A

ABD

ABD is an acronym that, in the context of skateboarding, stands for "already been done" - it's used in conversation and writing to quickly refer to tricks that have previously been landed at a particular skating spot by another skateboarder.

For example:

• "That video part was crap - it had too many ABD's".
• "Can anybody give me a list of ABD's from south bank?"

ABD stands for a whole lot of other things not to do with skateboarding as well.

Acid Drop

Airwalk

A grab trick involving holding the nose with your front hand while your legs split as if walking. In theory, the more 'steps' you can take while in this position the better the trick is, but rarely is it possible to take more than one or two. Originally an air trick invented by Tony Hawk, then developed into a flatland trick, the 'ollie airwalk', by Rodney Mullen - although technically it's a 'split kick' since Rodney doesn't actually have time to walk. Now hardly ever seen.

Alley-Oop

A trick performed in the air while turning the opposite or 'unnatural' way to the direction of travel. When travelling in the direction your toes are facing (toeside) rotating frontside 180° or more makes the trick an alley-oop. Conversely, when travelling heelside, rotating backside 180° or more is an alley-oop. Usually this occurs on a half pipe but is also sometimes seen in park skating on hips, quarter pipes and transfers. Any trick can be performed alley-oop but most often you will simply see frontside alley-oops and backside alley-oops. See those defintions for a more specific explanation of 'alley-oop'.

Anchor Grind

A crooked grind without the back truck in the air; it is pushed down beside the obstacle again, similar to how the front truck is pushed down in a smith grind.

Andrecht Invert

An invert with a backside grab, invented by Dave Andrecht.

Anti Casper

A half impossible to nose casper. The skateboard is upside down with the point of the nose on the ground, raised at an angle and held up by the skateboarders back foot which is hooked under the deck. The skaters front foot stands on the underside of the nose. In this position the skateboarder can stall or slide along a suitable surface before flipping out of the anti casper position.

Axle Stall

B

Backflip

Pretty much exactly what it says - a backwards end over end flip of the rider and skateboard. This is only possible off of ramps, of course. This was invented by Andy McDonald in 1997, as confirmed by the man himself:

"...I was the first to do a backflip on a skateboard ... I did that in 97. It was just in an era when skateboarders and BMXers were sharing a lot of the same courses for competition. And BMXers could do backflips because they have handlebars and they can just pull back on them when they leave the jump. Inliners could do it because they're strapped in. But skateboarders couldn't figure it out because we're not strapped to our boards. So it was a matter of figuring out how to come off the ramp in such a way that the board sticks to your feet as you start to flip and you reach down and grab it."

Backside

Backside is often abbreviated to b/s. Along with frontside, this term is used to further define any trick involving rotation of the rider, and some tricks that involve a rotation of the board. Grinds and slides are also defined as backside or frontside.

When a skateboarder flips the board or performs rotations, if their backfoot is moving backwards the trick is backside. For example, doing a shuvit by kicking the tail of the skateboard backwards is a backside shuvit.

When grinding or sliding, backside is used when the rider has his back to the obstacle as he slides away from it, or in the case of grinds where the board is parallel to the obstacle, if the obstacle was behind the skater as he approached it.

Backside Air

Gaining air (usually out of a half pipe) and travelling in the direction your toes are facing while turning backside. A 180° backside air in combination with a simple grab is probably the most basic half pipe trick you can do.

Backside Alley-Oop

The opposite of a simple backside air (again usually seen in a half pipe); gaining air and travelling in the direction your heels are facing (heelside) while turning backside. Therefore, you are turning away from your direction of travel, and cannot spot your landing until the last second, making alley-oops much more difficult than basic airs.

Backside Boneless

Unlike many tricks, where the rotation of the trick doesn't change how the trick is done, a boneless is done differently when done backside -- the front foot is planted to the toeside of the deck instead of the heelside, and the front hand grabs the board on the heelside edge of the nose (unlike in a normal boneless, where the back hand grabs like an indy).

Backside Flip

Refers to a 180° backside kickflip. When the general term 'flip' is used in a trick name it almost always refers to a kickflip. Similarly, when the amount of spin (ie, the number of degrees) is not specified, the trick is almost always a 180° trick.

