Richard Lawrence "Larry" Stevenson (December 22, 1930 – March 25, 2012) was the inventor of the
kicktail, the bent-upwards end of a
skateboard
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7–8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.
The skateboard ...
, which made most of today's
skateboarding trick
A skateboarding trick, or simply a trick, is a maneuver performed by manipulating a skateboard, usually with one's feet, in a specific way to achieve the desired outcome – the trick.
History
Though skateboards emerged in the 1900s, skateboardi ...
s possible and essentially revolutionized the sport.
Early life
Stevenson was born in 1930 in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
;
his mother was Inez Kiem and his father was Leonard Stevenson. After high school Larry Stevenson joined the U.S. Navy as a fighter mechanic. He served for two years in the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
.
After that, he went on to
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a Public university, public community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. The coll ...
in California and became a swimmer. He played water polo and swam for Coach John Josephs. Stevenson won the all American award for fastest time for the breast stroke. The record was only recently broken, and he was given a lifetime allowance into any Santa Monica College event, if he wished to attend. After SMC, Stevenson went to USC, on a swimming scholarship, where he majored in business.
During the middle to late part of the 1950s, Stevenson became a Venice Beach lifeguard for the city of Los Angeles. While sitting watching surfers he noticed they would skate on crude skateboards back in the parking lots at the beach. This was true especially when there was no surf. Stevenson, while visiting Hawaii en route to Korea, during the war noticed a great surfing beach called "
Makaha". All those years later he remembered how much he liked the beach in Hawaii, but he also loved the name Makaha.
After a short period of time, Stevenson started MAKAHA skateboards. He is credited with being the man who made the first high-quality skateboard. He patented the double kicktail in 1969, had the first skate team in 1963, and held the first skateboard contest in 1963.
Stevenson also published ''Surfguide'' magazine during the 1960s, and ''
Poweredge'' skateboarding magazine during the 1980s and 1990s. He was involved with Makaha and ''Poweredge''; both have been reborn with new editors.
Death
Stevenson died on March 25, 2012, from complications of pneumonia due to Parkinson's disease in his Santa Monica home. He died in the age of 81.
References
External links
Makaha Skateboards- Larry Stevenson history & information
1930 births
2012 deaths
American inventors
Sports inventors and innovators
Skateboarding equipment
Deaths from Parkinson's disease in California
Deaths from pneumonia in California
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