G
G Turn
In the days before wheelies were taken to obstacles and called manuals, there were G turns. G turns were nose wheelies where you carve round in a circle that gets steadily tighter, the theory being that the more full circles you do, the better, and you could end with a spin.
They can be done in a normal nosewheelie, or in a hang ten or one footed version.
Gatair
A fakie 360° mute grab fastplant. Named after Mark "Gator" Anthony, who not only invented the trick, but later became infamous after killing a woman and burying her in the desert.
Gay Twist
This is a caballerial with a mute grab. Needless to say, people rarely do gay twists outside of vert and ramp skating.
Gazelle
This is a 540° shuvit where the rider of the skateboard also spins a 360° body follow (a body follow is a body varial in the same direction as the skateboard is spinning). Rodney Mullen does lots of gazelles in his video parts, and rightly so because they look sweet.
Gazelle Flip
Quite simply, a gazelle with any kind of flip.
Ghetto Bird
The ghetto bird is a 'signature trick' of pro skater Kareem Campbell, although like many signature tricks it's probable that the trick was landed well before Kareem popularised it. The trick itself is simply an illusion flip revert; in other words, you pop an illusion flip and then turn 180° after catching the board just as or just after you're landing.
Note: Many people will tell you that a ghetto bird is a hardflip revert, but I've watched Campbell do this trick a lot and he definately doesn't do a 'proper' hardflip (a flip that spins under the feet). The confusion stems from the fact that few people understand the difference between a hardflip and an illusion flip. That's not to take anything away from the trick, because illusion flips are still damn good and most people do "hardflips" that way anyway (in fact, I've never seen anyone do a proper hardflip).
Gingersnap
A flatland flip trick done out of hang ten stance, in which the rider is balancing with both feet facing forwards side by side on the nose of the skateboard. The flip consists of half a front flip and half a normal flip, achieved by jumping up sharply from both feet with a slight empasis on one side of the nose to get the side spin required. The board flips vertically beneath the riders feet, so he must tuck his knees nice and high to avoid the board before turning 90° in mid air and landing in switch or regular stance.
Gnar Jar
A 540° to tail. Broken down, this means you get air on a vert ramp, spin 540°, and slap your tail on the coping on the way down.
Godzilla Flip
An impossible from a tail stop that is started by pulling the nose of the board over your foot with your hand as you jump.
Be aware that there is a difference between this and the godzilla railflip.
Godzilla Railflip
A frontside varial railflip from toeside rail that flips 1.75 times in the heelflip direction.
Not to be confused with a godzilla flip which is a different trick entirely.
A term describing a skateboarder whose natural stance is right foot forwards. Goofy footed skaters are the minority - most skaters are regular footed.
Gorilla Grip
When skaters still skated barefoot, they would curl their toes around the ends of the board so they could pull the board up with them as they jumped, and this was called a Gorilla Grip.
Grab Trick
A trick involving holding a part of the skateboard with one or both hands while airborne. Grab tricks are common in vert skating where half pipes give plenty of hangtime, but are also seen occasionally in street skating off big ramps or kickers.
Grey Slide
Named after Jim Grey, the Grey Slide is a vert tailslide where the front hand grabs the nose and the back hand is on the coping, creating a layback slide variation.
Grind
The act of riding along an obstacle - usually a kerb, rail or ledge - on the trucks of the skateboard. This often makes a distinctive grinding noise. There are dozens of grind variations, some of the most common are the 50-50 grind, nosegrind, and the 5-0 grind.
Griptape
Part of a skateboard - the stickybacked sandpaper applied to the top of a deck to enable a skateboarders shoes to grip the skateboard.
Gymnast Plant
1. A no-footed invert on a ramp; the legs are extended upwards and held together perfectly in a good gymnast plant.
2. A one handed handstand from a rail stand or a tail stop position in freestyle skateboarding. One hand holds the board in the air while the other hand is planted on the floor. Note that your feet should never touch the floor in a good gymnast plant.
H
Half Cab
A 180° fakie ollie - half a cabalerial.
Half Cab Impossible
A half cab impossible is a combination of a half cab and a fakie impossible, often confused with a rolling nosehook impossible.
The way to tell is to look at the front foot, obviously. Also, nosehook impossibles tend to stall on the tail slightly, while the half cab impossible is more of a fluid motion. If you watch, Mullen's are almost always nosehooks, and not half cab impossibles.
Half Pipe
The primary structure used in vert skating consisting of two concave ramps (or quarterpipes) facing each other. Originally a half pipe was simply that - a cross section of half a pipe - but modern half pipes usually have an area of flat ground between the transitioned sides to enable the skater more time to regain his balance between tricks and prepare for the next trick. Half pipes take two main forms - small mini ramps, used more for lip tricks and aimed largely at beginners, and vert ramps which feature a purely vertical wall at the top of the transition.
Hand Casper
A casper with the nose held up by one or both hands in any way at all.
Handplant
A generic name for any move where a hand is placed on something to support the skater. The term generally refers to an invert variation, though.
Handstand
Much like the much-loved staple product of any British DIY'er, Ronseal, this does what it says on the tin. You just do a handstand on the board. Comes in fetching one handed, rolling, rail stand and English variants, with many different flips, shuvits and fingerflips out.
Handstand Fingerflip
These are slightly different to your basic handstand flips. Whereas handstand flips are pulled towards you, handstand fingerflips are flipped the other way, meaning that you actually have to use a hand at either end (like a cannonball grab) to actually flip the board.
