Skateboarding
Action sport in which riders roll on a skateboard performing tricks on street obstacles, ramps, and bowls, judged on difficulty, style, execution, and consistency.
What is Skateboarding?
Skateboarding originated in 1950s California as 'sidewalk surfing' — surfers looking for something to do on flat days attached roller-skate wheels to wooden planks. It evolved through the 1970s pool-skating boom, 1980s vert-ramp era, and 1990s street-skating explosion. Modern competitive skateboarding features two Olympic disciplines: Street (using stairs, rails, ledges, and gaps) and Park (transition-heavy bowls with quarterpipes and hips). Skateboarding debuted at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with Yuto Horigome (Japan) winning men's street and Sakura Yosozumi (Japan) winning women's park. Cultural icons like Tony Hawk (who landed the first 900° spin in 1999 X Games), Rodney Mullen (inventor of the modern flatground trick vocabulary), and Nyjah Huston (top prize-money earner) have made skateboarding a global phenomenon with the World Skate governing body, X Games, Street League Skateboarding (SLS), and the annual Vans Park Series.
Quick facts
Category
Adventure & Extreme Sports
Type
Individual
Players
1–1
Duration
~45 min
Where played
both
Field / court
skatepark or street spot
Country of origin
🇺🇸 United States
Estimated origin
1950s Californian 'sidewalk surfing'; commercial boards 1959; ollie invented by Alan Gelfand 1978; kickflip by Rodney Mullen 1983
Olympic
Yes
Popularity
global
How it works
Objective
Recreational: express creativity, land tricks, session with friends. Competitive: score highest across runs and best-tricks.
Match structure
Street: 2 runs + 5 best tricks. Best combined score from selection. Park: 3 runs, best score counts. Judges score each run/trick 0-100 based on trick difficulty, execution, style, variety, and flow.
Rules
Basic rules
Ollie foundation
Every flip trick and grinding stems from the ollie — snap tail, drag foot forward, level board in air.
Tricks vocabulary
Kickflip, heelflip, shove-it, 360 flip, hardflip, tre flip, varial, nose/tail slide, grinds (5-0, boardslide, crooked, feeble, smith, salad).
Landing clean = 'sticker'
Land tricks with both feet on the board and continue rolling to be counted.
Bail vs slam
Bail = intentionally step off. Slam = fall involuntarily.
Judging criteria
Difficulty, execution, style, variety, flow, use of course.
Video parts
Signature street trick sections filmed for sponsored videos are a major measure of pro standing.
Advanced rules
Vert tricks
540, 720, 900, McTwist, Madonna, Christ Air — big airs off ramp.
Rail tricks
Grinds and slides down/across handrails; can incorporate flip-in and flip-out (Kickflip-boardslide, 360 flip out).
Manuals
Balancing on 2 wheels (nose manual, tail manual) as trick base or transition.
Bowl transitions
Round bowl coping = grinds while carving; grinds in transition require timing (5-0, feeble, smith).
Best Trick format
5 minutes to attempt a trick; land = score; judged separately from runs in modern comps.
Scoring
Judges score 0-100 per run or trick; average of judge panel used for competition standings.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Excellent run | 90-100 |
| Great trick | 85-95 |
| Good/average | 60-80 |
| Failed run/trick | 0-40 |
Win condition · Highest cumulative or best-run score wins the event; season points win league titles.
Playing area
Called
skatepark or street spot
Dimensions
Park: variable — bowls, quarters, hips, rails, stairs. Competition park: 25 m × 25 m. Street course: replicates real-world features.
Concrete skateparks (bowls, pools, transitions) or purpose-built plywood/wood competition courses. Street skating uses stairs, handrails, ledges, banks, gaps in urban environments.
Equipment
Skateboard
Deck (maple plywood, 7-9 inches wide), 2 trucks (aluminium alloy), 4 wheels (polyurethane, 50-60mm), 8 bearings (ABEC-3 to ABEC-9).
Grip tape
Sandpaper-like adhesive on top of deck for shoe grip.
Skate shoes
Flat rubber soles with reinforced toe (Vans, Nike SB, Adidas, Emerica).
Helmet, elbow, knee, wrist pads
Required for vert/park; optional street (except youth competitions).
Officiating
5 judges score each run; head judge oversees calibration and controversy calls.
- Head Judge
- 5 Judges (score panel)
- Course Marshal
Strategies
Consistency wins comps
Landing a mid-tier trick reliably beats bailing a rare bigger trick — score = executed trick × landing.
Vary tricks
Judges reward variety — mixing flips, grinds, and slides on different obstacles beats repetition.
Big first trick
Lead with confidence — landing your gnarliest trick early builds momentum.
Use the whole course
Runs that use every obstacle score higher than runs bunching one section.
Terminology
- Ollie
- Jumping the board off the ground by snapping the tail and dragging the front foot; foundation trick.
- Kickflip
- Ollie + kick the board with front foot to flip it 360° horizontally.
- Heelflip
- Ollie + kick with heel to flip in opposite direction.
- Grind
- Sliding along an edge on the trucks.
- Slide
- Sliding along on the deck (nose slide, tail slide, board slide).
- Bail
- Intentional escape from a trick that isn't going to land.
