Youth Studies)

Skateboarding studies are dominated by discussion of skateboarding’s unique appropriation of space, its effects on the city, and the city’s often hostile reply. This area remains the centrepiece of skateboarding studies, with skateboarding being largely defined by its in situ urbanity, even as recreational facilities draw skaters to suburban parks and sports cultures invest in arenas and institutionalising contests. There were 21 Articles in 2024 compared to 34 Articles in 2023.

Book, K. (2024). No need to be rebellious: placemaking and value co-creation in the skateboarding City of Malmö. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1455642. [paper link]

Borden, I. (2024). Skate and Create. In M. J. Roberts, K. Lawler, & D. Cline (Eds.), Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (p. Chapter 2). San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Butz, K. (2024). The Ephemeral Beachscape: Skateboarding and the Appropriation of. Suburban Concrete. In M. J. Roberts, K. Lawler, & D. Cline (Eds.), Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (p. Chapter 7). San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Glenney, B. (2024). Skateboard crime and the pirating of urban space. Crime, Media, Culture, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590241246228. [paper link]

Glenney, B., Bjorke, I., & Buchetti, A. (2024). Skateboarding and the surplus value of city play. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1454274. [paper link]

Grace, L. (2024). Communities of Risk, Identity, Youth and Civil Disobedience: Parkour, Skateboarding, Skywalking as Rebellious Play. Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. [paper link]

*Hengstenberg, J. (2024). Playscaping The City: The Potential of Integrating Urban Action Sports in Public Spaces as Planning Tool for Social Cohesion (Master’s thesis). Utrecht University. [thesis link]

Jekabson, A. R. (2024). Skating the Surrounds: Chemi Rosado-Seijo’s El Bowl in La Perla, Puerto Rico. react/review: a responsive journal for art & architecture, 4(1). [paper link]

Kilberth, D. V. Spaces for Skateboarding in the City: New Spatial Concepts beyond Skateparks. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1457427. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1457427 [paper link]

Langseth, T. & Bergsgard N.A. (2024). Pavement Policies: Unraveling the Norwegian ban on Skateboarding. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1488825. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1488825 [paper link]

Loo, B. P., & Zhang, F. (2024). Design of public open space: Site features, playing, and physical activity. Health & Place, 85, 103149. [partial paper link]

O’Connor, P. (2024). The Application of Carl Jung’s Thinking to Action Sports: A Skateboarding Case Study. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 1-16. [paper link]

O’Connor, P. (2024). Conceptualising grey spaces in skateboarding: Generating theory and method for use beyond the board. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 10126902241250089. [paper link]

*Pedersen, F., & Bergljung, J. (2024). Seamless integration of skateboarding in public space. A Design Proposal for an Urban Extension of Jubileumsparken. Masters Thesis. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. [paper link]

Saltzman, M. (2024). Spatial Tactics. In Public Everyday Space: Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Barcelona (pp. 41-87). Cham: Springer International Publishing. [book abstract link]

Stephens, C. R. (31 May 2024). Disruptive or Desirable?: The Politics of Skateboarding, Public Space, and Urban Development in London. [paper link]

Wardhana, N., & Ellisa, E. (2024). Youth tactics of urban space appropriation: case study of skateboarding and graffiti. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 23(1), 465-481. [paper link]

Senses and Phenomenology

This subgenre in skateboarding studies puts a sensory spin on the skating’s use of the city, suggesting that skateboarders possess uniquely tuned senses which are entrained on ways to experience the city, unlike the ambling pedestrian. There were four articles in 2024 compared to seven Articles in 2023.

*Boutin, M. 2024. “TEXTUROLOGIES : une transposition visuelle, sonore et haptique de la matérialité urbaine par le skateboard dans une installation multimédia art-skate.” Thèse de doctorat en études et pratiques des arts, Université du Québec à Montréal. (French) [full paper]

Hölsgens, S. (2024). Learning to See, or How to Make Sense of the Skillful Things Skateboarders do. In The Routledge International Handbook of Sensory Ethnography (pp. 387-400). Routledge. [paper abstract]

Hölsgens, S., & Glenney, B. (2024). Skateboarding and the senses: Skills, surfaces, and spaces. London: Routledge. [free book link]

*O’Neil, P. (2024). Tap taps and fist bumps: embodied movements in skateboarding sessions. Comm-entary, 20(1), 17. Honors Thesis (Undergraduate). University of New Hampshire. [paper link]

II. Cultural Studies 

(Anthropology, Economics, Education, Leisure Studies, Religious Studies, Sociology)

Skateboarding is often viewed as a lifestyle with a global following that has local customs often informed by its history of masculine tendencies shifting to socially progressive inclusion and diversity in race, gender, orientation, and disability. 21 Articles in 2024; 22 Articles in 2023.

