Roller skating was introduced in the Islands when Williams and Wallace opened their Honolulu Skating Rink in Buffum's Hall on Hotel Street on July 22, 1871. The grand opening, attended by Queen Emma, included a program featuring a march, lancers, two quadrilles, and a Virginia reel, all danced on skates. Thereafter the rink operated nightly except Sunday and Tuesday, charging spectators 25 cents and skaters 25 cents an hour.

Skateboarding was introduced much later, although the date is unknown. Homemade skateboards were presumably tried by numerous young skaters, but these amateur efforts attracted little or no attention. Skateboarding first became popular in Hawai‘i around 1963 but later subsided. “The renaissance in skateboarding,” wrote reporter Lois Taylor, “came about in 1973 when a young surfer, Frank Nasworthy, started fooling around with the recently developed polyurethane wheels used in expensive rollerskates.” By early 1975 skateboarding had again become an Island craze.

The first Hawai‘i skateboard fatality occurred on March 22, 1975, when a hit-run car killed a fourteen-year-old boy as he was riding a skateboard at night along Kalaniana‘ole Highway.

By Robert C. Schmitt