skateboard decks, skateboard wheelsIf you're like me, and you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you remember when skateboards were more functional.  We used them to get from point A to B, and the skateboard decks were on the boring side.  I still remember my older brother's skateboard, it had a hard plastic, yellow skateboard deck.  My how far they've come!  I look at the skateboard decks now and they look more like surfboards.  Not that I surf, or ever have surfed, but I've seen pictures of surfboards and even had a friend that bought a board.  I was looking up skateboard wheels and even those look so different than the ones I remember.  Today's skateboard wheels remind me of the roller blading wheels we had in the 90s.  

Skateboarding as gone from a form of travel to an extreme sport.  Even the hardware has changed.  I don't remember what my sister-in-law called it exactly, but her teen-aged son brought his skateboard to my sister's house recently and was riding it around the backyard.  We immediately noticed the sparks it was shooting off and she said he put a spark plate onto it, or something like that.  I don't know if that spark plate is part of skateboard trucks or an additional piece.  I just remembered thinking, that was different.  It did remind me of my roller blading days though.