Backside Grab

Grabbing the heelside of the board with the front hand between the heels, with the arm to the leading side of (and not between) the legs.

When backside airs were first done, they were always done with this grab, and as such, this grab ended up being called a backside grab. Now, most people call it a melon, although that's technically wrong - a melon is a backside grab with a straightened front leg.

Backside Ollie

A backside 180° ollie; remember when the amount of spin is not specified, the trick is almost always a 180° trick. For more information on how to do a backside ollie, see this article on 180° ollies.

Backside Slide

A downhill slide where your board is pushed backside, with both hands on the road resulting in the skater sliding down the hill feet-first in a 'pressup position'. It's considered the most basic slide.

Bank Skating

Bank skating is using any kind of flat slope of varying steepness to do tricks on. The skater generally rolls up, does the trick, and rolls back down, but as with any obstacle, there are a variety of ways to skate it. Note that ditches basically consist of a multitude of banks.

Barley Grind

A switch frontside 180° ollie into a frontside smith grind.

Bastard Plant

A backside boneless to fakie.

Bearings

Part of a skateboard, located inside the wheels. Their function is to keep the wheels spinning/rolling when you aren't pushing. Bearings are commonly believed to be graded according to their ABEC value which is supposed to show how fast they are, anything from ABEC AA bearings for the slowest up to ABEC 9's for (as far as I know) the fastest.

Benihana

Essentially a tailgrab, with the back hand holding the tail, while the back foot is taken off the skateboard and extended downwards below the board on the heelside. A vert grab trick that was once popular in street and flatland skateboarding as well.

Bertslide

One of the original dogtown tricks invented by the Z-boys; simply crouching and placing a hand on the ground while sliding the skateboard and your body 180°. Submitted by Sal. Note - you see this all the time in old school videos and I have to say it looks pretty dumb nowadays. But this was invented when skateboarding was little more than surfing on concrete, and in fact was inspired by a surfer called Larry Bertleman (hence the title of the trick - Bertslide).

Big Flip

A 360° flip with a body varial in the same direction. Note the linguistic similarity to a big spin which is simply a 360° shuvit with a body varial in the same direction.

A body varial in the same direction as the spin of the skateboard is properly known as a body follow.

Big Spin

A combination of a 360° shuvit or pop shuvit and a body varial (see below) in the same direction. Read about practicing skateboarding on carpet for more details about shuvits and shuvit variations including big spins.

Bluntslide

An advanced slide where the board is at right angles to the obstacle but at a very steep almost vertical angle. The skateboard slides on a lip with the underside of the tail on the side edge and the wheels on the top edge, or in the case of narrow rails, between the wheels and the tail of the deck.

Similar to a tailslide but cranked more vertically.

Bluntstall

See bluntslide above; the same position without sliding. This is often seen in park and vert skating as a brief stall at the top of a quarter pipe, since to get into this trick all you need to do is keep the board vertical as you roll past the lip of the quarter pipe and stall with the back wheels hooked over the coping. The difficult bit is getting back into the quarter pipe.

Boardslide

A slide with the skateboard at right angles to and in the middle of the obstacle. The riders weight is distributed evenly between the nose and the tail.

In a boardslide the skateboarder approaches the obstacle (usually a rail, rarely a box or kerb) from either side and ollies onto the obstacle throwing the nose of the skateboard over it. This is the opposite of a lipslide.

A backside boardslide is where the rider approaches facing the rail and turns backwards as he ollies pushing the nose of the skateboard over the rail before landing on it and riding the trick out.

Body Follow

A body varial performed when the skateboard is also spinning in the same direction as the body varial.

Body Jar

A backside nosegrab on vert where you smack your tail on the coping as you re-enter the ramp.

Body Varial

Simply, a skateboarder turning in mid air without taking the skateboard itself with him (note that the skateboard can be spinning as well, just not in contact with the feet). Just jumping 180° on your board is a 180° body varial.

If your board is spinning at the same time and in the same direction as your body varial, then a little known difference is that this is called a body follow.

Bolts

Part of a skateboard - four bolts attach each truck to the deck. The bolts are used in skateboarding trick tips to help locate a riders feet, as they often provide the only point of reference on an otherwise featureless skateboard - for example "place your front foot just behind the bolts".

