I cruise ESPN2 occasionally, and have always been amazed at how skateboarders seem to get their board to stick to their feet when they jump something (I see street ‘boarders’ do this as well, so it mustn’t be too hard), but I don’t get how it happens.
To the un-initiated, the proccess works like this: the skater is rolling along approaching an object (to be jumped), apparently puts weight on the back of the board causing the front to lift (so far, so good) but then when they lift their back leg the back of the board lifts with them. Then they fly through the air with the board ‘stuck’ to their feet. Like magic.
I ask a kid on the street about this. He looked at me funny then skated away. Ok. I taped ESPN2, watch the tape in slow motion, shed no light at all - it still seemed to just stick to their feet. I guess I could try it myself…Bwahaaahaaa…
Anyway, so I ask you guys. Physics folks or skaters?
well, in theory, all falling objects are accelerated by the same amount of gravitational force, and so should fall at the same rate, but in practice, there’s air resistance to account for.
My WAG would be that the relatively light, flat board is pressed against the soles of the boarder’s feet by the air as the board and skater move through it, in much the same way as the water pushes a surfer’s board against his feet, only not so obvious.
I always thought it had to do with the flexibility of the board. Imagine just standing next to the board and whomping it with your foot. The thing is going to bounce a bit. Now do that while riding it- the stomp comes from leaning back and pushing off with your foot. When you jump off the board into the air, it follows you (I’d think that the heights are reasonably the same, since you are putting out enough energy to lift your mass and most of that energy is getting transferred to the board.) Since the board is popping off of the ground, and you just jumped with basically the same umph (technical physics word there) it appears that it is ‘stuck’ to the bottom of your foot.
Anyway, I haven’t skated in years, but to ollie, you place your front foot toward the center of the board an the back one on the tail. Stomp down as hard as you can on the tail, and as the nose rises, slide your front foot forward. If you do it right, you should be airborn.
It’s hard as hell to do the first fifty million tries.
Hey, I knew it was called an…(looks back at previous post)…ollie. Yeah, of course, I just didn’t want to make all the ‘others’ feel so out of the loop. I may be out-of-oval, but I definatly ain’t square.
Yeah, but why? I get the part mangy was talking about. But if the same thing holds true going up, wouldn’t that pull the board away from you? Why does sliding your foot forward make the rear come up and stay with you? Was Rythm on the right track?
Oh, and Rythm, I can’t believe you have over 700 post and the’re still letting you use words like, “whomping”.
yep, you’re pretty much on the money. Remember the skateboard is usually moving forward when you do this, so there is forward momentum (plenty of people can do it from a standstill, but it’s easier with some momentum). When you slam the tail down you also kinda simultaneously jump/lift up your legs.
So, the skateboard may have forward momentum, when the tail bounces that produces upward momentum, the front foot provides a pivot point so that the tail will rise and the board becomes horizontal with the ground, and the back foot is raised so that the tail is allowed to rise.
Now all we need is one of those engineering skatenik types to grind out a gnarly physics interpretation.
I found an interesting link to the origin of the trick’s name. The quote is from the filmmaker, Stacy Peralta, who won an award at Sundance on the topic of early skateboarding pioneers
But here’s what an old know-nothing has to say-
Think of the ollie as two separate lever motions.
The 1st occurs when the tail smacks the ground and raises the front.
The 2nd occurs when the front foot slides forward and raises the back.
At this point, the job of your rear foot is to get out of the way. That’s why you raise it. There’s the rub - you have to smack the tail with your rear foot while almost simultaneously jumping with the same foot.
Remember that you’re moving forward, so not only does the front foot action raise the board, it also thrusts the board forward, making the entire motion smoother.
whoops - sorry about the 1/2 link. If you go to the above link, click on “Alan ‘ollie’ Gelfand” at the bottom of the page. He seems to have originated the maneuver.
When I was learning how to ollie, way back in the day when I thought I could be a thrasher, I was told to kick down on the tail, then “grind” the leading foot toward the nose, dragging the board along with it, for more air. Then the lead foot comes down as the trailing foot comes up, levelling off with the deck pretty much parallel to the ground underneath them. So, at least in my experience, friction also played a role in keeping the deck and my feet in contact. Just don’t ask me how to do a kickflip.
Man, don’t ask me why. It was just one of those things that you had to do over and over and over and over until you got it.
It’s been almost nine years since I’ve skated. If anybody’s interested, I’ll tell you why I “lean” a little bit to the left. Vision deck + hydrant = ouch, if you know what I mean.
After I recuperated, I discovered that I could subject myself to slightly less pain by playing in a band.
China Guy:
Wo de Hanyu cuo wo de ma, so all I’ve got to say is, lao xue, yao gun yue.
Thanks all.
'Specially nickc for the very cool link. That looks like some compliacted sh…tuff. Don’t think ollie is in my future. Fun to watch though…
Big Bad Bill
