Introduction to Freestyle Skating

• Pros: No trouble with the police or equipment.
• Cons: The difficulty involved in performing continuous balancing and spin tricks make this more like training for the circus than an urban sport.

Freestyle skateboarding is a notoriously difficult variation involving intricate tricks done with only the board and flat ground. Tricks include balancing on the wheels, the sides and the ends of the board and, more importantly, flipping and spinning the board into and out of these positions. At competition level, big points are awarded for long unbroken sequences of tricks where the board transitions from position to position without ever entering the neutral state of four wheels grounded.

Freestyle has lent many of its flip tricks to street skating and, due to its purity, it is perhaps the most creative of all the types of skateboarding. Rodney Mullen, originally a champion freestyle skater who now also skates street, is responsible for many of the world's most popular freestyle tricks including the Heelflip, Kickflip, Impossible and more than 20 others. Although flip tricks have been covered in the Street Skating section, it should be remembered that many of these tricks came from and continue to be invented by freestyle skaters.

Freestyle skateboards differ in that they are generally smaller, thinner and more uniform in shape. This is to make it possible to balance on any end of the skateboard and easier to flip around.

Freestyle Skate Tricks

Many freestyle tricks have crossed over into street skating, as have many freestyle skaters. Nevertheless, there is a body of skate tricks that are undeniably freestyle and uniquely suited to the flat ground, no obstacle, freestyle environment. Here are some of the most famous ones:

• Manual. This is the skating name given to what anyone else would call a wheelie, i.e. skating along with only the back set of wheels touching the ground. Manuals constitute a huge part of freestyle skating and, as long as a skater is in a manual, his trick combo has not finished. Flip tricks can be linked by lengthy manuals. Nose manuals and contorted balance shapes during manuals raise the stakes even higher. Manuals have been heavily adopted by street skating where they are performed along ledges and pieces of flat-ground prior to, or after tricking off another obstacle. Vert skaters use manuals to traverse the top of ramps before flipping back into the transition.
• Truck Stand'. Also known as a 50-50 (different from the lip trick 50-50). This is a balance trick where the skateboard is stood up lengthways, the back foot stands on the back truck and the nose of the board is held in the air with the hand, or the front foot pulling up from underneath. With the foot holding, it is a no-hand truck-stop, or no-hand 50-50.
• Casper. This is a classic freestyle trick that is used often in competitions, flipping into a Casper and/or out of one is a challenge but the results make it worthwhile. It is much like the Truckstand in that the board is upside down with the grip-tape face down, one foot balances on the back tail near (but not on) the ground and the front foot holds the front end of the board up off the ground from underneath the nose. In this balance, neither foot can ever touch the street surface.
• Hand Casper. The same as a Casper except the front hand is holding up the end of the skateboard, not the foot. The Hand Casper is an excellent starting position to initiate finger flips.
• Railstand. This is another staple freestyle balance. The skater balances on top of his board, which is placed on its side, with his feet usually placed on the wheels. Variations include toeside and heelside railstands or Cooper stands where one foot is on the nose and the other on a wheel. Flip tricks are done in, out of and back into tailstands or a skater can balance on one wheel and spin the board around the wheel's axis with the remaining foot.
• Handstands. These have been popular in skating since its earliest competition outings back in the 60s - they are just a whole lot harder and more impressive these days. Handstands are performed during railstands, truckstands (called TV Stands ) and while balancing on one wheel and moving (manual handstands). Incredibly, freestyle skaters flip the board into and out of handstands to land in other tricks.
• Primo Slide. A skater flips into railstand while moving and so slides along the ground on the side of his skateboard.
• Cooper Flip. This is a spin trick that must be made from a railstand. During the railstand the skater jumps both feet to one end of the board then flips it up landing back on four wheels.
• Casper Spin. Once in a Caspar the skater initiates 360 spins in much the same way he would if he was balancing on the back two wheels.
• End Over. Actually a sequence of the same skate trick linked together. A 180 degree pivot is followed by another 180 pivot going in the same direction, then another and so on. As each pivot will switch the way the skater is standing, he must first pivot on his skateboards nose, then his tail, then his nose again (this sequence is reversed if he starts on his tail of course).
• Monster Walk. A bit like an End Over except each consecutive 180 pivot is done in the opposite direction to the last. This gives the impression that the skater is taking giant steps forwards.
• Hang-Ten. Another classic 60s balance. A Hang-ten involves the skater doing a manual with both feet positioned on the nose end of the board. If both feet are on the tail end, it is called a Heelie.
• Orthodox. A skater pivots as many 360 turns as he can, balanced on the back set of wheels and holding the nose with the front hand.
• Pogo'. Like the name suggests, the skater jumps on his upright boards like a pogo stick. With one foot on the back truck and the other gripping the board on the opposite side, this is a trick most easily achieved from a Truckstand.
• Streetplant. A kind of one handed forward hand-spring. With his hand on the board, the skater takes a run, puts his free hand on the street and flips forwards, landing on his board to finish.
• Yo-Yo Plant. Just like a Street Plant except the skater initiates and lands the trick with both feet on the board. By never taking the feet off the skateboard this is a considerably harder skate trick than the Streetplant.