Abstract: To date, the only studies conducted on skateboarding have been injury studies. The increased popularity of this sport suggested that further study was warranted. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare the oxygen uptake of skateboarding and running on a treadmill; and to use oxygen pulse data from the metabolic analysis of treadmill skateboarding and heart rate data from a skateboard field test to estimate the metabolic responses to skateboarding in the field. METHODS Five skateboarders of varying levels of experience were studied, two females and three males (age = 23.4±2.6 yrs, ht = 173.3±5.9 cm, wt = 70.0±6.3 kg) with a mean VO2max of 55.1±4.3 ml/kg/min. VO2max was assessed using the Bruce protocol. Subjects then participated in two treadmill tests and one field test. The treadmill protocol consisted of ten stages, the first at 0% elevation at 5.0 mph, then 9 subsequent stages at 1.5% elevation starting at 5.0 mph and increasing 0.5 mph per stage. Subjects skated and ran the same treadmill protocol. The field test consisted of 30 minutes of skateboarding on a flat concrete surface while wearing a Polar heart rate monitor. A regression equation for each individual was created using the O2 pulse and heart rate from the skateboard treadmill test. The heart rate data collected from each field test were entered into the equation and used to estimate VO2. RESULTS Oxygen uptakes were significantly greater across the workloads for the running treadmill tests when compared to the skateboard treadmill tests (p < 0.05). The mean VO2 for 30 minutes of skateboarding was estimated to be 62.4±9.4 L. The mean caloric expenditure, assuming a mixed diet, was 302.6±45.9 kcal and mean kcal/min was 10.1±1.5. CONCLUSION Across a progressively increasing workload on a treadmill, these results indicated that skateboarding was more efficient than running. The average estimated caloric expenditure of 10.1±1.5 kcal/min, indicated that skateboarding could provide similar health benefits compared to other modes of moderately intense aerobic exercise.