The benihana is an aerial

trick Trick(s) may refer to: People * Trick McSorley (1852–1936), American professional baseball player * Armon Trick (born 1978), retired German international rugby union player * David Trick (born 1955), former Ontario civil servant and univers ...

performed on a

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarde ...

History

The benihana was invented by

Lester Kasai Lester Kasai (skateboarder) (born August 12, 1966) grew up in Anaheim, California. He began skating at a young age and was one of the original "Sadlands" team skateboard riders. He was one of the top Pro Skateboarders that dominated the Skate City ...

and named after the Benihana restaurant chain.

Features

A benihana is performed by first getting airborne (for example from a

vert ramp A vert ramp is a form of half-pipe used in extreme sports such as vert skating, vert skateboarding and vert BMX. Vert ramps are so named because they transition from a horizontal plane (known as the flat-bottom) to a vertical section on top. ...

or an

ollie Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver, Olive, Olympia, Olga or Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly and Olly. People Given name * Ollie Marie Adams (1925–1998), American gospel and R&B singer * Olli ...

). The skateboarder holds the tail of the

skateboard deck A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...

with the back hand, while the back foot is taken off the skateboard and extended downwards. The front foot is straightened but kept on the board. When the front foot is extended, the tail of the board is brought close to the inner thigh of the front leg. However, the benihana as most skateboarders know it has been incorrectly labeled for years. The true benihana is only done when the skateboarder performs the motion as described above after riding up backwards (or "fakie") on a transition and landing back into the transition facing forwards. If the motion is performed while moving forwards it is known as a benibonga. Virtually every instance of a benibonga ever recorded in skateboard videos, photos, magazines, and video games has been incorrectly labeled a benihana.

Popularity

The trick was very popular in the 1990s, with

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

skateboarders like

Jamie Thomas Jamie Thomas (born October 11, 1974) is an American professional skateboarder and skateboard industry entrepreneur. Thomas is the owner and founder of Zero Skateboards and Fallen Footwear, until he announced its closure in January 2017. Thomas ...

and

Josh Kasper Josh is a masculine given name, frequently a diminutive (hypocorism) of the given names Joshua or Joseph, though since the 1970s, it has increasingly become a full name on its own. It may refer to: People A–J * "Josh", an early pseudonym of S ...

recognised for their proficiency with regard to the benihana. However, since that point, the popularity of the trick has waned. The trick featured in the Tony Hawk video game series including

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 ''Tony Hawk's Underground 2'' is a skateboarding video game, the sixth entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series after ''Tony Hawk's Underground''. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision on October 4, 2004 in the U.S. for the PlaySta ...

, released in 2004. In 2008, ''

Transworld Skateboarding ''Transworld Skateboarding'' (''TWS'') was an Skate magazine, international magazine on skateboarding that was based in Carlsbad, California, United States. The publication also ran an accompanying website and video production company. In Februar ...

'' magazine ran a feature that included the benihana in a list of the ''10 Worst Tricks In Skateboarding'' and described the trick as "terrible".''TWS 10: The Top 10 Worst Tricks In Skateboarding''
by Blair Alley (

, 17 November 2008)

References

External links

''Sheckler and Dompierre Benihana''
(

, 11 August 2008)
''Chris Fauver, Benihana''
(

, 2 March 2011) {{Skateboarding Skateboarding tricks