Santa Cruz was one of the original skateboard companies and is known for its influence that it had on the skateboarding industry. They can be considered one of the best skateboard brands in the world and in this Santa Cruz Skateboards Review we will look at the company history, review the products they sell, as well as look at customer reviews. Let’s get started!
Santa Cruz Skateboards History
Santa Cruz Skateboards is one of the longest lasting skateboard brands in the history of skateboarding. Santa Cruz Skateboards was founded in 1973 in Santa Cruz, California by three best friends, Richard Novak, Jay Shuirman, and Doug Haut. The three friends loved to spend their days skating and surfing. The operated a raw materials business where they would help to clean and collect raw scrap materials around the cities. They used this extra raw material to make surf boards but after partnering with a few athletic stores in the Santa Cruz area, they began using this extra raw material to create their first skateboards!
There are many different sizes of skateboards, but the original Santa Cruz Skateboard is much different to the skateboards they sell today. The original Santa Cruz Skateboard was a basic crusing board made out of thin wood and was roughly the size of a modern day penny board. These boards were small but that was the style of that era. During this time period, most street skating tricks hadn’t been invented so most skateboards were used specifically for cruising or for downhill racing.
With their partnership with local athletic stores as well as their friends and connections within the skateboarding scene, the three founders of Santa Cruz Skateboard began selling their new skateboard design to as many people as possible in the Santa Cruz, California area. As the skateboarding scene advanced into street skating and skating bowls, the Santa Cruz Skateboards team evolved by transitioning into more modern looking skateboards that were wider and easier to perform tricks on.
During the 1980’s, Santa Cruz Skateboards hit hard times because of the death of co-founder, Jay Shuirman who died of Leukemia. Along with the death of their co-founder, Santa Cruz Skateboards saw difficult times during the 1980’s because of the overall decline in popularity of skating. There were many skate parks that were closing and the most popular skateboarding magazines at the time began to go out of business. This made it difficult for the team to grow during the 1980’s.
During the 1990’s and 2000’s the skateboard scene had dramatic changes from old school skating to a more modern street skating. Santa Cruz Skating quickly adjusted to the changing skating scene and began creating more modern skateboards that still had a reference to the old school skating days. They have become known for their old school skating references and their old school graphics on their skateboards.
Santa Cruz Skateboards Products Review
As we briefly mentioned in the previous section, Santa Cruz Skateboards offers a variety of different skateboarding products but they are known for their complete skateboards. Santa Cruz offers many different skateboard shapes and styles so no matter what your preference is, you will be able to find the perfect skateboard for you. Most of their skateboards have an old school skateboarding reference that will remind you of the original skateboarding days in the 1970’s. Santa Cruz sells modern street skating skateboards as well as old school cruisers and downhill racing skateboards.
Santa Cruz Skateboards also offers a wide variety of different clothing and apparel. Their clothing line ranges from t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, shorts, socks, and even hats. They have since expanded their clothing line to include accessories such as coffee mugs, stickers, banners, and other pieces of equipment.
Is Santa Cruz Skateboards Good For Beginners?
Santa Cruz Skateboards is great for beginners because it was orginially designed for the average person. During the 1970’s, they wanted to make their skateboards as easy as possible to ride in order to help to grow the sport of skateboarding. Santa Cruz Skateboard values beginner skateboarders because they know that if they can introduce skating to more and more individuals then the sport of skateboarding will continue to grow. They have created their skateboards to be easy to ride as well as durable which makes them a great option for beginners.
Santa Cruz Skateboards Influence On The Skateboard Industry
Santa Cruz Skateboards has influenced the skateboard industry more so than nearly any other skateboard brand in the world! They were one of the original skateboard brands in the U.S.A and it is doubtful that the sport of skateboarding would be as popular as it is today if it wasn’t because of Santa Cruz. They were one of the original skateboard manufacturers and strived to create as many skateboards as possible in order to grow the sport of skateboarding. During the 1970’s and the 1980’s, the sport of skateboarding was incredibly new and unpopular, but the Santa Cruz Skateboards team helped to grow the sport of skateboarding by creating some of the first skateboards in America.
Pros Who Skate For Santa Cruz Skateboards
Santa Cruz Skateboards has been one of the most influencial skateboard brands in the world and they have also had a great influence on the professional skateboarding scene. They have sponsored dozens of pro skaters over the years.
Below are a few of the pros that skate for Santa Cruz Skateboards:
- Blake Johnson
- Emmanuel Guzman
- Erick Winkowski
- Jake Wooten
- Kevin Braun
- Tom Asta
- Eric Dressen
- Henry Gartland
- Justin Sommer
- Steve Alba
- Tom Knox
- And More!
Santa Cruz Skateboards Review Conclusion
Santa Cruz Skateboards was one of the original skateboarding brands and helped to create the skateboarding industry in America. Without them, skateboarding probably wouldn’t be as popular as it is today. Santa Cruz creates a wide range of high quality skateboards and skating apparel. We highly recommend you give their skateboards a chance! For more skateboard reviews we recommend you read our recent blog articles.
