Skateboard Words To Know
Skateboarding trick terminology
- 180: An ollie with a 180 degree board and body turn either backside or frontside.
- 180 heelflip: A heelflip with a 180 degree board and body turn either backside or frontside.
- 180 kickflip: A kickflip with a 180 degree board and body turn either backside or frontside.
- 360 flip or Tre flip: A 360 shove it and a kickflip. The board does one full rotation.
- 50-50 grind: A grind on both trucks.
- 5-0 grind: A rear truck grind with the front of the board elevated over the obstacle.
- Air: Riding with all four wheels in the air.
- Backside: A trick executed with the skater’s back to the ramp or obstacle, or a rotation of the rider/board where the front foot moves forward (e.g. a regular-footed skater turning clockwise).
- Boardslide: A trick in which the skater slides the underside of the deck along an object.
- Caballerial: A 360-degree ollie while riding fakie. The Caballerial was named after Steve Caballero, who invented the trick on vert in the early 1980s.
- Carve: To skate in a long, curving arc.
- Crooked grind: A nosegrind where the nose is angled toward the object and the tail is elevated.
- Fakie: Rolling backwards; the rider is in the normal stance, but rolling in the opposite direction. (Basically a switch nollie position)
- Frontside: A trick executed with the skater facing the ramp or obstacle, or a rotation of the rider/board where the front foot moves backward (e.g. a regular-footed skater turning counterclockwise).
- Goofy-Foot: A skater who more comfortably rides with the right foot leading.
- Grind: Scraping one or both truck axles on a curb, railing, or other surface.
- Hardflip: Instead of the board spinning backside, the trick is performed by doing a kickflip and having the board spin frontside.
- Heelflip: A kickflip in which the skater uses the front heel to flip the board in the opposite direction.
- Inward heelflip: A heelflip variation where the board simultaneously rotates 180 degrees backside
- Kickflip: An ollie in the middle of which the skater uses the front toe to kick the board into an Aileron roll.
- Mongo foot: Just don’t.
- No-Comply 180: A one-footed 180 where the front foot plants on the ground and the back foot pops the board 180 degrees and then the plant foot is brought back onto the board
- Nollie: An Ollie performed with the front foot (N/ollie nose ollie) Same motion as a switch ollie but done on the front of the board, it could be added as a prefix to describe any other trick performed in fake or switch stance (Nollie 360 flip/Tre flip, Nollie kickflip/Nollie flip, etc.).
- Nosegrind: A front truck grind with the rear of the board elevated over the obstacle.
- Noseslide: Sliding the underside of the nose end of a board on a ledge, rail, or lip.
- Ollie: A jump performed by popping the tail of the board on the ground, and using the front foot to even out body and attain air. The basis of most skating tricks, named after Alan Gelfand. See: Air, Pop[1]
- Ollie north: An Ollie in which the front foot is taken off the board.
- Pop shove-it: A shove-it performed while popping the tail to make the board attain air. See: Air, Pop; Shove-it: A trick performed by spinning the board 180 degrees beneath the feet without spinning body.
- Pop: The act of striking the tail of the board against the ground to propel the board upwards.
- Regular Foot: A skater who more comfortably rides with the left foot leading.
- Smith grind: A rear truck grind, with the nose pointed below and slightly away from the obstacle.
- Switch Stance: Riding the board with the opposite footing than usual. A goofy skater uses their left foot forward (regular) in switch, and a regular skater uses their right foot forward (goofy) in switch.
- Tailslide: Sliding the underside of the tail end of a board on a ledge or lip.
- Tic-tac: repeated turning of whole body and skateboard from one side to the other[2]
- Varial heelflip: Same as a hardflip, but heelflip and the board spins front side.
- Varial kickflip: A trick consisting of a backside pop shove-it and a kickflip.