*Andersen, N. U. S. (2024). Decoding the International: Theorizing and Applying an Urban Lens to the Study of Oslo (Master’s thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences). [paper link]

*Beringer, D. (2024). “Look a skateboarder, but he is too old”: Subculture identity of a skateboarder and a reflection of its changes (Master’s thesis, University of Agder). [paper link]

Bernhard, E. (2024). ‘… And Out Come the Comps’: Punk-O-Rama, Pro Skater, and Their Roles as Peak Music Experiences in a Current Punk Identity. In Punk, Ageing and Time (pp. 53-70). Cham: Springer International Publishing. [abstract link]

Buchetti, A. (2024). “A Matter of Detalles: On Producing and Consuming the Skateboard Industry at the U.S. Mexican Border.” Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing. (p. Chapter 4) San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Choi, S. (2024). Can we just work it out? Spike Jonze’s short choreographic storytelling in Arcade Fire’s ‘Afterlife’(2013). Short Film Studies, 14(1), 43-50. [abstract link]

Edelhoff, D., Hübner, C., Muhsal, F., & Theis, C. (2024). “Skating and being a smartass” – Scientific perspectives on skateboarding. Report on the 15th annual meeting of the dvs commission “Sport and Space” in Dortmund, October 5th-7th, 2023. Sport and Society, 21(1), 109-111. (In German) [paper link]

Jia, J., & Zhong, J. (2024). The reasons of Vans withdrawing from the Chinese market. In Exploring the Financial Landscape in the Digital Age (pp. 46-51). CRC Press. [abstract link]

Kemp, T. A. (2024). Weak Sauce: Authenticity, selling out, and the skateboard industry: A study in community resiliency. Journal of Economic Issues, 58(2), 572-579. [abstract link]

Marlovits, J. (2024). ‘Skateboarding is not a sport’: Creativity at the margins of capitalism. Anthropology Today, 40(5), 10-13. [abstract link]

*Mokdessi, L. (2024). Stolen Valor: Mapping the Style Subcultures of the Left. (Masters Thesis.) CUNY Graduate Center. [paper link]

Nichols, L. D. (2024). Alternative Media in Alternative Sport: Platforming Working Conditions in Professional Skateboarding. Communication & Sport, 21674795231223396. [paper link]

*Ohlson, C. (2024). Making space for skateboarding in Groningen Masters Thesis. University of Groningen. [paper link]

*Paduano, P. I. The Impact of Tony Hawk Video Games on Skateboarding Culture and Youth Engagement. Dissertation Prospectus (?) [paper link]

Phillips, R., Alexander, J., Baurley, S., Boxall, E., Gooding, L., Knox, D., & West, S. (2024). Beyond co-production: Design as a means of evoking agency through ecological citizenship. Cumulus Budapest 2024, (TBC), TBC-TBC. [paper link]

Reinhart, K. (2024). Californization and Sport as Lifestyle: The Development of Skateboarding in West Berlin, 1970–1990. In H. L. Dichter & M. W. Johnson (Eds.), Berlin Sports: Spectacle, Recreation, and Media in Germany’s Metropolis (pp. 151–176). University of Arkansas Press. [paper link]

Roberts, M. J. & Lawler, K. & Cline D. (Eds.) (2024). Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing. San Diego: San Diego State University Press. https://sdsupress.sdsu.edu/ROLLandFLOW.html

Roberts, M. J. & Lawler, K. (2024). “Interventions in the Social Construction of Space and Time: What’s at Stake in the Roll and Flow of Skateboarding and Surfing.” Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing. (p. Introduction) San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Shoemaker, T., & Bernal, C. (2024). Skateboarding and subjective-life embodied spirituality. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 1-20. [abstract link]

Smith, K. (2024). Hubbacouture: From embodied knowledge to meaningful representation: The role of documentary as method to explore Skateboard media production for fashion media communication. PhD thesis, Royal College of Art. [paper link]

