Freestyle is the oldest form of trick-based skateboarding, and can loosely be defined as the act of doing tricks on a skateboard on flat concrete with no obstacles.
As a result, over the six decades of skateboarding’s history, freestyle skateboarding has been the origin of many of the core elements of other types of skateboarding; for instance, freestylers gave skateboarding the kickturn, the wheelie, the original kickflip, and the flatground ollie. Even if you don’t consider yourself a freestyler, a good amount of what you do on a skateboard will have its origins in freestyle.
Despite this, freestyle skateboarding itself has been largely ignored and forgotten about since the skateboard industry shifted towards street skateboarding in the early 1990s – and even, in some cases, deliberately misrepresented.
Here’s a few quotes from current professional freestylers that might help give you an idea of what modern freestyle really is:
“The best definition I ever heard for freestyle came from the WFSA’s founder, Bob Staton. He said that ‘flatland skateboarding’ is just doing tricks on a flat surface. Freestyle skateboarding is about figuring out how to arrange those tricks. In other words, it’s not a game of just doing single tricks – it’s making them fit together into a larger whole.”
– Tony Gale, Moonshine Skateboards; World Freestyle Skateboarding Champion 2017
“Choreography and music are defining features, and what separate freestyle from flatground skating. But freestyle is also more than a subgenre of skating; it’s a subculture in every sense of the term. Riders are not only marginalized as the non-rebellious bastard children of skateboarding, but actively dismiss mainstream values in skateboarding. All the events and companies are also rider-owned. Resistant and bottom-up — that is freestyle.”
– Bryce Noe, Putain Skateboards
“Freestyle skateboarding focuses on control and creativity. Skaters perform tricks on a flat surface, it’s like a form of dance. Unlike other styles of skateboarding that focus on obstacles or speed competitions, freestyle is about inventing new tricks and perfecting techniques.”
– Carmen Ionita, Moonshine Skateboards; Women’s World Freestyle Skateboarding Champion 2024
“For me freestyle skateboarding is the absolute best thing for me to do to be with myself. I love that you don’t need a park for it, just some smooth ground – having a freestyle board and enough flat space is enough to have absolutely everything you need. Since you’re not skating obstacles I also feel like there’s way more focus on details, which I love; the same trick can be done in so many different ways.”
– Daniel Adam, Never Enough Skateboards; World Freestyle Skateboarding Champion 2024
