Sports-minded people derive great satisfaction and enjoyment; as well as pleasure in demonstrating their athleticism, from skateboards which enable them to transverse land at not-inconsiderable speed, standing on a wheeled platform which must be constrained in its directional requirements without the presence of steering wheels, handlebars or other manual control means. Conventional skateboards have not changed appreciably since they came into vogue about four decades ago. They were developed simply by placing a board--commonly called a "deck"--on roller skates at front and rear, and the turning mechanism has essentially remained the same, with the wheels being allowed, when the board is leaned by body weight, to turn in the direction of the lean. In certain further developments, larger skateboards have been produced--and with sails in some instances--aimed at obtaining better turning abilities, but without any noteworthy success. The fact remains that difficulty or limitation in turning invariably arises when small wheels are used and are located essentially under the board, with the wheels being unable to be spaced apart more than say 25 cm.
Another disadvantage associated with current types of skateboards is that their small, substantially solid wheels cause them to be limited to firm-surface terrain such as roads and footpaths, so that they cannot be used on sand or on grassed surfaces which may include sot areas. In consequence they cannot compete with grass skis where the latter are usable, and if fitted with sails or the like they are fraught with danger even exceeding the normal high incidence of accidents and damage to the person occurring when normal skateboard are used on concrete or the like surfaces, especially when their inherently low-stability characteristics are combined with the low-ability problems of inexperienced or accident-prone riders.