Fishbrain

Fishbrains are considered one of the most stylish tricks out there - it is also one of the hardest to do, when you're not considering truespin grinds, etc.

Fishbrain

Fishbrains are considered one of the most stylish tricks out there - it is also one of the hardest to do, when you're not considering truespin grinds, etc.. The fishbrain is a topside makio - in other words, you are topside souling with one foot, and grabbing the other with your hand.

Unlike the makio, this trick isn't as easy. When doing the makio, you can have your upper body over your souling foot - but that isn't possible when doing a topside - here you need to have your upper body to one of the sides of the obstacle…

If you are normally doing soul grinds by having the weight in the middle, this trick will fool you the first couple of times. If the weight is in the front, you will fall right on your nose. You need to lean backwards, so that your skate will not catch any scratches or holes in the obstacle you're grinding. If done alleyoop, you have to lean your weight on the toe, but not too much, or you will fall on your nose again!

When grinding rails and other things that goes down, be sure to have your souling foot in the same angle as the obstacle that is going down. If not done so, you will land on your heel, and if your skate locks in, you will fall backwards.

It is hard to stay on the rail for a longer time. If you are having troubles staying on the rail for more than 1 second or so, try to approach the rail with an angle of 20 degrees, so that you will kind of jump into the obstacle. If you miss the trick though, it will hurt real bad, since your souling foot will slide right over the obstacle if planted a little too high.

To learn the trick, you can think that you're going to land a farside makio - i.e. landing on the opposite site of the rail in makio position. When you've done that a couple of times, you can practise on getting low, so that your souling foot is 100% topside.

When doing the trick on halfpipes and quarterpipes, you need to lean out into the ramp a lot. This is the case with all topside tricks, but it's especially important when doing the fishbrain and the alleyoop fishbrain.

You can get low for style. The fishbrain is near always done by grabbing your non-souling skate. There are several different grabs you can do. The most used grab was the rocket fishbrain, but it has become too oldschool. If you want to get respect…the rocket fishbrain is not exactly a good trick to do. Instead, do a safetygrab or a crossgrab, etc.

When doing the alleyoop fishbrain, it is important that you lean backwards, but still having your weight on the soul foot.

Skate photos of Fishbrain

Alleyoop Fishbrain by Terje Frederiksen
Alleyoop Fishbrain Terje Frederiksen
X-hall, Copenhagen
Fishbrain by Jacob Juul Petersen
Fishbrain Jacob Juul Petersen
Vikingeskibdsmuseet, Roskilde
Mute Fishbrain by Jacob Juul Petersen
Mute Fishbrain Jacob Juul Petersen
Nye Grønne christiania rails, Copenhagen

Other Grind tricks