Bomb Drop

A skateboarding trick probably best described as a jazzy way to mount your board. The skater begins with the board held behind him with his front hand and jumps into the air, putting the board under his feet with his hand and slamming down to the ground. Can be performed stationary, rolling, or into a half pipe, bowl or other obstacle.

Boned

"Boning" a trick is a form of tweak performed by completely straightening one or both legs while in mid air. Doing so results in a boned version of another trick, most commonly a "boned ollie". In some cases, a boned version of a trick eventually takes on it's own identity and becomes to all intents and purposes an entirely new trick - a boned backside grab is now simply known as a melon.

Usually skateboarders bone the front leg, pushing the nose of the skateboard fowards as they do so (because this looks more stylish), so nosebone is pretty interchangeable with boned - eg, an "ollie nosebone".

Boneless

An old school way of getting airborne. The boneless was invented before the ollie. It involves stepping off the skateboard with your front foot and jumping off that foot while holding the board with your back hand. The boneless is discussed in the flatland skating article.

Boomerang

Originally a BMX trick name, I appropriated this to describe the simple yet quite cool trick of a shuvit with a body varial in the opposite direction. There is no 'official' name for this trick commonly agreed upon by skaters, so feel free to add your interpretation to the growing list of names.

Bowling Kickflip

Invented by Primo Desiderio, the Bowling Kickflip is a fakie kickflip (well, a classic flip to pretty much all non-freestylers) to a one footed landing. The difference between this and any normal fakie kickflip to one foot, however, is that you land on the nose, resulting in a fakie one footed nose drag, if you're following me. The major problem with this trick is that it's all too easy to make the nose stick on the floor and stop you dead, and to be honest, I don't think I've seen anyone but Primo do this trick.

Broken Fingers

A half truckhook impossible caught in a 50-50 - your front hand catches the tail, while the front foot lands on what was the front truck.

The reason this trick got the name is because of how dangerous it can be. If you lean too far over and don't keep the board up high enough, you are literally going to crush your own fingers. Lovely.

BS or B/S

An abbreviation of backside. Or 'bullshit'. Your choice.

Burntwist

A 360 eggplant, invented by Bob Burnquist.

Butterflip

C

Cab Flip

A 360° fakie kickflip, not to be confused with a fakie 360° kickflip! The cab part of the trick name comes from caballerial which is a 360° fakie ollie.

Caballerial

This is a 360° fakie ollie. This means the skateboarder rides backwards in fakie and pops a huge ollie, rotating 360° in mid-air before landing back in fakie again.

The caballerial is named after the famous old-school pro-skater Steve Cabalero, who presumably was the first skater to land a 360° fakie ollie.

Calf Wrap

This one is extremely difficult to describe accurately, and right now I can't find any photos to reference. Basically, the calf wrap trick involves standing on one leg, with the other leg bent behind it and tucked into the back of your knee. The skateboard is held off the ground, clamped between the two legs.

This position is achieved by doing a modified no comply, stepping off the board with your front foot as you pop (this will be the foot you end up standing on) and scooping the skateboard backside and up as you do so in order to get it up between your legs. Once in the calf wrap stance, you can jump up and down a few times with the board held in place before manoeuvering the board with your legs in order to jump back into a more normal stance.

Cannonball

A grab trick where both the nose and tail are both gripped with either hand. Requires crouching down and making a vaguely ball like shape with your body and board, hence the name of 'cannonball'.

Carousel

Much like the Sidewinder, this is another specific truck-to-truck transfer. Think of it as a half impossible from a 50-50 truckstand to a switch 50-50 - still standing on the back foot.

Carving

If you turn by leaning to one side instead of picking the front wheels up and rotating slightly, you are carving. You can carve around on ramps, in ditches, during wheelies, or just across a road, but the name remains the same.

Casper

A freestyle stance where the skateboard is upside down and balanced on the point of the tail. The skaters back foot is on the underside of the tail and the board maintains it's angled position by the skaters front foot being hooked under the deck. It is important to note that having the front foot on the floor is considered cheating, and not a proper casper.