*Vangel, S. (2024). Subcultural Textuality: Skateboarding and the Politics of Subcultural Media (Doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University). [paper link]

Wicks, J. (2024). Street, Punk, Desert, Life: Four Stories of Tribal Streetwear and Skate Culture. In Tribal and the Cultural Legacy of Streetwear (pp. 158-167). Intellect. [abstract link]

Activism, Inclusion, and Diversity 

Progressive social and political values have become a significant cultural marker of skateboarding studies particularly in contrast to its hegemonic masculine origins. This sub-genre of Cultural Studies research is of particular importance in skateboarding’s achievements. (33 Articles in 2024 / 20 Articles in 2023)

*Adha, A. M. (2024). Implementation of communication in building cohesiveness in the denggung skateboarding community (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta). [paper link]

*Akkad, R. H. (2024). Occupied joy: a practice of resistance, survival, and healing through the lens of Black and Palestinian liberation (Doctoral dissertation). Texas Christian University. [full text]

Atencio, M., Beal, B. McClain, Z., Wright, M.W. (2024). “Skateboarding and Racial Justice: Symbolic Grassroots Activism in the San Francisco Bay Area.” In M. J. Roberts, K. Lawler, & D. Cline (Eds.), Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (p. Chapter 6). San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Borden, I. (2024). Concrete, skateboarding and building community: The battle for Venice skatepark, Los Angeles. In The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume II (pp. 45-61). Routledge. [abstract link]

*Brännlund, T. (2024). What is found in the Cracks. Undergraduate Thesis. Umeå University.

Buchetti, A., & O’Connor, P. (2024). Chicano Park’s Skateboard Memorial Murals: Extending the Sacred in Polluted Leisure. Leisure Sciences, 1-24. [paper link]

Cline, D., Olson, T., Hughey, A. (2024). “Street Movement: San Diego’s Rolling for Rights Activism and Skateboarding’s Potential for Manifesting Social Change.” In M. J. Roberts, K. Lawler, & D. Cline (Eds.), Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (p. Chapter 5). San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

Critchley, T., & Novotný, J. (2024). Skateboarding in neoliberal Amman: Spatial politics, inclusivity and infrastructuring 7Hills Skatepark. In The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume II (pp. 359-376). Routledge. [abstract link]

*Dean, N. A. (2023). A sociocultural analysis of adaptive skateboarding and wheelchair motocross (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). [paper link]

Duester, B and Willing, I. SSHRED Seminars, Talks 5 – 10. SSHRED SkateCER. [Series link]

Glenney, B. (2024). Polluted Leisure in the Grey Space: The Case of Salubrious Superfund Skateparks. In M. J. Roberts, K. Lawler, & D. Cline (Eds.), Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing (p. Chapter 3). San Diego: San Diego State University Press. [book abstract link]

*Hentunen, Emma (2024). In the Context of Skateboard: The Expression of Socio-emotional Skills and Reaching Young People. Undergraduate thesis. JAMK: University of Applied Sciences. (Finnish) [paper link]

Hölsgens, S. (2024). “I thought we were useless”: K-skateboarding and socio-material pollution in Nanjido, Seoul. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 10126902241305807. [paper link]

Kerns, C. (2024). Pretty, Powerful, and Playful: Self-commodification and “Postfeminist Sensibility” among Women Action Sports Athletes. In Consuming Bodies (pp. 147-165). Routledge. [abstract link]

Lee, S. (2024). Built in the Built Environment. Young Adult Library Services: Challenges and Opportunities, 75. [book abstract link]

Lynch, S., Laurendeau, J., & Ali, A. (2024). Palestine, Settler Colonialism, and Sport. Journal of Emerging Sport Studies, 11. [paper link]

Lyons, J. (2024). Girlhood, performance and risk: Learning to skateboard in a war zone (if you’re a girl) and the action sports documentary. Studies in Documentary Film, 1-15. [paper link]

McCarthy, B. (2024). Girl Power and Brand Power: Postfeminist Sensibility in News Coverage of Tokyo’s Girl “Prodigy” Skateboarders. Communication & Sport, 21674795241242721. [abstract link]

*McElreath, K. J. Foundations: Significance of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Skate Landscapes (Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia). [abstract link]

Nuredinović, A. I., Vukušić, D., & Vukić, J. (2024). “The City is Ours:” Zagreb’s Subcultures and Space. Soc. ekol. Zagreb, Vol. 33 (2024.), No. 3 [paper link]

