Corporation influence in skateboarding

James O'Mahoney creates the U.S. Skateboard Association (USSA), and later creates the World Skateboard Association (WSA) to bring the world's skaters together.

From the summer of 1976 through 1978 many new skateparks begin construction around the U.S., especially in southern California. Some of the most popular parks in the Los Angeles area are Concrete Wave, Skatopia, Pipeline (Upland), Lakewood, Reseda, Oxnard, Big O and Whittier. The main San Diego skateparks are Carlsbad, Del Mar, Oasis, Movin' On (Home Avenue), Vista, La Mesa and El Cajon

Pepsi and 360 Sportswear form a professional skateboard team which sponsors a variety of safety clinics and demos performed mostly at local schools. The first team riders are Stacy Peralta, Russ Howell, Jerry Valdez, Laurie McDonald, Gregg Ayres, Alan Scott, Gordy Lienemann, Lonnie Toft, Waldo Autry, Paul Hoffman, Marc Scott, Brett Levett, Rod Saunders, Sylvia Scott and George Orton. Rene Carrasco, Ritchie Carrasco, David Carrasco, Steve Rocco, Tony Jetton, Wink Roberts, David Hackett, and Cheri O'Berg later join the team.

held at Skateboard Heaven, Spring Valley, California. It is the first organized professional skateboard contest series, and the first held in a vertical pool.

Spiraling insurance and slowing skatepark attendance begins forcing all but a few skateparks out of business. The punk movement infiltrates the skate scene and alienates many skaters and commercial sponsors. Throughout 1979 skateboarding interest declines, and is all but commercially dead by the end of the year. The majority of skaters move on to other things.

Skating goes mostly underground. Street skating, and kids building their own wooden ramps, keep skating going at the core level. The large skateboard companies suffer huge losses.

In the mid to late 1980's, Powell-Peralta, Vision/Sims, Santa Cruz, Tracker and Independent are the major companies in the industry. Board royalties and contest winnings escalate and some pro skaters earn as much as ten thousand dollars a month. The National Skateboard Association, headed up by Frank Hawk, holds numerous contests across North America and eventually throughout the world. Skateboard shoes from Airwalk, Vans and Vision become enormously popular along with skate clothing.

Many new and existing shoe companies begin marketing directly to the skateboard industry. In the coming years, Airwalk, Etnies, Simple and DC are among the first companies to enter the skate market. Converse, which once had been a popular skate shoe in the 1960s, begins going after the skate market. Mainstream shoe companies, Nike and Adidas also begin to focus on skate shoes.

The skate industry is deeply affected by a world-wide recession. Skaters rediscover their roots in street skating, and the skate companies begin re-evaluating themselves. As in the past, a hardcore group remains with the sport, but this time the attrition is not as great as it was in the past.

Skateboarding re-emerges from its slump. The sport gains a great deal of exposure at the ESPN 2 Extreme Games in Rhode Island. This serves to bring skateboarding more into the mainstream. Skateboard shoe manufacturers like Etnies (owned by top freestyle skaters Pierre Andre and Don Brown), and Vans begin selling huge quantities of product and are joined by other soft good manufacturers eager to cash in on skateboarding's growing popularity.