Other Skateboarding Tricks

Acid drops, Bomb drops

These are slightly different street tricks but more or less used in the same fashion. An acid drop is where the skater simply rides off an object (usually a drop or stairs) instead of ollieing. A bomb drop is when a person jumps off of an object holding the board in their hand and then placing it under their feet, mid jump. Vert variation: A roll-in on vert from riding on the platform somewhat parallel to the coping, then rolling over the coping and dropping in. Not to be confused with a disaster in. The middle of the board never touches the coping. Popularized by Duane Peters who did the trick with an even harder variation: rolling straight in - perpendicular to the coping! Vert Bomb Drop - A drop-in done from above or on the coping. Stand on the object (extension, railing, etc.), and grab the board (any grab) and jump off and into the ramp, pool while placing your feet on the board. In 2006, Danny Way set the world record for bomb drop height, when he jumped 28 feet off the Hard Rock Cafe guitar in Las Vegas into a 56 foot high ramp (82'3 total height).

Bean Plant

Like a boneless, but the skateboarder grabs the nose or grabs lien (heel-side of the nose) with the front hand.

Boneless One

This classic trick, invented by Gary Scott Davis, dates back to the freestyling era of skateboarding. Variations include rotations, varials, and hand flips. Basically the principle is where the skater grabs the skateboard while simultaneously stepping off the board and jumping with one foot. The skater then replaces the board under his/her feet and lands. It is commonly used to gain more height or performed down stair sets. Since the 1980s the Boneless has lost much of its popularity, however, there are still some cult skateboarders, such as Peter Vlad and Ali Boulala, that keep the trick alive.

Originally, Gary Scott Davis thought this trick up. He didn't think it was possible though. His friend called him up one day to announce that he had done that trick and Gary came down to meet him. He realized how much easier it was to plant the front foot down and how much higher they can go. Contrary to popular belief, the name "Boneless One" has nothing to do with your legs or any part of the trick. It was a name given some time after the trick was done, and named after a puppet that one of his friends owned. The puppets name was Harry the Boneless One.

Caveman

A caveman like a bomb drop but on the flatground or into a grind/slide, it is simply holding your board in one hand, jumping into the air, landing on the board, and rolling away or down a rail. It was commonly used by street skaters in the mid to late 80's as a way to boardslide handrails that were otherwise unskateable.

Coffin

Similar to street luge. While skating at speed, the skateboarder moves to the front of the board. They sit down in the middle of the board, knees bent sharply, holding onto the sides of the board with both hands. They lean back until laying straight, and extend both feet ahead of the nose. Before the 1970s, this trick was performed like the early longboarders of the time, where the rider turns around and lays down backward/head first.

Fastplant

Late seventies backside vert trick. the fastplant is a footplant grabbing the back rail with the front hand (like a backside aerial) taking your back foot off the board and planting it on the coping and boosting upward off the planted foot, turn in the air and replace the back foot before reentry. Lance Mountain still does these.

Figure 4, Calf Wrap, Flamingo, Pretzel Plant, Brain Surgeon

This is an odd looking trick. The rider snaps the skateboard up scooping the back tail like an ollie impossible while the front foot slips off to the ground like a no comply. At this moment the back foot should scoop up the board and pin it to the backside of the calf on the planted leg. The griptape should be touching the backfoot (and inner side of the back knee *originally*) and the graphic side of the board should be wrap the back of your calf of our front leg. With a fluid forward motion your board 'unwraps' your back calf and your board falls back into place. If done straight and fast It should look like a 'parking block no-comply off your front leg.' It is most commonly done backside on banks and mild transitions with a more exaggerated twist at the lower body and legs. Invented by Derek Belen, made popular by Rey Gregorio, then perfected by Dorian Tucker, and Kris Markovich.

Firecracker

This trick should sound like a string of Chinese of firecrackers igniting when done properly. The Firecracker was invented by Rey Gregorio. Its a variation of a few tricks. 1) A trick simply called an M-80, where the rider literally slaps the tail down onto the edge of the curb emanating a loud POP. 2) Another precedent is an old trick of simply riding down stairs on all four wheels. However, this trick was stumbled upon when Rey realized he couldn't ride down stairs while going fast using all four wheels (without ollieing of course). Out of necessity he realized that you can actually manual down a set of stairs, and in doing so, creating a loud slapping noise with the tail each time it comes in contact down each step, like a succession of very loud M-80s going off.

Flamingo

The Flamingo is a freestyle footwork maneuver that involves riding forward, spontaneously doing a 180 slide with the nose of the board and lifting your back foot off of the board. So you ride, slide the 180 and you slide one footed like a figure skater does when she jumps, spins 180, and lands riding one footed backwards. Popularized by Pierre Andre and Natas Kaupas

Footplant

Late seventies backside vert-trick. Grab like a backside aerial, take back foot off the board and plant it on the coping, pivot backside and jump back in replacing your back foot before landing. If you boost out higher off the planted foot before reentry, it is a fastplant.

French Maid

This Trick is an old pool trick. Basically a Big backside carve *all four wheels* in a pool while grabbing your front rail of the board with both hands (no bend at the knees). Rendering yourself upside down while looking like a naughty housekeeper. Made popular by Jeff Grosso and Duane Peters.