- Slam
- Involuntary hard fall — usually painful.
- Manual
- Balancing on two wheels while rolling (nose or tail).
- Fakie / Switch / Nollie
- Riding backward / non-dominant / on nose respectively.
- Regular / Goofy
- Left foot forward / Right foot forward stance.
- Coping
- Metal rim at top of transitions used for grinding.
- Vert
- Vertical ramp; halfpipe transitions to true vertical at the top.
- Bowl
- Round or organic-shaped concrete pool-style feature.
- Grip tape
- Sandpaper-like adhesive on top of the deck.
- Best Trick
- Comp format: attempt 1 top trick within time; top score wins.
Major competitions
Olympic Games Skateboarding
quadrennial · worldwide · since 2020
X Games (Skateboarding)
annual (summer + winter events) · USA / Global · since 1995
Street League Skateboarding (SLS)
annual multi-stage · worldwide · since 2010
Vans Park Series
annual · worldwide · since 2015
Dew Tour
annual · USA · since 2005
Where it is played
Governing bodies
World Skate (formerly FIRS)
Founded 1924 · Rome, Italy
Official site ↗Street League Skateboarding (SLS)
Founded 2010 · USA
Official site ↗USA Skateboarding
Founded 2017 · USA
Official site ↗
Famous names & records
Famous athletes
- Tony Hawk (USA) — first 900° spin (1999 X Games); most famous skateboarder ever
- Rodney Mullen (USA) — invented flatground trick vocabulary (kickflip, heelflip, 360 flip)
- Nyjah Huston (USA) — top prize-money earner; 6× SLS Champion; dominant street skater
- Yuto Horigome (Japan) — 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold (Men's Street)
- Sakura Yosozumi (Japan) — 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold (Women's Park)
- Sky Brown (GB) — youngest ever GB Olympian (13); Tokyo bronze park; Paris silver
- Rayssa Leal (Brazil) — 'The Little Fairy'; Tokyo silver at age 13; Paris bronze
- Bob Burnquist (Brazil) — 30 X Games medals, most all-time
- Andy Anderson (Canada) — 2019 World Park Champion
- Lizzie Armanto (USA/Finland) — pioneering woman park skater; Loop of Death 2018
Records
First 900° spin
Tony Hawk — 1999 X Games (San Francisco) (1999)
Highest X Games medal count
Bob Burnquist — 30 medals (1997-2015) (2015)
Highest ollie
Aldrin Garcia — 45 inches (114 cm) (2011)
Longest 50-50 grind
Rob Dyrdek — 100 feet (30 m) — recorded 2007 (2007)
First Olympic skate gold
Yuto Horigome (JPN) — Tokyo 2020 Men's Street (2020)
Youngest Olympic skate medallist
Sky Brown (GB) — 13 years, Tokyo 2020 park bronze (2020)
Learn this sport
beginner
- 1
Learn balance
Stand on stationary board, feel where your feet naturally sit.
- 2
Push and stop
Push with back foot; stop by scraping the tail on the ground.
- 3
Ollie
Practice the ollie stationary, then rolling — foundation for every trick.
- 4
Kickturns and manuals
Small adjustments and balance games on flat.
intermediate
- 1
Kickflip
Roll-in flip trick; 100+ attempts to first land.
- 2
Grinding a curb
Ollie onto a low curb; hold 50-50 grind with weight balanced on trucks.
- 3
Drop-in on ramps
Ramp basics; roll-in first, then drop-in from coping.
- 4
First video part
Film your tricks; build a 60-90 sec 'part' for personal reference.
advanced
- 1
Big rails and gaps
Handrails, kink rails, 8-stair gaps — commit and roll-away skills.
- 2
Vert / bowl mastery
Airs, coping tricks, transfer between features.
- 3
Compete
Amateur → pro pipeline through Damn Am, Tampa Am; sponsorship + video parts.
Frequently asked
When did skateboarding start?+
1950s California — surfers created 'sidewalk surfers' for flat days. Commercial boards appeared 1959; modern popsicle-shaped decks emerged in the 1990s.
Who invented the kickflip?+
Rodney Mullen — he invented the modern kickflip (originally called 'magic flip') around 1983, along with the heelflip, 360 flip, and dozens of other flatground foundations.
Is skateboarding an Olympic sport?+
Yes — debut at Tokyo 2020 with Street and Park disciplines for men and women. Continued at Paris 2024.
How much do pro skaters earn?+
Top pros (Nyjah Huston, Aurelien Giraud, Rayssa Leal) earn millions from prize money + sponsor contracts. Mid-tier pros make $50-200k/year from sponsors.
What's the hardest trick?+
Subjective, but historically: 900° (Tony Hawk 1999), 1080° (Tom Schaar 2012 age 12), Loop of Death (Tony Hawk 1998), El Toro 20-stair (multiple pros). Modern SLS-level combos like Kickflip Backside Lipslide are extremely difficult.
Is skateboarding hard?+
Yes — the learning curve is steep with frequent falls. Landing your first kickflip typically takes weeks-to-months of practice. But the community is very supportive at all levels.
Sources & provenance
- Wikipedia — Skateboarding— Wikipedia
- World Skate — Skateboarding— World Skate
- Street League Skateboarding— SLS