Types of Skateboarding

Page historylast edited by Evan Santoro 3 years, 9 months ago

Skateboarding can be divided into four forms: “vert” skating, “street” skating, competitive skateboarding, and skateboarding as a form of transportation.

Vert skateboarding is limited to skateboarding on what is known as a halfpipe (image below). A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports  such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, and inline skating. The structure is usually wood, although sometimes the surface is made of another material such as concrete, metal, dirt or snow. In appearance, it resembles a cross section of a swimming-pool, and in its most basic form, it consists of two concave ramps (or quarterpipes), topped by copings and decks, facing each other across a transition. Originally half-pipes were simply half sections of a large pipe. Since the 1980s, half-pipes have had extended flat ground (the flat bottom) added between the quarterpipes; the original-style half-pipes have become deprecated. The flat ground gives the athlete time to regain balance after landing and more time to prepare for the next trick. See images for an example of the halfpipe.

Street skating is the type of skateboarding that is done in natural environments. For example, if a skateboarder were to skate down the street in an urban area such as New York City, and jump up onto a ledge and “grind” it, and then continue down onto the street, this is a perfect example of street skateboarding. If a skateboarder does a trick on any natural object that was not created for use by skateboarders, this is street skateboarding. Because large cities have the highest concentration of objects that can be used by skateboarding, these areas also yield the highest density of street skateboarders. Skateboarding is considered a form of art by many street skateboarders because of the creative process involved in finding a natural object, figuring out what type of skateboarding maneuver could be performed on it, and then executing it. Street skateboarding has become the most popular form of skateboarding to date because of the simplicity of being able to take your skateboard, go out and explore, and have fun.

Competitive skateboarding is normally done is skateparks. Skateparks are areas designated for skateboarding with manmade obstacles. In competitions, each skateboarder gets a certain amount of allotted time to perform a “run” on the course. There are normally several rounds of this, followed by a panel of judges rating each skateboarder’s performance and awarding them ranks based on this. Halfpipes are often included in competition, but held separately from the skatepark course.

Finally, skateboards are used by some simply as a form of transportation. This form of skateboarding is often associated with the longboard, an alteration of a common skateboard. The longboard, as its name implies, is a longer narrower skateboard, propped up higher than a normal skateboard, with wider axels and bigger wheels. This structure allows for speed to be gained more easily, as well as smoother turning. However, because the longboard has no concavity in its structure, and is very heavy, it makes doing tricks quite difficult.