<P> The first skateboards started with wooden boxes, or boards, with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom . Crate scooters preceded skateboards, having a wooden crate attached to the nose (front of the board), which formed rudimentary handlebars . The boxes turned into planks, similar to the skateboard decks of today . An American WAC, Betty Magnuson, reported seeing French children in the Montmartre section of Paris riding on boards with roller skate wheels attached to them in late 1944 . </P> <P> Skateboarding, as we know it, was probably born sometime in the late 1940s, or early 1950s, when surfers in California wanted something to do when the waves were flat . This was called "sidewalk surfing" - a new wave of surfing on the sidewalk as the sport of surfing became highly popular . No one knows who made the first board; it seems that several people came up with similar ideas at around the same time . The first manufactured skateboards were ordered by a Los Angeles, California surf shop, meant to be used by surfers in their downtime . The shop owner, Bill Richard, made a deal with the Chicago Roller Skate Company to produce sets of skate wheels, which they attached to square wooden boards . Accordingly, skateboarding was originally denoted "sidewalk surfing" and early skaters emulated surfing style and maneuvers, and performed barefoot . </P> <P> By the 1960s a small number of surfing manufacturers in Southern California such as Jack's, Kips', Hobie, Bing's and Makaha started building skateboards that resembled small surfboards, and assembled teams to promote their products . One of the earliest Skateboard exhibitions was sponsored by Makaha's founder, Larry Stevenson, in 1963 and held at the Pier Avenue Junior High School in Hermosa Beach, California . Some of these same teams of skateboarders were also featured on a television show called "Surf's Up" in 1964, hosted by Stan Richards, that helped promote skateboarding as something new and fun to do . </P> <P> As the popularity of skateboarding began expanding, the first skateboarding magazine, The Quarterly Skateboarder was published in 1964 . John Severson, who published the magazine, wrote in his first editorial: </P>

Where is skateboarding most popular in the world