Handstand Flip
There are many different types of handstand flip, the "basic" handstand flip involves gripping onto the toeside edge of the deck with your hands while in the standard handstand position and kicking your legs in the air to launch you upwards so you can flip the board under you - much like a monkeyflip.
Other types of handstand flip include varialflips, 360 flips, railhandstand flips, one handed handstand flips and english handstand flips. Note that handstand shuvits and handstand fingerflips can also be done, but both use a slightly different technique.
Handstand Shuvit
Yep, like flips, shuvits can also be done from a handstand. I've also heard of handstand bigspins being done, but have yet to see one.
Hang Ten
Refers to a stance where the skateboarder has both feet facing forward on the nose. It's named after a surfing trick where the surfer would hang their ten toes over the nose (not necessary in skateboarding, obviously). A hang ten nosemanual is possible if your balance is godlike.
Hangtime
The name given to the period of time spent in the air after launching from a half pipe, ramp, kicker or any other obstacle.
Hardflip
Apparently this is *the* tech trick of modern day street skating. This is a varial kickflip done the difficult way - you should know what a varial kickflip is before you try and grasp the hardflip.
The varial is popped frontside instead of backside, meaning that your front foot has to flick off the leading edge of the skateboard as it rotates to get the board to flip, making it very awkward.
To do this, you can 'cheat' and turn frontside in mid air, allowing the skateboard to flip between your legs, before turning back again to catch the board and land the trick. This is often known as an illusion flip. This variation doesn't look like a varial kickflip, which goes a long way to explaining the confusion that surrounds them. When you watch someone doing one, it looks like the board is doing half a back flip and half a kickflip. The trademark of this - the illusion flip - is the way the skateboard flips between the legs rather than under the feet.
The 'proper' way, if such a term can be used in skateboarding, is to make the skateboard do the varial under the feet. This is much more difficult and rarely looks as smooth as the easier version. This trick is the opposite of an inward kickflip.
Hardware
The collective name for the nuts and bolts which hold the trucks to the deck.
Heelflip
A variation on an ollie where the skater flicks his front foot off the toe edge of the board as he ollies, causing the board to flip once, twice or even three times. This is the opposite (and usually more difficult version of) a kickflip.
Heelie
A wheelie performed with both feet on the tail of the skateboard facing forwards - similar to a hang ten nose manual, except at the other end of the skateboard.
Heelside
Like frontside and backside, heelside is used to further define some rail tricks and tricks involving a flip, in this case towards the heel edge of the skateboard. This originated in flatland skateboarding where, along with the toeside definition, tricks could be better described. Still a useful term today if you are into fingerflips, rail flips etc...
Helipop
A 360° frontside nollie. That is, a three hundred and sixty degree ollie off of the nose of the skateboard. The helipop was invented by Rodney Mullen, and he would later invent the helipop heelflip.
Ho Ho Plant
A handstand done with both hands on the floor/coping, feet fully extended, and the board resting on top of the feet in what would be a normal riding position. Can be done as an invert on vert, from a street plant, or as a yoyo plant variation.
I heard rumours that a US freestyler called Terry Synnott can do yoyo-to-hoho plants and do ollie kickflip and shuvit variations while in the Ho-Ho position. Mad.
Hospital Flip
A type of casper flip. A half kickflip to casper position in mid air, followed by a varial half underflip with your front foot to get your board back the right way up.
Hurricane
This combo grind trick consists of a 180° ollie into a fakie feeble grind. In more detail, a feeble grind is where the back truck grinds the obstacle with the front truck next to the obstacle on the toeside. The deck is therefore pointed downwards and the underside of the deck itself often slides along the obstacle as well. So do that backwards after ollying 180° and you'll be doing a hurricane grind.
I
Iceplant
A boneless to fakie.
Illusion Flip
Many people confuse this trick with a hardflip. An illusion flip is a type of hardflip performed vertically through the riders legs. To achieve this the skateboarder must rotate his body 90° frontside, before turning back to catch the board and land. The flip resembles a vertical pop shuvit but is in effect a half backflip, half kickflip, the opposite of a phobia flip.
Impossible
A very difficult trick originating in flatland skateboarding involving the vertical end over end rotation, or backflip, of the skateboard around the riders back foot. Like a pressure flip, in an impossible the front foot does nothing except get out of the way. If you watch one, the back foot scoops forwards as the rider pops, to start the backflip motion, and then whips around in a circular motion, as the board literally has to roll around the back foot to complete the trick.
This trick was invented by Rodney Mullen in the 80's after he was told that it would be "literally impossible" to get the board to flip end over end. After landing the trick, there was really no other name he could give it...
Indy
A grab trick where the back hand grabs the toeside edge of the board about half way along. This is the most common grab trick in vert skating.
Invert
Done on ramps, the invert is a handplant trick with many variations. In the basic invert, the board is grabbed mute and the back hand is placed on the coping to allow the skater to go completely upside down before re-entering the ramp.
Inward Heelflip
The opposite of an inward kickflip, an inward heelflip is a varial heelflip where the varial is popped backside instead of frontside. The rider must flick the heelflip off of the leading edge of the board as it turns, making the trick extremely difficult and impressive.
Note that this is a different trick to the version where you turn backside 90° in mid air and let the board flip between your legs, which is known as a phobia flip. Like the hardflip, phobia flips were created as an easier (though still not easy) version of inward heelflips. In an inward heelflip, the board must spin laterally underneath your feet, not through your legs.
Inward Kickflip
A varial kickflip where the varial is popped frontside instead of backside. See hardflips for more detail.
Irish Flip
Pull the board like a half nosehook impossible from a no handed 50-50, and then do a late underflip to land normally.
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