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Skateboard - glossary

Looking for a little clarification on just what the heck a popshoveit is? Look no futher — here's a list of terms to help fill in some of the blanks. Remember: You don't have to attend the skate-plaza opening for it to be in your best interest to know what a few of these mean — it can earn you hipster cool points with the kids.

AIR: When skateboard and skater leave the ground/ramp without ollieing.

BANK: An elevated surface. A common urban form of ramp.

FAKIE: Traveling backward.

FOCUS: Snapping the deck into two pieces. It was once fashionable to do this when you became frustrated; said to be conjured up by a part of the industry that wanted people to buy more boards by making people think it was cool to focus the board you where riding.

FUNBOX: Usually the highlight of an artificial street course. A platform object with banked sides plus handrail, if you're lucky.

GOOFY: You skate goofy if you skate with your right foot forward. The opposite of regular.

GRIND: Sliding along the edge or on top of an object with the axles of both trucks. Variations include 50-50, 5-0, nose, crooked, smith, feeble and slappy.

OLLIE: Invented on ramps by Ollie Gelfand and brought to the streets by Rodney Mullen. An air without using your hands. The basis for most skateboarding tricks.

POPSHOVEIT: A shoveit mixed with an ollie. Enables shoveits to be performed higher.

SHOVEIT: Turning the board without turning your body, so the board spins round under your feet.

SLAM: Another word for falling off your board and hurting yourself.

SLAPPY: Doing grinds along such things as curbs without ollieing onto it.

STREET: Most commonly used terrain of skateboarding, this has lead to the banning of skateboarding in certain areas.

TRANSITION: Part of a bank/ramp that inclines in an upward direction.

VERT: Part of an inclined surface that is vertical in gradient.

— Source: www.geocities.com/pipeline/slope/4774/sk8dictionary.html.

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