Boardsports are sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment. Surfing, first mastered in the Pacific islands, was the first board sport. Eventually, it was expanded to land applications, often with the addition of wheels. Many board sports are classified as action sports or extreme sports, and thus often appeal to youth.
Board sports have had a history of being dangerous, "punk" or reckless, and thus were marginalized in the sports community. However, many board sports have gained mainstream recognition, and with this recognition have enjoyed wider broadcast, sponsorship and inclusion in institutional sporting events, including the Olympic Games.
Surfing was the first boardsport, or the mother of the other boardsports, originating from the Polynesian culture. Skateboarding was then invented by surfing looking to "surf" on land. Snowboarding came around when surfers and skaters were looking to board on the snow. Wakeboarding was invented by people so that they could get towed in snowboard fashion behind a boat in the same relation as waterskiing to alpine skiing.
We can calculate, using estimations for the numbers participating in certain individual boardsports (20 million skaters, 20 million surfers and 5 million snowboaders), that there are approximately 50 million people participating in these sports. That is if you do not take into consideration people doing more than one of these sports each, which of course, in reality, is highly likely.
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