Skateboarding trick
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A skateboarding trick, or simply a trick, is a maneuver performed by manipulating 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 ...
, usually with one's feet, in a specific way to achieve the desired outcome – the trick.


History

Though skateboards emerged in the 1900s, skateboarding tricks like the ones done today did not appear until decades later. In the 1970s and earlier, the most common tricks were "2D" freestyle types such as manuals and pivots. Only later in the 1980s and early 1990s were common modern-day tricks like the
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 ...
and heel-flip invented by
Alan Gelfand Alan "Ollie" Gelfand (born 1963 in New York City) is an American skateboarder and the inventor of the ollie, a skateboarding trick. Life and career Gelfand moved from New York City to Hollywood, Florida with his family in 1972. He started skateb ...
and Rodney Mullen, setting the stage for other aerial tricks.


Types


Ollie

An ollie is a jump where the front wheels leave the ground first. This motion is attained with a snap of the tail (from the back foot) and sliding one's front foot forward to reach any altitude. A lot of technical tricks transpire from this element (e.g. the
kickflip The kickflip is a skateboarding trick, in which the rider flips their skateboard 360° along the axis that extends from the nose to the tail of the deck. When the rider is regular footed the board spins counter-clockwise if viewed from the side. ...
, heelflip, 360-flip). A ''
nollie In skateboarding, a nollie, short for "nose ollie", is an ollie executed at the front of the board while the rider is positioned in their natural stance. Professional skateboarders Karl Watson, Shuriken Shannon, Tuukka Korhonen, and Sean Malto ha ...
'' is when the back wheels leave the ground first by snapping the nose of the board, with the back foot sliding towards the tail. There is also a switch ollie, which is simply an ollie in switch stance position. The switch stance position is the opposite position of how the rider would normally ride.


Grabs

A grab involves floating in the air, while using either hand to hold the board against the feet or keeping constant and careful pressure on the board with the feet to keep it from floating away. The
Indy grab An Indy grab, also known as an Indy air, is an aerial skateboarding, snowboarding and kitesurfing trick during which the rider grabs their back hand on the middle of their board, between their feet, on the side of the board where their toes ar ...
usually combines rotation with different grabs. This class of tricks was first popularized when
Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...
became famous for his frontside airs in empty swimming pools in the late 1970s and has expanded to include the bulk of skateboarding tricks to this day, including the ollie and all of its variations. The
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and
1080 Year 1080 (Roman numerals, MLXXX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Autumn – Nikephoros Melissenos, a Byzantine general and ar ...
fall under the class of aerials, though these are commonly confused with aerial grabs.


Flip tricks

Flip tricks are a subset of aerials which are all based on the ollie. An example is the kickflip, the most widely known and performed flip trick. The board can be spun around many different axes as part of a flip trick, thus combining several rotations into one trick. These tricks are undoubtedly most popular among
street skateboarding Street skateboarding is a skateboarding discipline which focuses on flat-ground tricks, grinds, slides and aerials within urban environments, and public spaces. Street skateboarders meet, skate, and hang out in and around urban areas refer ...
purists, although skaters with other styles perform them as well. The famous placing of the board on the feet and then jumping was created in 1987 by Nathan Lipor. Combining spins and flips is extremely popular in today's culture. A common trick in skateboarding lines is a 360 flip, or tre flip. A 360 flip is the combination of a skateboard spinning 360 degrees and a kickflip. There are also double kickflips and triple kickflips, which are very difficult.


Freestyle

Freestyle skateboarding tricks are tricks specifically associated with
freestyle skateboarding Freestyle skateboarding (or freestyle) is one of the oldest styles of skateboarding and was intermittently popular from the 1960s until the early 1990s, when the final large-scale professional freestyle skateboarding competition was held. Desc ...
. They are part of the building blocks and some of the most important reference points for tricks which have evolved to form
street skateboarding Street skateboarding is a skateboarding discipline which focuses on flat-ground tricks, grinds, slides and aerials within urban environments, and public spaces. Street skateboarders meet, skate, and hang out in and around urban areas refer ...
.


Slides and grinds

Slides and grinds involve getting the board up on some type of ledge,
rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...
, or coping and sliding or grinding along the board or trucks, respectively. When it is primarily the board which is contacting the edge, it is called a slide; when it is the truck, it is a grind. Grinding and sliding skateboards started with sliding the board on parking blocks and curbs, then extended to using the coping on swimming pools, then stairway
handrail A handrail is a rail that is designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide safety or support. In Britain, handrails are referred to as banisters. Handrails are usually used to provide support for body or to hold clothings in a bathroom or ...
s, and has now been expanded to include almost every possible type of edge. Grinds and slides on street environments were brought to mainstream skateboarding by professional skateboarders
Natas Kaupas Natas Kaupas (born March 23, 1969) is an American former professional skateboarder. He grew up in South Santa Monica, California, in the area known as Dogtown, and is of Lithuanian descent. He is often referred to as one of the first true profe ...
and
Mark Gonzales Mark Gonzales (born June 1, 1968), also known as "Gonz" and "The Gonz", is an American professional skateboarder and artist. He is known as the godfather of modern street skateboarding and was named the "Most Influential Skateboarder of All Ti ...
.


Manuals

A manual is a balancing trick where a skateboarder balances on either the front two or rear two wheels, without the other two wheels or any other part of the skateboard touching the ground for the entire duration of the trick. The trick is often performed at speed and technical skateboarders such as
Daewon Song Zen Master Daewon Moon Jae-hyeon (born January 23, 1936) is a Korean Zen master in South Korea. A disciple of Zen Master Jeongang, he received Dharma transmission from his teacher and thereby becoming the 78th patriarch in the Dharma Lineage ...
are renowned for performing tricks such as the kickflip both in and out of the trick, whilst also simultaneously doing so up onto, over and off ledges, blocks, benches and other street obstacles.


References

{{Skateboarding Skateboarding Sports techniques