Norwood, B. (2024). Carving in and” Carving Out” Space:: Gender in the Halifax Skateboarding Culture. Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, 14(1), 51-69. [paper link]

O’Connor, P., & Fok, C. Y. L. (2024). Women’s Attitudes to Race. In Zuser, T. & Ho, L. (Eds.) Hong Kong Skateboarding. Sport in Hong Kong: Culture, Identity, and Policy. United States, Peter Lang AG International Academic Publishers. [pre-print paper link]

Paechter, C., Stoodley, L., Keenan, M., & Lawton, C. (2024). ‘It Feels Like a Big Performance’: Space, Performativity and Young Woman Skateboarders. Sociological Research Online, 13607804231214100. [paper link]

Paechter, C., Keenan, M., Stoodley, L., & Lawton, C. (2024). ‘Free therapy’: Young woman skateboarders, mental health and body self-compassion. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 10126902241268357. [paper link]

Paechter, C., Stoodley, L., Keenan, M., & Lawton, C. (2024). ‘We sacrifice our bodies for this plank of wood’: girl skateboarders, risk, pain, and injury1. Sport in Society, 27(7), 1004-1021. [paper link]

Petrone, R., & Beal, B. (2024). From “safe” to “brave” spaces: pedagogical practices of exclusion to promote inclusion within & beyond skateboarding. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1456908. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1456908 [paper link]

Petrone, R. (2024). Re-thinking discourses of “youth” within (adult) regulation of skateboarding. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 6:1473992. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1473992 [paper link]

Sharman, M. J., Nash, M., Moore, R., Waddingham, S., Oakley, A. L., Langenberg, H., & Cleland, V. J. (2024). The importance of family support to engage and retain girls in male dominated action sports. A qualitative study of young people’s perspectives. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 35(2), 410-422. [multi-media précis link]

Singh, S. K. Dare to Dream: Family, Ambition, and Girlhood in Post-Millennial South Asian Cinema. In The Routledge Companion to Girls’ Studies (pp. 236-245). Routledge. [book abstract]

Smitheram, J., Nakai Kidd, A., Finch, G., & MacMaster, E. (2024). Designing for playful mobilities. Applied Mobilities, 1-19. [paper link]

Stoermer, H. (2024). Internship report skate-aid Global Responsibility and Leadership (Doctoral dissertation). University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân. [paper link]

Stoodley, L., Paechter, C., Keenan, M., & Lawton, C. (2024). “I don’t want to get in anyone’s way”: mapping girl skateboarders’ navigation of place and power in skate spaces. Leisure Studies, 1-16. [paper link]

Willing, I., Bennett, A., Thorpe, H., & Green, B. (2024). Ageing in DIY and alternative cultures: Exploring forms of masculinity and adult play in Jackass forever. DIY, Alternative Cultures & Society, 2(1), 32-45. [paper link]

Willing, I. ‘Picture Me Rolling’ Video Series. SkateCER. [article link]

III. Sport, Fitness, and Injury 

(Business, Exercise Science, Medicine, Sport Studies, Occupational/Physical Therapy)

Skateboarding’s athleticism, training regimes, and related pro-social aspects that are lately being observed and supported by more institutionalized programs including educational and “sport for development.” (39 Articles in 2024 / 29 Articles in 2023)

Ab Rasid, A. M., Muazu Musa, R., Abdul Majeed, A. P., Musawi Maliki, A. B. H., Abdullah, M. R., Mohd Razmaan, M. A., & Abu Osman, N. A. (2024). Physical fitness and motor ability parameters as predictors for skateboarding performance: A logistic regression modelling analysis. PLoS one, 19(2), e0296467. [paper link]

Acuña, K. (2024). Hydration Status in Recreational Skateboarders (Doctoral dissertation, California State University San Marcos). [paper link]

Baird, M. D., Sandler, A. B., Scanaliato, J. P., Yoon, A. H., Askew, M. R., Klahs, K. J., … & Parnes, N. (2024). Acute Simple Elbow Dislocations in the United States: An Epidemiological Analysis of Trends Including COVID-19. Cureus, 16(4). [paper link]

Baus, J., Nguyen, E., Harry, J. R., & Yang, J. (2024). Relevant biomechanical variables in skateboarding: a literature review. Critical Reviews™ in Biomedical Engineering. [abstract link]