Casper Disaster

Despite the name, this isn't a casper trick at all - it was just invented by the same man. Basically, it is a fakie 180° pivot in rail where the deck and the front wheel never touches the floor. The board is pushed through the pivot with the front foot on the grip, and when the 180° is complete, the deck is set back down to the wheels.

As this isn't the easiest trick to describe, here's a casper disaster tricktip from Bobstricktips.comto help you understand it.

Casper Flip

1. Any flip trick executed from a casper position. This may simply be half an underflip in order to land back in a natural stance, or any more elaborate trick involving any number of flips and varials to land in any conceivable stance including back into casper. This trick always needs further definition in order to visualise - for example, a 'casper flip out', 'varial casper flip to casper' or 'double casper flip to rail'.

2. Half a flip into a casper stance in mid air, then flipping out of casper and catching the board before landing. Usually this is half a kickflip into casper, followed by a varial underflip to get out of the casper position, but any number of variations are possible.

Casper Slide

A slide on a suitable surface in the casper position. Usually requires a flip of some sort into the slide, and a casper flip (see above) out again.

Caveman

Many people think this is another name for the bomb drop since it's inclusion into the Tony Hawk games, but a caveman is essentially bombdropping into a grind.

Chef Salad

An ollie impossible landed straight into a 180° nose pivot.

Chicken Salad

A roast beef grab with the arm twisted round. In other words, where in a roast beef your arm goes straight down, so that your elbow is pointing at your groin, your elbow is pointed out in a chicken salad.

If you need a pic to understand this, the clearest example I could find was a wakeboarder doing one. Although it's a different kind of board, it's still the same grab.

Christ Air

A grab trick typically performed on a half pipe. After the skateboarder gains air from the vert ramp, he grabs the nose of the skateboard with his front hand as in a nosegrab and then extends his arms and legs in order to look like a capital 'T', or if you prefer, someone being crucified (hence the title of the trick). The skateboard is put back beneath the feet before landing and rolling away.

Classic Flip

An old school flip trick accomplished by hooking your toe underneath the skateboard and jumping. Classic flips are discussed in the flatland skating article. This was effectively the first ever kickflip, and is still called a kickflip today by die hard flatland skaters.

Coconut Wheelie

A coconut wheelie is like a railslide, but the deck never touches the floor - you actually hold it in a wheelie on the side of the board. Not to be confused with a sideride, which is far easier as you stand on the grip instead of the wheels.

Coffin

When street skating first came about, it was far from great. One of the early "tricks" was the coffin, which simply consisted of lying down on your back on your deck, crossing your arms across your chest, and rolling around like this. Each to their own, I guess.

Coleman Slide

The classic downhill slide, where the board is pushed frontside and only the front hand of the skater is on the road.

Cooper Stand

A rail stand where the skateboarder is balanced at one end of the skateboard only, both feet bunched up around one wheel. Harder to balance, but (I think) enables far more flips to be performed out of the stance. This is named after Lynn Cooper, a famous freestyle skateboarder. Having said that, he never knew it was named after him, this was just how he always did rail stands.

Coping

The rounded section of pipe that is attached to the lip of a half pipe, ramp, or other skateboarding obstacle, enabling smoother grinds and lip tricks.

Corkscrew

One other possible name for the trick I now know as a boomerang. This was my initial name for the trick before I started calling it a boomerang.

Crail Grab

A nosegrab using the back hand instead of the front, meaning the back hand is taken across the front of the body.

Crailslide

A tailslide performed while grabbing the nose of the skateboard with your back hand across your body. Often seen in pool skating and looks very cool.

Crailtap

Landing an air in vert/pool skating into a tail tap while grabbing crail.

Crooked Grind

This is a combination of a noseslide and a nosegrind, and is also known as a crooked slide, k-grind or simply 'crooked' or 'crooks'.

In order to do this the board must be off at an angle to the rail, hence the title 'crooked'. Note that in a crooked grind the board does not cross over the obstacle before connecting in the grind - that is known as an overcrook.

Like most grinds crookeds can be backside or frontside.

Crossbone

A grab trick where the front hand grips the heelside of the skateboard just inside the front foot with back leg boned. To do this, the front leg is tucked up and the nose of the skateboard pulled into the body.

Crossfoot