Freestyle skateboarding

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Perhaps the oldest style of skateboarding itself, Freestyle Skateboarding (or most commonly, freestyle) is a type of skating that was popular intermittently from the 1960s until the early 1990s, when the last large scale professional competition was held for years and it would take 8 years until the next (2000). In 1995, pro freestyler Stefan "Lillis" Åkesson started the International Network for Flatland Freestyle Skateboarding (INFFS) and (with Daniel Gesmer) produced Flatline and the online version Flatline Online.

All over the world freestylers realized they were not alone and through the Internet they could connect and interact in ways never done before. In the year 2000 the World Freestyle Skateboard Association WFSA was founded by Bob Staton, Stefan "Lillis" Åkesson and Daniel Gesmer. Freestyle now started to attract lots of young kids. The main skateboarding media was still focused on streetskating and vert but magazines that focus on other "alternative" skateboard disciplines, such as slalom and longboarding, showed interest in covering some of the activities in freestyle.

The emphasis in freestyle is technical flatground skateboarding. Often a freestyler will need little more than a board and a smooth, flat surface to initiate a session. Music and choreography have always been an essential part of the professional freestyle routine. Freestyle in the 1950's was a direct result of surfing (or the lack of it). Surfers would imitate their moves on skateboards when the waves weren't breaking. In the 1960's, many freestyle tricks were derived from gymnastics and dancing. Freestyle changed significantly in the 1980s, when ollies and ollie based flip tricks were invented and introduced to the discipline.