Byun, J., Choi, K. H., Kim, S., & Thomson, J. R. C. (2024). Exploring the social mediatization of action sports communities in South Korea. Sport in Society, 1-21. [abstract link]

Callan, D. E., Torre–Tresols, J. J., Laguerta, J., & Ishii, S. (2024). Shredding artifacts: extracting brain activity in EEG from extreme artifacts during skateboarding using ASR and ICA. Frontiers in Neuroergonomics, 5, 1358660. [paper link]

*Chavez Malca, J.A. (2024). Plan of negotiations for the implementation of a plan of negotiations of a skateboarding school directed for children from 13 to 25 years old, Arequipa 2023. Master’s Thesis. LaSalle Universidad (In Spanish) [paper link]

Choi, K. H., & Byun, J. (2024). Professionalization of action sports: field-and organizational-level professionalization of new Olympic sports. Sport in Society, 1-24. [abstract link]

Diewald, S. N., Neville, J., Cronin, J. B., Read, D., & Cross, M. R. (2024). Skating into the unknown: scoping the physical, technical, and tactical demands of competitive skateboarding. Sports medicine, 1-20. [paper link]

Engell, Z., Larsen, S. H., & Elmose-Østerlund, K. (2024). Participation in street sports-a national study of participation patterns among youth and adults. European Journal for Sport and Society, 21(2), 128-151. [abstract link]

Fajhtinger, S., and Kozinc, Ž. (2024). Reliability and discriminant validity of instrumented skateboarding-specific postural sway test: a preliminary study. Kinesiologia Slovenica 30, no. 1. [abstract link]

George, K., Kouame, M., Rivas, G., Pottanat, P., Hartsock, L., & Reid, K. (2024). Adult skateboarding and motorized board injuries: A comparative analysis. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 86, 98-103. [partial paper link]

Kaufmann, P., Zweier, L., Baca, A., & Kainz, H. (2024). Muscle synergies are shared across fundamental subtasks in complex movements of skateboarding. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 12860. [paper link]

Kemp, T. (2024). Shred Central: Estimating the user benefits associated with large public skateparks. Journal of Economic Analysis, 0(1). [paper link]

Lee, H. S., & Lee, E. S. (2024). Exploration from Action Sport: Motivation for Skateboarding. Korean Journal of Sport Science. 33(4), 70-84. (Korean Language) [paper link]

Morrongiello, B. A., Seasons, M., Erum, E., & Arbour, E. (2024). Peer and parent influences on youth skateboarding and factors that affect their decision to return to the sport after injury. Psychology of sport and exercise, 70, 102559. [partial paper link]

Morrongiello, B. A., Amir, M., Corbett, M. R., Zolis, C., & Russell, K. (2024). Adolescents at the skatepark: identifying design features and youth behaviours that pose risk for falls. Injury prevention, 30(4), 267-271. [abstract link]

Mowling, C., Favoretto Hill, L., & Fittipaldi-Wert, J. (2024). Skateboarding Abilities: Balance Training for Children with Impairments. Palaestra, 38(1). [abstract link]

Nobuharu, I., Nobuyuki, Y., Haruka, S., & Eiji, I. (2024). Floating Inferior Glenohumeral Ligament: A Case Report. Cureus, 16(10). [paper link]

O’Connor, J., Alfrey, L., & Penney, D. (2024). Rethinking the classification of games and sports in physical education: A response to changes in sport and participation. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 29(3), 315-328. [paper link]

Onor Jr, G. I., Kellish, A., Chang, M., Fones, L., Henry, T., Pennington, M., … & Beredjiklian, P. (2024). Sports and Recreation-Related Wrist Fractures: An Epidemiological Study. Cureus, 16(6). [paper link]

Quinn, J., Singh, M., Bennetto, J., Duong, E., Tudor, F., & Platt, S. (2024). The epidemiology of skateboarding injuries: a 10-year review at a major Australian centre. Cureus, 16(3). [paper link]

Renfree, G., Cueson, D., & Wood, C. (2024). Skateboard, BMX freestyle, and sport climbing communities’ responses to their sports’ inclusion in the Olympic Games. Managing Sport and Leisure, 29(1), 171-185. [paper link]

