Variations

Tired of doing the same tricks all the time? Then I guess it's time to throw in some variations in those grinds.

Tired of doing the same tricks all the time? Then I guess it's time to throw in some variations in those grinds. Here are some that will make your grind more stylish, better looking, and a lot harder:

Backside: Every trick that doesn't involve a soul foot can be done backside. Backside is doing a grind opposite of the frontside grind. If the obstacle you're about to grind is on the right, you should spin left to land in the backside position, and right if you want to land in the frontside position.

Topside: Every trick that involves a soul foot can be done topside. If you're topside grinding a curb, then your skate is vertical to the ground. Normally, it would be horizontal to the ground. When doing topsides, you have to jump up from the opposite side of the obstacle to grind with your normal soul foot.

Farside: The farside is often mistaken for the topside, but they are very different. The farside is if you land a grind, where you have to jump over the obstacle to land on the farside side. For instance on a ledge: if you jump over the ledge and land on the farside side, you're doing a farside.

Alleyoop: Alleyoop is spinning into a backwards grind non-blind. If you were to do an alleyoop soul on your left side, you would spin counter-clockwise 180 into the grind. If the non-souling foot is in front of the souling foot, you have to look over your shoulder the way your soul foot is. So if your soul foot is the right foot, you have to look over the right shoulder. If the non-souling foot is behind the souling foot, you have to look over the opposite shoulder of your soul foot. So if you soul foot is the right foot, you have to look over your left shoulder.

Truespin / Blindside: Spinning truespin is spinning the opposite way of alleyoop. When you spin into a truespin soul on your left side, you would spin clockwise 180 into the grind. Spinning truespin is much harder than spinning alleyoop, since the obstacle you're grinding is blind in the spin. You can't always spot your landing.

Rewind: When you come off of a grind or stall, you do a 270 or (something else - spin). i.e.: You slide down a rail going left->right, and as you come off, you do a spin clockwise.

Negative: Negatives are somewhat hard, and you can't do them on all skates. You have to make sure you have enough 'negative' space - that is the sole space on opposite site of your normal soul space under your boot.

Disaster: When you do an air before you land the grind. For instance you can do a stale japan and land a royale, do a unity grab and landing a unity, doing mute air and doing a fahrvergnugen. It is a lot harder than just jumping into the grind. Partly because you have to concentrate about grabbing your skates, but also because you usually can't spot your landing from where you launch into the air.

Freestyle: Instead of grabbing your foot in for instance makios, fishbrains, torques, and backslides, you just let it hang in the air. Focus on keeping it as calm and steady as possible.

Spin: Spin in and out of your grinds.

Rewinds: When you spin into a stall or grind, and then spinning the opposite way the same amount of degrees out.

Fakie: You approach the obstacle going riding backwards. It is common to spin 180 degrees into the grind from the fakie position.

Zerospin: When riding fakie, doing the grind, and landing the grind fakie, without spinning.

Changing grinds / switch-up: While grinding an obstacle, you can switch into another grind. For instance from a soul to fahrvergnugen soul or to a sweatstance. Just any grind. Normally you would choose a combination, where both feet change positions. Soul to Mizou isn't really a combination.

Budget grinds: A switch-up, where one foot remains in the same position while the other changes position. For instance if you are doing a topside acid and you lift the souling foot to now only grind on the backslide foot while moving the soul foot to a soyale position. The budget grinds are mostly done keeping the non-souling foot (the other foot doing torque, backslide, fastslide, etc.) grinding and the souling foot changing the position.

Switch / Unnatural: Grind with your switch foot instead of what you've always practised. For instance, if you normally do a soul with your right foot, try it with your left instead. This way you can also add more interesting grind combos - like soul to topsoul, etc.

Other Grind tricks