Girl: "What's that thing he's riding?"

Guy: "It's a board with wheels!"

— Lorraine's classmates at Lou's Diner

Skateboards were a method of transportation during the later half of the 20th century. They consisted of a flat piece of wood with two pairs of wheels attached to it.

Although Marty McFly could borrow his father's car on special occasions, he usually traveled to school and Doc's garage by skateboard. His brand of skateboard was an Valterra. He was fairly adept at simple tricks such as jumps, skidding to a stop, and stepping on the back end to catch the front end. He would also hitch a ride by holding onto the back of cars – even the car of the county sheriff – in spite of the fact that this hazardous practice was illegal. Other teenagers would walk their dogs as they rode skateboards by letting the dogs pull them by the leash.

When Marty traveled back to 1955, he searched for a way to outrun Biff Tannen, and created a homemade skateboard from a young boy's soapbox scooter. Nobody watching the chase had seen a skateboard before, since they would not be sold in stores until the early 1960s – Marty obviously gave history a push in the right direction!

While Marty ended up with a Toyota Hilux in the newly revised 1985, he would still use his skateboard as a means of transportation (pointed out by Edna Strickland).

In the 1986B timeline, skateboards aren't allowed in Hill Valley and are among the contraband items stored in the former site of El Kid

While in 1931, the DeLorean's time circuits were malfunctioning, thus Citizen Brown discouraged Marty from using it to go to young Emmett's lab. To get there, Marty removed the bottom portion of a model train from the Hill Valley of the Future exhibit.

Skateboards were later replaced by hoverboards, which removed the wheels altogether, thus hover converting the long favorite.

Behind the scenes

Bob Gale went to Venice Beach, California to find skateboarding experts and hired European skateboard champion Per Welinder, and Robert Schmelzer as a stunt double for Eric Stoltz. When Michael J. Fox replaced Stoltz in the role of Marty, Charlie Croughwell performed Marty's skateboard stunts during the refilming, since Fox was six inches shorter than Stoltz.

Although Fox learned how to skateboard for his role in the first film, he had completely forgotten the skill by the time the second film was in production, and other methods had to be found to simulate the hoverboard.

Skateboards would not have been familiar in 1955, although kids did make scooters from rollerskates and lumber [1]. The Roller Derby Skate Company introduced the Roller Derby Skateboard in 1959.

Appearances

• Back to the Future
• Back to the Future novelization
• Back to the Future (video game)
• Back to the Future Part II & III
• Back to the Future: The Animated Series
  • "Retired"
• Back to the Future: The Game
  • Back to the Future: The Game - Episode 1: It's About Time
  • Back to the Future: The Game - Episode 3: Citizen Brown
  • Back to the Future: The Game - Episode 4: Double Visions
  • Back to the Future: The Game - Episode 5: OUTATIME

References

Back to the Future DVD audio commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton. Transcript at www.bttf.com/Forums.