Rodriguez-Redondo, Y., Denche-Zamorano, A., Mendoza-Muñoz, M., & Leon, K. (2024). Analysis of scientific production in street sports with acrobatic components. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 16(2), 343-363. [paper link]

Russell, K., Mitchell-Dueck, J., & Morrongiello, B. (2024). Skateboard parks: the time has come to develop policies to reduce injuries. Injury prevention. 0:1–2. doi:10.1136/ip-2023-045041 [paper link]

Sandwith, M., MacDermott, S., & Griswold, A. (2024). Exploring the Occupation of Adaptive Skateboarding. Poster presented at the Virtual Occupational Therapy D Capstone Symposium, University of St Augustine for Health Sciences. [paper link]

Seasons, M., & Morrongiello, B. A. (2024). Returning to sport after injury: the influence of injury appraisals and post-traumatic stress symptoms on adolescent risk-taking intentions post-injury. Journal of pediatric psychology, 49(3), 175-184. [paper link]

Tanaka, S., Inoue, H., Sakanashi, S., Kinoshi, T., Nakagawa, K., Yokota, H., … & Tanaka, H. (2024). A retrospective analysis of injury and illness incidence in four new extreme sports debuting during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games: surfing, BMX freestyle, sport climbing, and skateboarding. Journal of EMS Medicine, 3(1), 11-18. [paper link]

Toth, A. (2024). The decline of outdoor activity among Gen-Z: A need for reviving street sports for community, art, and career development. SPRINT–Sports Research International. [paper link]

Tsai, Y. C., Hsu, W. L., Kantha, P., Chen, P. J., & Lai, D. M. (2024). Virtual reality skateboarding training for balance and functional performance in degenerative lumbar spine disease. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 21(1), 74. [paper link]

Viray, G., Cheney, I., & Wan, T. (2024). Using skateboarding to develop a culturally relevant tutorial on static equilibrium. arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.17625. [paper link]

Widyaswari, N. M. A., Kamayoga, I. D. G. A., Indrayani, A. W., & Dewi, A. A. N. T. N. (2024). The relationship between leg muscle strength and dynamic balance in skateboard players. Physical Therapy Journal of Indonesia, 5(2), 95-98. [paper link]

Wintle, J. (2024). Changing the Game: Implementing Lifestyle Sports in Schools Through Meaningful Physical Education. [paper link]

Xue, J., Swic, S., Brazeau, J., & Frank, E. (2024). Understanding and optimising helmet-related and other health and social effects of the first North American university campus skatepark. Leisure Studies, 1-18. [abstract link]

*Zhang, Z. (2024). The impact of the inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympic Games on the development of skateboarding programs——the case of China. Master’s Thesis. University of the Peloponnese. (in Greek) [paper link]

Sport for Development

An offshoot of sport institutionalised programs that has an educational and socialization focus, rather than athletic.

Christ, T., Boström, K. J., Ohrmann, P., Britz, H., Wagner, H., & Bohn, C. (2024). The effects of a four-month skateboarding intervention on motor, cognitive, and symptom levels in children with ADHD. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 12, 1452851. [paper link]

Schwamberger, B., & Washburn, N. (2024, March). Incorporating Skateboarding Into Your Physical Education Program. In 2024 SHAPE America National Convention & Expo. Shapeamerica. [paper link]

Sorsdahl, K., Davies, T., Jensel, C., Oberholzer, D., Gelberg, L., & van der Westhuizen, C. (2024). Experiences and perceived benefits of a youth skateboarding program in South Africa: from the physical to emotional and beyond. Journal of adolescent research, 39(3), 770-795. [paper link]

*Tsipis, A. (2024). Urban Rides, Social Tides: Skateboarding’s Influence on Youth Empowerment and Urban Cultural Dynamics in Nairobi, Kenya. Master’s Thesis. Malmö University. [paper link]

IV. Design and Technology

(Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Math, Medicine, Physics)

Like other sport and recreation activities, there’s a burgeoning literature on novel technologies that aid athleticism, injury prevention, and pedagogies for skateboarding. 17 Articles in 2024; 13 Articles in 2023.

