2004 has been one of the most exciting years in competitive skateboarding, thanks to the riders who continue to push the limits of the sport.

Even though he claims to be more focused on his family, Bucky Lasek has made a nearly clean sweep of medals in the last year. At the end of 2003, he won the Gravity Games and X Games Vert and Vert Doubles gold medals, and then followed it up with another win at the US Championships of Skateboarding. So far in 2004, he has picked up golds at the Slam City Jam in Vancouver, the Vans Triple Crown in Cleveland and the X Games. His success is due in large part to the fact that he knows how to do technical tricks, bigger than anybody else and he does them consistently.

• Skateboarding: 2004 Wrap-Up

Around the world in the 1950’s, creative surfers had begun nailing planks of wood to roller skate trucks to simulate the feeling of surfing on dry land. At that point, skateboarding was a pastime, a fun way to spend the day when the waves were flat.

• History of Skateboarding

It's easy for mainstream society to hate on skateboarders. They're outspoken and revolutionary, involved in counterculture movements and criminal activities with names like “trespassing” and “destruction of private property.” But they also have an iron-clad tradition of honor and responsibility for their own culture and The Next Cup's Jamey Prescott is determined to keep it that way....

• The Next Cup is Skateboarding's Next Big Thing