Skateboarding is an amazing sport, and one that not everyone gets to play. Even those who have been skating for quite some time can find it difficult to perform complicated movements. So it’s important to give some recognition to those amazing skateboarding records out there. While other people will continue to strive to beat them, the bar has been set pretty high.
It took Rob Thomson two and a half years to skateboard and it took him 850 days. He holds the record for the longest trip on a skateboard. This is approximately 7,500 miles that he covered on this incredible journey. He completely wore out three pairs of shoes, many skating wheels, and two tires when he was done too.
Ted McDonald also wanted to get a record for his skateboard trip, but he didn’t have the same amount of time to devote to it. However, he skated for 24 hours and completed 242 miles barefoot. At least he didn’t go through multiple pairs of shoes like Thomson did, right?
There are a couple of people out there who also hold multiple records. Danny Way has a few of them that are definitely worth mentioning here. First, he managed to successfully jump the Great Wall of China, a feat that no one had ever done before with just a skateboard. Second, he holds the record for the longest jump in history, and at 79 feet it’s going to be very hard for anyone to win this title.
Rob Dyrdek holds more than 20 skateboarding records according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Most of them he was able to achieve in 2007 when the Guinness Book of World Records held such a competition. Some of the events he is top dog at include the longest 50/50 rail grind at a distance of 100 feet, 215 straight non-stop ollies, and the highest skateboard jump into water using a ramp he set with 10 feet. and 8 inches.
The highest recorded and verified ollie is 44 ½ inches by Danny Wainwright. Videos of other people doing ollies up to 50 inches have circulated. However, they have not been verified and therefore do not receive the credit that some feel they deserve.
For over a decade, Gary Hardwick has been able to hold the record he set for fastest speed. He hit 63 miles per hour in 1998 while jogging in Arizona. There is a separate record for doing the same with a jet pack. This goes to Billy Copeland and he was able to hit 70 miles per hour this way.
Perhaps the only really well-known record is Tony Hawk’s. He made history in 1999 at the X Games by performing what he called a 900. Basically, it’s a full rotation of 300 three times in a row. That is an extremely difficult trick to pull off. There are still only a handful of professionals who have mastered it well enough to use it in their performances.
It’s important to note that every amazing skateboard record out there has been verified. Other people claim that they have done better on certain tasks, but their information could not be verified. Therefore, the current records will remain as they are. If you think you have what it takes to break a skateboarding record, be sure to find out the correct procedures for recording your efforts. That way you too can get the recognition you deserve for this sport.