Arockiasamy, F. S., Logesh, K., Rajan A, J., Ramesh, M., Kannan, S., Giri, J., & Alarfaj, A. A. (2024). Exploring the strength and durability of hemp fiber reinforced moringa bioresin composites for skateboard applications. AIP Advances, 14(8). [paper link]

Chrzan, D. (2024). Skateboarding–A Physics and Materials Science Story. Bulletin of the American Physical Society. [presentation abstract link]

Cimolin, V., & Jan, Y. K. (2024). Individual’s mechanics, movement and kinematics post-stroke. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 12, 1430588. [paper link]

Cossu, R. (2024). ELIXIR: Extending the lifespan of skateboarding shoes. [paper link]

Heinen, J. T., Brockie, S. G., ten Broek, R., van der Kruk, E., & Moore, J. K. (2024). Maximizing ollie height by optimizing control strategy and skateboard geometry using direct collocation. Sports Engineering, 27(1), 8. [paper link]

Günther, T. (2024). Mathematics of skateboard quarter pipe construction. International Journal of Engineering and Applied Physics, 4(3), 1041-1054. [paper link]

Kogelbauer, F., Koyama, S., Callan, D. E., & Shinomoto, S. (2024). Mechanical optimization of skateboard pumping. Physical Review Research, 6(3), 033132. [paper link]

Te, L. (2024). [Report] Designing skateboarding experiences for people with cerebral palsy. [paper link]

*Mikkola, E. (2024). Online Planning and Control of Physics-Based Skateboarding Animation. Master’s Thesis. Aalto University. (Finnish) [paper link]

Standaert, W., & Mazurova, E. (2024). Digitalization in action sports: blessing or curse?. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship. [paper link]

Tanjung, T., Muhida, R., Riza, M., Kurniawan, A., Erlangga, E., Pratama, N., … & Cucus, A. (2024). The Implementation of Natural Language Processing in Manufacturing and Service Industry through Skateboard Monitoring Device. Engineering Headway, 3, 43-48. [paper link]

Thibault, W., Rajendran, V., Melek, W., & Mombaur, K. (2024). Learning Skateboarding for Humanoid Robots through Massively Parallel Reinforcement Learning. arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.07846. [paper link]

Wei, X., & Zhou, J. (2024). Professional skateboarding trousers design: according to the three-dimensional kinematic analysis for varied skateboarding manoeuvres. Industria Textila, 75(1), 86-92. [paper link]

Wu, Y., Wang, H., Deng, C., Guo, Y., & Zhu, X. (2024). Cushioning mechanism of the metatarsals during landing for the skateboarding ollie maneuver. Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology, 12, 1382161. [paper link]

Xu, Z., Al-Khulaqui, M., Ma, H., Wang, J., Xin, Q., You, Y., … & Zhang, S. (2024, May). Optimization Based Dynamic Skateboarding of Quadrupedal Robot. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)(pp. 8058-8064). IEEE. [abstract link]

Xun, M., Li, J., Deng, J., & Liu, Y. (2024). Development of a One-Legged Piezoelectric Robot With Agile Motion, High-Speed, and Large-Load Capabilities. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. [abstract link]

Zöllner, M., Krause, M., & Gemeinhardt, J. Similarities of motion patterns in skateboarding and hydrofoil pumping. Proceedings of iWOAR 2024 – 9th international Workshop on Sensor-Based Activity Recognition and Artificial Intelligence. 26 – 27. September 2024, Potsdam. [paper link]

From Beachy, K. (2024, July 26). Is skateboarding really a subculture anymore? Huck. [paper link]

V.   Fiction, Creative Writing, Art, Popular Media

Skateboarding is defined by its media, so this list should be the longest (imagine including all the skate journalism, from Thrasher to Grey to Jenkem to your local zine). But here’s a list of academic-related non-fiction work, published in skate and non-skate media. Sixten articles in 2024; eleven articles in 2023.

Barrow, T., & Korman, S. (2024). Talking Shit and Making Meaning: Ted Barrow and Sam Korman discuss the role of criticism in skateboarding. Portable Gray, 7 (2), 231-242. [paper link]

Barron, J. (2024). “In Brooklyn, a Fight Over Paving Parkland for Skateboarding.” The New York Times, 29 February 2024. [paper link]

Beachy, K. (2024, July 26). Is skateboarding really a subculture anymore? Huck. [paper link]

Borden, I. (2024). Park Life: the 1970s Skate Wave. C20 Magazine, 1, 22-27. [abstract link]

Golding, F (2024, July 25). Three Years Ago Alexis Sablone Skated in the Olympics. Next Up? Designing Team USA’s Uniforms. GQ Sports [article link]

