Just for skaters

Done with the board straight up and down, this move uses the skateboard as a pogo stick. One foot is on the bottom truck, and the other usually presses on the grip tape side of the board for grip. An easier variation involves one foot off with the rider grabbing th nose. The skater can also do this with both feet on the truck, a 2-foot pogo, of with the feet crossed.

Considered the trick of all tricks, this trick was what allowed Flatland Skateboarding to reach a vertical height and gave rise to the merge of Freestyle to Street obstacles creating an entirely new style of skateboard. Streetstyle Skateboarding. Streetstyle Skateboarding became possible when Freestyle tricks were allowed to be done on Street obstacles and the Ollie was the trick that allowed this to become possible. The Ollie was not developed by Rodney Mullen. He was the first to do it on flatland but did not invent it.

The Footwork in question was one that the rider did to go from stationary into Switch Tailstop. While in stationary the rider pops the board down on the tail with the back foot and the front foot drags up the board all the way to the tip of the nose and all weight is put on the front foot as the rider comes down in Switch Tailstop with his front foot now on top of the Nose of the skateboard which is touching the ground. Rodney Mullen realized that by doing this action but dragging the front foot only half way or a bit more than half way instead of up to the tip of the Nose, he could get the board to go in the air but land on all four wheels instead of a Switch Tailstop.

The rider stands stationary or rolls forward and pops down hard on the tail with the back foot. When the nose of the skateboard starts to point up the rider drags the front foot up the skateboard which causes the skateboard to drag up and get higher. The rider lifts the back foot and eventually the rider stops the drag while the skateboard stops its vertical ascent and the back of the skateboard rises up to the same level as the other side of the skateboard is at with the back of the skateboard meeting the back foot. The skateboard has now "Leveled Out" and the rider braces for impact on all four wheels, rolling away. This trick can be done in staggering amounts of variations including all kinds of combinations of rotations, flips and body rotations combined which truly makes it the most versatile trick in the existence of skateboarding.

Thought to be invented by Kurt Lindgren, not the Ollie Kickflip, but done standing with feet parallel in the middle of the skateboard, with the toes of the back foot hooked under and flipping the board as the skater jumps. This is notably different from the Ollie Kickflip in that it does not involve an Ollie. There exists many variations of the Kickflip including the Double Kickflip, M-80 Kickflip, Double M-80 Kickflip, Varial Kickflip, 360 Kickflip (Butterfly), 540 Kickflip and many more, and all of the variations with a One Foot landing or Cross Foot landing making the amount of variations absolutely staggering. When done, the rider will have a tendency to turn his body 90 degrees to line himself up with the board. The direction to which he turns, seems more natural if it's the direction opposite the foot he used to flip the board. This would result in a Fakie landing. It is also possible to flip and turn your body 90 degrees in the OTHER direction and land rolling forward rather than Fakie.

Most decks are constructed with a seven to nine-ply cross-laminated layup of Canadian maple. Other materials used in deck construction, fiberglass, bamboo, resin, Kevlar, carbon fiber, aluminum, and plastic, lighten the board or increase its strength or rigidity. Some decks made from maple ply are dyed to create various different coloured ply. Modern decks vary in size, but most are 7 to 10.5 inches wide. Wider decks can be used for greater stability when transition or ramp skating. Skateboard decks are usually between 28 and 33 inches long. The underside of the deck can be printed with a design by the manufacturer, blank, or decorated by any other means.

The longboard, a common variant of the skateboard, has a longer deck. This is mostly ridden down hills or by the beach. "Old school" boards (those made in the 1970s-80s or modern boards that mimic their shape) are generally wider and often have only one kicktail. 1970s variants often have little or no concavity, whereas 1980s models have deeper concavities and steeper kicktails.

Grip tape, when applied to the top surface of a skateboard, gives a skater's feet more grip on the deck. It has an adhesive back and a sandpaper like top.

The wheels of a skateboard, usually made of polyurethane, come in many different sizes and shapes to suit different types of skating. Larger sizes like 65-90 mm roll faster, and also move more easily over cracks in pavement. Smaller sizes like 48-54 mm keep the board closer to the ground, require less force to accelerate and produce a lower center of gravity, but also make for a slower top speed. Wheels also are available in a variety of hardnesses usually measured on the durometer 'A' scale. Wheels range from the very soft (about 75a) to the very hard (about 101a). As the scale stops at 100a, any wheels labelled 101a or higher are harder, but do not use the appropriate durometer scale. Some wheel manufacturers now use the 'B' or 'D' scale, which has a larger and more accurate range of hardness.

Modern street skaters prefer smaller wheels (usually 45-53 mm), as small wheels can make tricks like kickflips and ollies easier. Street wheels are often quite hard as this allows the wheels to 'break away' from the ground easier. Vert skating requires larger wheels (usually 55-65 mm) as vert skating involves higher speeds. Vert wheels are also usually very hard which helps with maintaining speed on ramps. Slalom skating requires even larger wheels (60-75 mm) to sustain the highest speeds possible. They also need to be soft and have better grip to make the tight and frequent turns in slalom racing. Even larger wheels are used in longboarding and downhill skateboarding. Sizes range from 65 mm right up to 100 mm. These extreme sizes of wheels almost always have cores of hard plastic that can be made thinner and lighter than a solid polyurethane wheel. They are often used by skateboard videographers as well, as the large soft wheels allow for smooth and easy movement over any terrain.

There is no definitive origin or inventor of the skateboard. One proposed origin is that skateboards arose in the 1930s and 1940s, when children would participate in soapbox races, using soap-boxes attached to wooden planks on rollerskate wheels. When the soap-box became detached from the plank, children would ride these primitive "skateboards". Another suggests that the skateboard was created directly from the adaptation of a single roller skate taken apart and nailed to a 2x4, without the soapbox at all and that it was often surfers looking to recreate the feel of surfing on the land when the surf was flat.

Retail skateboards were first marketed in 1958 by Bill and Mark Richard of Dana Point, California. They attached roller skate wheels from the Chicago Roller Skate Company to a plank of wood and sold them in their Val Surf Shops.^[1]

Five years later mass produced skateboards were sold nationally. These early models were often made in the shape of a surfboard, with no concavity and were constructed of solid wood, plastic, even metal. The wheels were usually made of a clay composite, or steel and the trucks (axles) were less sturdy and initially of a 'single-action' design compared to today's 'double-action'.