Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United States, skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2009 report found that the skateboarding market is worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue, with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world. In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding would be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for both male and female teams.
A skateboarding trick, or simply a trick, is a maneuver performed by manipulating a skateboard, usually with one's feet, in a specific way to achieve the desired outcome – the trick.
Boardsports are active outdoor sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment. These sports take place on a variety of terrains, from paved flat-ground and snow-covered hills to water and air. Most boardsports are considered action sports or extreme sports, and thus often appeal to youth. Some board sports were marginalized in the past. However, many board sports are gaining mainstream recognition, and with this recognition, they have enjoyed wider broadcast, sponsorship and inclusion in institutional sporting events, including the Olympic Games.
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.
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 are pointing, while turning backside. This trick is done only backside; the same maneuver done while turning front side, is called a front side air. The Indy grab is a generic skateboarding trick that has been performed since the late 1970s. This trick is performed mainly while vert skating, e.g. on halfpipes. Although this move can be done on flat land, it is much easier on a ramp. The Indy grab is one of the basic tricks in vert skating and is usually combined with spins, kickflips and heelflips.
John Rodney Mullen is an American professional skateboarder who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding. He is considered the third most influential skater in the history of the sport, just behind Tony Hawk and Mark Gonzales. Mullen is credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-flip. As a result, he has been called the "Godfather of modern freestyle skating."
The ollie is a skateboarding trick where the rider and board leap into the air without the use of the rider's hands. It is the combination of stomping, also known as popping, the tail of the skateboard off the ground to get the board mostly vertical, jumping, and sliding the front foot forward to level out the skateboard at the peak of the jump.
In human biology, footedness is the natural preference of one's left or right foot for various purposes. It is the foot equivalent of handedness. While purposes vary, such as applying the greatest force in a certain foot to complete the action of kick as opposed to stomping, footedness is most commonly associated with the preference of a particular foot in the leading position while engaging in foot- or kicking-related sports, such as association football and kickboxing. A person may thus be left-footed, right-footed or ambipedal.
In surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and aggressive inline skating, frontside and backside are terms that are used to describe how a person approaches an obstacle or performs a certain trick. In aggressive inline skating, frontside and backside are types of grinds.
Casper is a freestyle skateboarding trick that was invented by Bobby "Casper" Boyden in the late 1970s. Boyden had a very pale skin and he was nicknamed after the cartoon ghost. The modern casper was invented by Rodney Mullen in the late 1980s.
Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of five disciplines: street, park, vert, trails, and flatland. In June 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced that freestyle park was to be added as an Olympic event to the 2020 Summer Olympics.
A freestyle skateboarding trick is a trick performed with a skateboard while freestyle skateboarding. Some of these tricks are done in a stationary position, unlike many other skateboarding tricks. The keys to a good freestyle contest run are variety, difficulty, fluidity, and creativity. This is an incomplete list, which includes most notable tricks.
A flip trick is a type of skateboarding trick in which the skateboard rotates around its vertical axis, or its vertical axis and its horizontal axis simultaneously. The first flip trick, called a kickflip but originally known as a "magic flip", was invented by professional skateboarder Rodney Mullen.
A slide is a skateboarding trick where the skateboarder slides sideways either on the deck or the trucks.
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 have been recognized for their ability to perform the nollie trick. A nollie can be easily confused with a fakie ollie, whereby the rider uses their original foot position but is instead riding backwards.
Wallenberg, also known as the Wallenberg Four, is located at the Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, California, United States.
A fingerboard is a scaled-down replica of a skateboard that a person "rides" with their fingers, rather than their feet. A fingerboard is typically 100 millimeters (3.9 in) long with width ranging from 26 to 55 mm, with graphics, trucks and plastic or ball-bearing wheels, like a skateboard. A fingerboard can be used to do traditional skateboarding tricks, such as an ollie and kickflip.
A shove-it is a skateboarding trick where the skateboarder makes the board spin 180 degrees without the tail of the board hitting the ground under their feet. There are many variations of the shove-it but they all follow the same principle: The skateboarder's lead foot remains in one spot, while the back foot performs the "shove". The pop shove-it was originally called a "Ty hop", named after Ty Page.
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 referred to as "spots," which are commonly streets, plazas or industrial areas. To add variety and complexity to street skateboarding, obstacles such as handrails, stairs, walls, flower beds, bins, park benches, picnic tables, and other street furniture may be traversed as single tricks or as part of a series of consecutive tricks called a "line."
