Drought as a trigger of the rapid rise of professional skateboarding in 1970s Southern California

Ulf Büntgen; Clive Oppenheimer; Paco Li; Michael Frachetti; Jan Esper; Max C A Torbenson; Paul J Krusic

doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad395

Drought as a trigger of the rapid rise of professional skateboarding in 1970s Southern California

PNAS Nexus. 2023 Dec 12;2(12):pgad395. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad395. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Ulf Büntgen^{1

2

3

4}, Clive Oppenheimer¹, Paco Li¹, Michael Frachetti⁵, Jan Esper^{2

6}, Max C A Torbenson⁶, Paul J Krusic¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK.
² Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno 603 00, Czech Republic.
³ Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno 613 00, Czech Republic.
⁵ Department Anthropology, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
⁶ Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz 55099, Germany.

Abstract

In 1977 California, authorities responded to an extreme drought with an unprecedented state order to drastically reduce domestic water usage and leave countless newly built swimming pools empty. These curved pools became "playgrounds" for inspired surfers to develop professional vertical skateboarding in the Los Angeles area. Industrial production of polyurethane, and the advent of digital photography, laser printing, and high gloss mass media further contributed to the explosive popularization of skateboarding, creating a global subculture and multibillion-dollar industry that still impacts music, fashion, and lifestyle worldwide. Our interdisciplinary investigation demonstrates that neither the timing nor the location of the origin of professional skateboarding was random. This modern case study highlights how environmental changes can affect human behavior, transform culture, and engender technical innovation in the Anthropocene.

Keywords: climate change; cultural history; drought extremes; environmental change; historical climatology; human behavior; interdisciplinary research.