In addition to
Woundweavrs writeup:
The term wipeout originated in the
american surfer communities during the peak of surfing in the early sixties. Until the
skaters started to pick up some old surfer slang, it was only used by surfers. Now the term has been extended to mean a lot more, such as
to mess up or
the end of something. Even serious
newspapers have used the term,
e.g. "California Surf Museum Faces Wipeout" (Actual
headline)