Golding, F (2024, September 4). It Feels Like You’re Both Getting A Clip — A Reappraisal of Fisheye Cinematography. Quartersnacks [article link]

Graquandra & Mateja, R (2024, December 3). ‘Pushing for Inclusion at the Skate Connect Festival.’ Goodpush Alliance. [article link]

Greg C. Holland (2024, October 3). Poignant portraits of Palestine’s young skateboarders. Dazed. [article link]

Keylock, C. 2024. Feel the fear and drop in anyway – Esther Sayers Ep. 2. Board Women [Podcast link]

O’Connor, P (2024). Paul O’Connor Episode 87. Beyond Boards [Podcast link]

Mateja, R. (2024, May 6). ‘Skateboarding, Power and Change!’ Dr Indigo Willing & Ruby Mateja. Skateistan. [podcast link]

Palmer, W (2024, August 2). The messy relationship between skateboarding and the Olympics. Dazed. [article link] 

Romero, N. (2024). Decolonial Underground Pedagogy: Unschooling and Subcultural Learning for Peace and Human Rights. Bloomsbury Publishing. [book abstract]

Sylvain-Blackburn, K., & Sylvain-Blackburn, K. (2024). Skate School: Kahari and Katon Sylvain-Blackburn in conversation with Mike Schuh. Portable Gray, 7(1), 183-198. [abstract link]

Vadi, J. (2024). Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder’s Lens. New York: Catapult. [abstract link]

Willing, I (2024, 29 July). ‘Women Skateboarders Flip Olympic Stereotypes.’ 360Info. [article link]

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This article was updated on January 24th 2025 to include the conference ‘City Canvas, Public Art and Creative Sports Symposium’ as well as additions to the ‘Fiction, Creative Writing, Art, Popular Media’ section submitted by Dr Indigo Willing whose SSHRED platform hosted Glenney’s 2023 skate studies report.

Skate Bylines welcomes further additions of skateboarding studies to this resource. Please contact skatebylines@gmail.com with suggested acknowledgements.

The 2025 edition of this report can be found at Simple Magic.

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Brian Glenney is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Norwich University, Vermont, USA. He received his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Southern California in 2007. His focus in skateboarding studies concerns urban ecology, with around a dozen peer-review articles on urban pollution and spatial appropriation. This work has culminated in a co-authored book with Sander Hölsgens, Skateboarding and the Senses: Skills, Surfaces, and Spaces, just published by Routledge. Glenney is also a co-founder of the research initiative “Skating, Sustainability, Health, Research, Environmental Design (SSHRED). He is also a graffiti writer and some of his work is housed in various collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian. And he has produced several award-winning short films, one of which is now playing on PBS. Please email any criticism, oversights, and other reactions to bglenney@norwich.edu

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Eager to get stuck in but unsure where to start?

“The Jackass crew gives “each other permission to have grey hair, no hair, missing teeth, body rolls and fatness and to be physically exhausted, in pain and even passed out cold.” — Pushing Boarders co-founder Sander Hölgsens gives a rundown of his favourite skateboarding studies of this report.

If skateboarding studies in architecture are up your street…

“It’s an accessible first point of, like, ‘How do I connect with this culture?’” — Ian Browning examines municipal space in New York City through the lens of the Lower East Side Skatepark in ‘The Civic Centre of New York City Skateboarding’.

“What happens when a spot is destroyed forever? How, then, is its legacy preserved in a tangible form that goes beyond images and stories?” — Dominique Teoh explores the architectural concept of ‘spolia’ which “rubble into something both relic and resurrected” through a case study in Love Park and Love Malmö.

If skateboarding studies on culture and creative media interest you…

“‘MOMIJI’ is a win for all skateboarders because it reveals that we survived the Olympic doomsayer’s worst fears and Momiji’s resilience beyond the Olympic bubble is undoubtedly heroic.” — Natalie Porter on the merits of Momiji Nishiya’s post-podium career in ‘Medals End At Gold But Video Parts Go Platinum’.

“The Boss became “The Boss” because at some point he stopped being the guy you were worried about and he started being the guy who people were guided by. He was a north star for all of these other skaters.” — Kyle Beachy, author of The Most Fun Thing, joins the Skate Bylines podcast to talk about his essay ‘A Very Large Puzzle: On Andrew Reynolds’.