This is a question I sometimes get at demos, usually from street skaters that talk more than they skate and certainly can’t do a 360 kickflip themselves.
I remember, at a demo a few years ago, a teenager with a tough attitude asked me this question and I answered: “No, I can’t”. The kid replied in a tough voice: Then what are you doing here?”
Some skaters these days don’t realize that skateboarding is so much more than ollies and ollieflips. In freestyle, there are so many trick groups and variations. And we are all free to choose what we enjoy doing most.
In the 1980’s there were judges that thought you should include all trick groups in your routine. But, I believe that view will only lead to everyone looking the same. Here are a few examples of trick groups:
- Footwork
- Wheelies
- Shuvits
- Kickflips
- Railflips
- 50/50’s
- Caspers
- Gymnastics
- 360’s
- Fingerflips
- Ollies
- Impossibles
Ollies are just one of many trick groups, and some claim the Ollie is more of a street or vert trick than a freestyle trick. I don’t know about that, but it was popularized by Rodney Mullen, who is said to have been inspired not only by Alan Gelfand, but also by a trick by Swedish freestyler Gunnar Almevik at one of the Swedish Summer Camps in Hägernäs in the early 1980’s.
Back to the original question… after I was asked that, I rolled away and did a 540 shove it and a 360 “classic” kickflip. The teenager didn’t say anything, but his silence was enough… then his friends screamed, as they just witnessed two tricks they had never seen before.
Now this is savage