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But a new cross-disciplinary study from the University of Cambridge shows that beyond the drought, it was the entanglement of environmental, economic and technological factors that led to the explosive rise of professional skateboarding culture in the 1970s.
Their study, reported in the journal PNAS Nexus, shows how small environmental changes can have profound effects on human behaviour, and stimulate cultural and technical innovation.
The drought resulted in estimated losses of $3 billion in California's massive agricultural sector, and the state's reservoir storage reached a record low in 1977.
The widespread economic prosperity of post-World War II America, combined with radical changes in urban planning regulations, resulted in the construction of more than 150,000 swimming pools in California during the 1960s.
The combination of improved equipment, the influence of surf culture, and empty kidney-shaped pools, among many other factors, led to the rise of what was initially referred to as 'vertical' skating.
"But our study shows that local climate triggers can have unexpected, and major, impacts on human society, and not all of them are negative -- in this case, a drought in California led to the development of a huge industry.
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