G-Turn

A nose wheelie/manual while carving. It gets its name from the path of the board when seen from above - shaped like a letter "G" due to the carve spiraling inward. Variations: One-wheeled, grabs

Loop, The

Trick where you must skate in a loop. Currently, there only 13 known skaters who have landed it, such as Tony Hawk, Bam Margera (the first street skater to land it successfully), and Bob Burnquist. Duane Peters was the first and only person to do the loop for 20 years until Tony Hawk. Special note: Bob Burnquist has modified his own backyard loop with a removable top section from approximately 11:00 to 1:00, enabling him to air across the gap upside down. He has also completed a "corkscrew".

Loop, Natural

This loop differs from the regular Loop in that the normal loop has a roll-in ramp and exit ramp, and the overall shape is like a Hot Wheels racetrack. Speed is gained from dropping from the top of the roll-in. A natural loop is done entirely within the cylinder itself, with all the necessary speed gained from pumping the fullpipe. To date, Bob Burnquist is the only person to have done this successfully. After breaking one foot and twisting the ankle of the other at an attempt at legendary Mt. Baldy fullpipe, he purchased a 14-foot metal fullpipe for his house, where he successfully pulled it.

Manual, Wheelie

The original definition of manual is often mixed with the Wheelie and very often a regular Wheelie is called a manual. Most often a manual is performed by doing an Ollie or another trick up onto an obstacle, rolling in a wheelie all the way to the other side of the obstacle and then either dropping straight off the obstacle back onto all four wheels or performing a trick out of the manual. A variation of the wheelie is the nose-wheelie, wherein the skateboard balances on the front two wheels. There is also the One Wheel Nose Wheelie, One Footed Wheelie, One Footed Nose Wheelie, Trans Wheelie (Wheelie on both side wheels - in direction of motion backward) and Can't Wheelie (Wheelie on both side wheels - in direction of motion forward). Of course all of the tricks above are to have "Manual" substituted instead of Wheelie, if you got into the Wheelie trick by the way above that qualifies it as a "Manual". Some Wheelie tricks are near impossible to get into by Ollieing because they are part of Freestyle and were derived without the care for an Ollie entrance in. An example of this includes two wheelies, the Swedish Wheelie and Swedish Nose Wheelie. The Swedish Nose Wheelie is done by doing a regular One Footed Nose Wheelie, except your back foot has to be hooked under the tail as you're riding out the Wheelie. In a way, this makes the Wheelie much easier because you can pressure the board in between both feet. It must be tried to realize the advantage. The Swedish Wheelie is a One Footed Wheelie on the back foot, going forward, but the front foot must be hooked under the nose of the board. The opposite of the Swedish Nose Wheelie. From both variations, it is possible to do a Varial (Shove-it) out.

In modern skateboarding, one will often hear about a "fakie-manual", which is essentially a switch nose manual. Fakie manual and switch manual are interchangeable, but usually if the skater does a fakie ollie/trick into the manual, it will be called fakie manual, and vice-versa.

No-Comply, Step-Hop, No-Hand Boneless

The front foot slides off the side of the board. With the body weight on the back foot over the tail, the board 'snaps' up and can be guided with the back leg/knee. To ride away the skater jumps with his/her front foot back on. The No-Comply was commonly used by street skaters in the mid to late 80's, most commonly being done off parking blocks by bumping the tail off of them. This trick has many variations, including 180's, 360's, shove-its, flips, finger-flips, impossible, reverts, etc.

Sal Flip

Invented by Salvador Lucas Barbier (Sal Barbier). in motion this trick mimics a fingerflip and 360 pop shove it. While riding forward, the rider mildly hits the tail like a backside pop shove it. at about 45 degrees into the rotation with the leading hand, catch the nose with the palm side of the hand touching the grip tape (thumb underneath) with an ELBOW motion, flare the board forward and outward for the rest of the rotation (315 degrees) with the feet up and out of the way until the rotation is complete . depending on air time the feet may 'catch' the board in mid air or casing the trick at touchdown. on flat ground this trick may not 'flare' as much and may look similar to a (palm side) finger flip that 'pirouts' vertically using more of a wrist motion as opposed to an elbow motion. the higher the rider goes the more exaggerated the movement can be, IE instead of a wrist or elbow rotation the rider can actually 'flare' the board with a shoulder motion.

Texas Plant or Tex Plant

Go up to the lip frontside and take the back foot off and plant it on the coping, while grabbing like a slob air and extending the front leg. Invented by Texas skate master John "Tex" Gibson.

Thruster

A fakie tail grab foot plant, where the back foot boosts off the coping. Can be done straight up and down, or moving across the coping. Popularized by Craig Johnson.

Wallie

This trick combines the polejam and the wallride, however the skater normally does it off the end/side of a wall landing on the adjacent pavement. the skater would force down on his back wheels, slamming the skateboarding vertical up against the wall and pushing it into the air from the gravity of the wall.

Wall ride

This is a difficult, impressive trick where the skater places all four wheels onto a wall and rides along vertically until ollieing or rolling off. A "wallie" is performed on a corner or short wall when the skater combines an ollie and wall ride, quickly riding up the wall and launching off into the air, as if the wall were a ramp. If the skater grabs the board and kicks against the wall with his/her foot it is known as a "wallplant".

Stalefish

This is a hard trick to do and is mainly done on vert skating (skating on a quarter pipe, halfpipe, or mini ramp). To do this trick, you must be very flexible. A stalefish is when you use your back hand to grip the heelside of the board in the middle area. While doing that, you must bend both of your knees and point them toward the nose (front) of the board.