J

Japan Air

A grab trick - the skater grips the toeside edge of the skateboard behind the front trucks with his front hand, twists his body away from the grip and drops his front knee towards the deck. In the process, the board is pulled up behind and parallel to the skaters body. Confused? See Tony Hawk in action for clarification. Like most grab tricks, the further the board is pulled back or 'tweaked' the more stylish the trick is considered to be.

This correct definition brought to you courtesy of Anthony and Tony ganging up on me.

Jawbreaker

Primo Desiderio's version of the TV stand. Instead of having your main (read: strongest) arm on the bottom truck during the handstand, you have it on the top truck, making an already hard trick even harder.

Jolly Mamba

A miller flip that is taken out, over the coping, and stalled in an invert half way though.

Judo Air

The judo is a grab trick invented by Tony Hawk. It's a one footed nose grab where the front foot is extended to the toeside of the board in a mock martial arts flying kick.

Kerb Wax

Roadside kerbs are used as obstacles on which skateboarders grind and slide, and wax is often used to make the kerb easier to trick on, making the grinds faster, smoother and longer. Kerb wax is sold as a special product, while many skateboarders simply use a candle.

Kickback

The Kickback is an old freestyle trick that is pretty much the forerunner of all the ollie kickflip underflips Rodney Mullen does now. You put one foot into the middle of the board, leaving the other one across the board at the truck bolts, and jump up. As you do this, the foot that is in the middle of the board kicks down - making the board do a half-flip - then kicks up, making the board change direction. The basic kickback should flip 1.5 times on the second part of the trick, as half-and-half kickbacks are considered cheap and generally frowned on.

Kicker

A common street skating obstacle - a curved ramp designed to give a skateboarder maximum hangtime.

Kickflip

The classic street skateboarding trick. A kickflip is a variation on an ollie where the skateboarder flicks his front foot off the heel edge of the board as he ollies, causing it to flip once, twice or even three times before he 'catches' the board with his feet and lands the trick. The latter tricks are referred to as double kickflips and triple kickflips.

Kickflips can be learnt in a day but they take years to master, and a nice, high, sharp kickflip never gets boring. See the how to kickflip article which discusses kickflips in depth and gives practical advice on landing them.

Kickflip Underflip

A normal ollie kickflip followed by an underflip done with the front foot while still in the air.

Kickturn

Turning 180° while doing a manual or wheelie. Usually, this is just used to turn around in a tight circle or to turn around on a ramp to avoid rolling back down it fakie, but it can be incorporated into funky freestyle routines and so on.

Kingpin

Part of a skateboard - the large bolt that holds together the trucks and that acts as the pivot for what passes as the 'steering' on a skateboard.

A lapper is an old plastic accessory that's still used in certain skating circles - most commonly in pool skating, I believe. It's a plastic pad that fits under the truck but extends out on the kingpin end. It then bends and comes up, forming a plastic slope up and over the top of the kingpin. This means that the chance of getting your truck "hung up" (in other words, stuck) on coping or curbs is reduced drastically.

Laser Flip

A 360° varial heelflip - in other words, a fancy name for a 360° heelflip, the opposite of a 360° flip. Note that in a Laser Flip the varial rotation of the skateboard has to be frontside since otherwise it would be a 360° inward heelflip.

Late Flip

A general term for any flip trick or varial performed after ollying rather than as part of the ollie like with most flips. In order to do a late flip the skateboarder ollies very high and at the peak of his ollie will kick downwards or shove the board around with one, the other or both feet in order to accomplish some kind of late flip. Since either foot can replicate almost any other flip trick out there, a lot of late flip variants are possible.

Some common late flips are late front-foot kickflips, late back-foot heelflips and late shuvits.

Latte Flip

An ollie heelflip from a Cooper stand position.

Layback Slide

1. Generally, any grind or slide where one hand is trailing behind the skater on the coping, resulting in the skater literally "lying back". There are numerous variations on the layback, including the grey slide. 2. A specific downhill slide, which is basically a Coleman slide with both hands on the road.

Lazer Flip

See laser flip. Yeah I'm English... deal with it.

Les Twist

Essentially a gaytwist with a melon grab.

Lien Air

A lien air was originally described as a "frontside backside grab". As most backside grabs are now melon grabs instead, the lien air can be described more easily as a frontside melon grab on vert.

Lip Trick

Any trick performed on the lip of a suitable obstacle. Almost always refers to a stall on the coping of a half pipe or quarter pipe.

Lipslide

A slide on the middle of the skateboard where the board is roughly at right angles to the obstacle. In a lipslide the tail of the skateboard crosses the obstacle in order to start the trick.

See also the boardslide which is closely related to the lipslide.

Longboard

The name says it all - a long skateboard. How long the board can be is pretty much up to the manufacturer, and like "normal" boards, they come in all different shapes and sizes for different styles of riding. However, I'm not quite sure at what length a board becomes a longboard. Maybe there's some official industry standard somewhere I'm not aware of?

Longboarder

Someone who rides a longboard.