Things you might hear at the skatepark

  • Regular: Riding with your left foot forward.
  • Goofy: Riding with your right foot forward.
  • Fakie: skating backwards—the skater is standing in his or her normal stance, but the board is moving backward
  • switch stance: riding the board with the opposite footing than usual, i.e., "goofyfoot" instead of "regular foot"
  • ollie: a jump performed by tapping the tail of the board on the ground; the basis of most skating tricks
  • nollie: an ollie performed by tapping the nose of the board instead of the tail
  • grind: scraping one or both axles on a curb, railing, or other surface
  • nosegrind: grinding on only the front truck
  • Nose slide: Sliding on the nose of board on the edge of an obstacle like a handrail, ledge, or ramp lip.
  • kickflip: a variation on the ollie in which the skater kicks the board into a spin before landing back on it
  • Heelflip: While performing on Ollie, the heel pushed down on the edge of the board causing it to flip over.
  • Manual: Another name for Wheelie - usually performed over as long a distance as possible.
  • railslide: a trick in which the skater slides the underside of the deck along an object, such as a curb or handrail
  • tailslide: sliding the underside of the tail end of a board on a ledge or lip
  • backside: when a trick or turn is executed with the skater’s back facing the ramp or obstacle.
  • frontside: when a trick or turn is executed with the front of the skater’s body facing the ramp or obstacle
  • crooked grind: grinding on only the front truck while sliding
  • 50-50 grind: grinding on both trucks equally
  • nosegrind: grinding on only the front truck
  • 5-0 grind: grinding on only the back truck
  • Coping: A rounded lip at the top of a ramp or obstacle, usually made of metal, cement, or PVC pipe.
  • Darkslide: As you approach something to grind, you flip your board and grind on the grip tape while standing on the bottom of the board.
  • Grab: Grabbing either or both boards with one or both hands. Frontside or backside.
  • Mongo: A style of pushing where the back foot is kept on the board and pushing is done with the front foot. Generally, not a good way to push.

Tips for some of our favorite tricks

  • Kickflip- Pop the board and kick your foot straight out to catch the nose of the board.  Catching the nose flips the board over.  When the board flips all the way over, catch it with your back foot, put your front foot back on and land. - Dillon
  • 360 Flip (Tre Flip)- Set up like a kickflip but have your back foot on the far edge of the tail cupped over the edge.  Your toes should be gripping the edge of the tail.  When you pop the board, scoop it out hard and do the motion of a kickflip with your front foot.  The board should do a full 360 spin while doing a single kickflip.  When the grip side of the board is showing, catch the board with either foot (some catch with the front foot and some with the back foot) and roll away. - Dillon
  • Manual- Find a curb or ledge with a wide flat area on top.  Roll up to the obstacle and ollie on top of the ledge landing on your back wheels only.  There's a small margin for error on this trick, but it's low impact and really hard to actually hurt yourself.  Land in the "sweet spot" and use your arms and legs (mostly your ankles; thing of your ankle as a seesaw) to distribute weight and keep your front set of wheels in the air.  Try to keep from dragging your tail or putting your front wheels down.  Make it to the end and give it a little push to make it off the end. - Dillon
  • Fakie Big Spin—A fakie big spin is a fakie 360 pop shove with a body varial. You start rolling switch. Put your front foot at the mid-base of the nose. Your back foot should be placed over the back bolts. Wind up as you would to do a backside 180 and, as you unwind, pop the nose of the board while popping a shove. The unwinding of your upper body will cause the pop of the shove a little extra twist to make it the full 360 while keeping it in tune with your body to not over spin. If all goes well then the board will be spinning under your feet, and all you have to do at this point is wait for the last rotation to come around and land on it. - Jamin

  • Pop-Shove Under-Flip—A pop shove under-flip is done, for the most part, like a regular pop-shove. The main difference is that during the set up instead up setting your back foot directly in the pocket at the base of the tail on the outside edge, you actually need to awkwardly hang your foot off the edge. This will allow your back foot to catch the board when it comes around. When it comes around over your foot just pull your foot up. This should make the board flip around. When the top of the board comes around, extend your feet to catch it and stick with it till you roll away. - Jamin

  • Fakie Inward Heelflip—I advise being able to do regular heelflips very well before trying this considering you have to kick the heelflip very hard. I find it best to put my front foot on the nose toward the back edge. My back foot I place at the same point that I would for a normal heelflip. When actually popping for the inward heelflip, I wind up my shoulders as if I’m about to do a backside 180. When I unwind my shoulders it helps give the board a little more push to make it around the shove. I do most of the action with my back foot, just using my front foot to pop down and give a little bit of push for the shove. This trick will rotate almost up-right between your legs and when it comes around you need to be ready to stop it down. If all goes well, you should be ready to roll away with a nice new trick. - Jamin