Until the 1990s, skateboarding was perceived as a suburban, niche activity in Southern California, surfing on sidewalks. It has surged into a global, urban, youth culture phenomenon. Defying easy definition and traditional classifications, skateboarding can be a sport at the Olympics and an underground subculture, a way to connect with other skaters and surfaces, and a means of self-discovery through movement in space. Much of skateboarding’s 21st-century appeal – embracing diverse communities, creative approaches to the city’s built environment, music, fashion, slang, trick choice, and style – comes directly from San Francisco. Skateboarding San Francisco explores how a local activity made a global impact. San Francisco has always been and remains a lodestar for skateboarders worldwide, where challenges are seen as appeals, surfaces beckon play, and whose lore is celebrated through the city’s characteristic concrete and evolving, vibrant communities.

Gallery Tours – April 12, June 14,12–1 p.m.

Skateboarding art historian and Docomomo Northern California Board Member Ted Barrow walks visitors through the exhibition, Skateboarding San Francisco: Concrete, Community, Continuity, showing how the City’s unique terrain has become iconic to skateboarding. Combining archival photos from the library’s own History Center with historic skate photos, videos, and material artifacts, Barrow shares the impact of skateboarding in San Francisco and its reach across the globe.

Tours begin in the Jewett Gallery on the Lower Level of the Main. The April 12 and June 14 Ted Talks Gallery Tours will meet inside the Library and move outside into the neighborhood, so please dress for the weather. 

This event is not sponsored by Docomomo Northern California.