Skateboarding, a realm where creativity meets agility, has evolved throughout the decades, introducing new tricks and styles that stretch across a wide spectrum. This article presents an exhaustive skateboarding list, exploring tricks, types, and terminologies to give you a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic sport.
The Basics of Skateboarding
Knowing the basics is the key to embarking on the skateboarder’s journey. We’ll cover essential skateboard parts, basic maneuvers, and important tips for beginners starting their skateboarding adventure.
Understanding the Skateboard:
Skateboarding itself starts with a fundamental familiarity of the board you’ll ride on. A skateboard consists of several key components including the deck, trucks, wheels, and grip tape. The ‘deck’ is the part that you stand on. The ‘trucks’ attach the wheels to the deck. The wheels help you roll, and the grip tape provides friction so your shoes stick to the boards.
Finding Your Stance: Before starting to ride, you should identify your natural stance. In skateboarding, there are two primary stances – ‘regular’ and ‘goofy’. If you feel more comfortable with your left foot in front, that’s called a regular stance. Conversely, if your right foot feels more natural in the front, you’re termed a ‘goofy’ skater.
Learning to Push and Balance: Next comes pushing and balancing, two fundamental skills needed in skateboarding. Initially, pushing on a skateboard might feel weird and precarious, but with time, you’ll find your rhythm. Learning the right method to push and how to distribute your weight when you’re on board essentially means mastering the basics of balance.
Mastering Basic Tricks: Once you have these essentials down, you can start learning some basic tricks like ‘Ollie’ and ‘Kickflip’. An ‘Ollie’ is a jump where the skateboard, with the skater aboard, lifts from the ground. A ‘Kickflip’ is an advanced level of ‘Ollie’ where the skater kicks the board’s side during an ‘Ollie’ to make the skateboard flip 360 degrees along its axis.
Practice is Key: Importantly, remember that skateboarding is an art developed over time. Consistent practice is vital to becoming proficient. It’s recommended to skateboard at least 3 times a week to make progress.
Skateboarding is more than just a sport — it’s a skill, a passion, and a lifestyle. With patience, practice, and perseverance, you’ll soon find your rhythm and style, going beyond the basics to mastering your tricks, and enjoying every moment you spend on wheels.
Skateboarding Tricks: From Kickflips to McTwists
Dive into a vast range of tricks that make skateboarding extraordinarily unique. From the fundamental Ollie to the daring McTwist, we’ll unravel the mystery behind each trick, how it’s performed, and the skaters who have mastered it.
Skateboarding is a world of creativity, defined by the myriad of tricks that riders can perform. These range from simple maneuvers that rookies can easily pick up, to incredibly complex stunts that experienced and professional skaters spend years mastering. In this section, we delve into a variety of exciting tricks, from the basics like Kickflips to more advanced stunts like McTwists.
Kickflips: A kickflip is perhaps one of the first tricks that skateboarders aspiring to advance their skills attempt to learn. Named after its pioneering inventor, professional skateboarder Rodney Mullen, the kickflip requires skaters to ‘kick’ or slide their foot off the side of the board in a particular way to flip the skateboard in mid-air, landing upright with the skater on board.
McTwist: Fast forward to a variety of tricks in skateboarding, and a standout would be the McTwist. The McTwist, invented by skater Mike McGill, is a complex trick performed on a ramp that involves a 540-degree flip combined with a mid-air spin. A skateboarder performing a McTwist launches off a ramp, flips their board halfway around and concurrently spins one and a half times in mid-air before landing.
In between the Kickflip and McTwist, there are multitudes of skateboarding tricks each with its unique blend of flips, spins, slides, and grinds. The beauty of skateboarding lies not just in the wealth of tricks already known, but in the endless possibilities for new tricks waiting to be invented by skaters around the world.
These dazzling stunts do not come easy, though. Behind each smooth landing, one can trace hours of practice, numerous falls, and an unyielding spirit of perseverance. Know that each scraped knee or bruised elbow is a badge of honor, a step in the journey of mastering the beautiful art of skateboarding.
Types of Skateboarding: Street, Vert, and Freestyle
Discover the three primary types of skateboarding – Street, Vert, and Freestyle, each one offering its exclusive style and tricks, tailored to different terrains and skill levels.
Street Skating: Street skating has emerged as the most popular form of skateboarding today and is all about utilizing the urban environment creatively. This style was born from skaters using public spaces like plazas, benches, rails, and stairs as their canvas to perform tricks. Street skateboarding evolved notably once the Ollie was perfected, allowing skaters to jump over and grind obstacles, really opening the scope of tricks they could perform.
Vert Skating: Vert skateboarding, short for vertical, traces its roots back to the drained swimming pools skaters would use in drought-plagued Southern California. Later, the design was emulated in massive, half-pipe ramps to provide a similar vertical surface. In its essence, vert skating is about gaining speed and momentum in the ramp’s elliptical bowl to perform high-flying tricks at the top, or lip, of the ramp – from jaw-dropping aerial flips to complex grinds.
Freestyle Skating: As one of the oldest forms of skateboarding, freestyle skating thrives on innovation and creativity. It involves executing a series of tricks and maneuvers on a flat surface, making it highly accessible to beginners. The skills used in freestyle skating have hugely influenced modern street skating – with skaters like Rodney Mullen creating several tricks initially designed for freestyle in a street context, such as the kickflip.
Each of these forms of skateboarding has its unique allure, challenges, and techniques. From the city landscapes favored by street skateboarders to the towering half-pipes used in vert, and the close-quarter tricks of freestyle, each style serves as a facet of the multifaceted world of skateboarding. It remains an evolving art form, growing and changing with each generation of skaters that add their style, spirit, and creativity to this dynamic sport.
Skateboarding Terminology: Speak the Lingo
To truly appreciate the complexity of skateboarding, one must grasp its special lingo. In this section, we will decode the often-heard terms and phrases in the skateboarding world – from ‘mongo foot’ to ‘goofy stance’.
Skateboarding Culture and Community
Skateboarding transcends being just a sport—it’s a culture, a community. We’ll discuss how skateboarding has shaped identities, its influence on fashion and music, and its deep-seated commitment to camaraderie.
Conclusion
By providing an all-encompassing skateboarding list, we aim to illuminate the nuances of this thrilling sport, celebrating its creativity, daring, and sense of community. So whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned skater, step on your board, take a ride, and keep pushing the boundaries.