Ollie (skateboarding trick)

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A young skateboarder ollieing over two decks.

A skateboarder performing an ollie.

The ollie is an aerial skateboarding trick which is the basis for many tricks. While performing an ollie, the skateboarder does not grab his board with his hands, toes or accessories attached to the skateboard.

Performing an ollie starts with the skateboarder standing on the board in an almost regular stance, the front foot is moved slightly more towards the center of the board. The skateboarder jumps up, and as he is about to take off he kicks the tail of the board down. The kick gives the front end of the board upwards momentum and as the tail hits the ground it rebounds bringing the board completely airborne. When the board takes off, its nose is much higher off the ground than the tail. The skateboarder slides his front foot up and forward on the griptape. The friction between the shoe and the griptape levels the skateboard and takes it further off the ground.

The vertical ollie was invented by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand in 1977

and it remained as a vert only trick until 1981 when Rodney Mullen first performed the trick on flat ground. Rodney Mullen came upon them in a completely different way than Gelfand. In his autobiography, The Mutt, he mentions how he was doing a routine piece of freestyle footwork one night. This piece involved doing what is now known pop and drag of the Ollie, but instead of leveling out, the weight is centered and foot pushed to the nose, so the skateboarder lands in a Nose Stop. This was a fairly common Freestyle trick/footwork to get into Nose Stop/Stall where he would usually do a Tail to Rail to Tail. Rodney Mullen realized that by stopping in the middle of the drag, instead of taking it all the way to the nose, would level out the board. This made it an effective way to get height.

The highest officially measured ollie from flat ground is 44.5 inches performed by Danny Wainwright, at the Reese Forbes ollie challenge by Quiksilver, although Jose Marabotto from Peru is seen on a video from the early 90's clearing a stack of boards estimated at over 50 inches. [link] The highest official switch ollie is 40.125 inches performed by Alex Bland in a similar switch ollie competition.

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