Street skating is the skateboarding genre that The Man doesn't want you to know about, but is still the most popular form of skating today.
Back in the day, before the mid 80's, if you didn't skate vert, you didn't skate. Well, a few guys did freestyle, but that was for freaks. It didn't have the crowd appeal or popularity that vert did. But, sadly, skateboarding became less and less popular, and skateparks were torn down and replaced with basketball courts and playgrounds. This was a dark time.
Then Mark Gonzales, the Gonz, took out his skateboard and looked at the urban landscape surrounding him. A bench was no longer just a bench, but an object to challenge himself upon. Kids started skating around the streets, doing ollies and kickflips over obstacles, and grinding ledges and benches. More followed. A revolution was forming. Street skating was becoming the movement of the masses. During the next 10-15 years, street skating has become the most popular venue for skateboarders.
But such popularity also has disadvantages. Skateboarding was soon banned in most major cities, and a lot of private owners became angry with the locals waxing curbs and grinding on their marble benches. Security guards and the police have become a pest, rather than a protector. Other corporations are trying to leech off the success of skateboarding, without caring about its roots or former struggles. "X-treme" sports competitions exploit skating terribly.
But purists remain. Avoiding the watchful eye of John Law, the street skater is an urban bandit, always scouting spots, always testing boundaries. And often breaking them.