You say H-O-R-S-E, I say S-K-A-T-E
October 30, 2014 7:14 AM Subscribe
As a skateboarding fan and a web developer, I love this. Thanks for posting.
posted by Jacob G at 7:19 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by Jacob G at 7:19 AM on October 30, 2014
That is some super-swanky coding, and a prime example of what the web can do that neither print nor video can do. Thanks for sharing this!
posted by filthy light thief at 7:35 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by filthy light thief at 7:35 AM on October 30, 2014
I started skating in the midwest in the mid-90's and I had never heard of anyone calling it B-O-N-E-S. Maybe that was more common during the glory days of the Bones Brigade?
Anyway, I'll have to figure out how they got their web page to sync up with the Youtube vid. That's pretty slick!
posted by droro at 7:41 AM on October 30, 2014
Anyway, I'll have to figure out how they got their web page to sync up with the Youtube vid. That's pretty slick!
posted by droro at 7:41 AM on October 30, 2014
This is amazing.
posted by photoslob at 7:50 AM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by photoslob at 7:50 AM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
The length of the track takes away quite a bit of the suspense. If one skater is at SK and there are only three boxes remaining, it's not hard to predict the ending!
posted by BrashTech at 7:58 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by BrashTech at 7:58 AM on October 30, 2014
I thought the confetti at the end was a nice touch.
posted by klausman at 8:14 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by klausman at 8:14 AM on October 30, 2014
That is some super-swanky coding, and a prime example of what the web can do that neither print nor video can do
Well, insofar as it has both "print" and "video" together I guess that's true. But the "super swanky coding" just amounts to cute transitions between static print elements, doesn't it?
posted by yoink at 9:34 AM on October 30, 2014
Well, insofar as it has both "print" and "video" together I guess that's true. But the "super swanky coding" just amounts to cute transitions between static print elements, doesn't it?
posted by yoink at 9:34 AM on October 30, 2014
I wish all those tricks were in slow mo. An unversed person like me can't tell all the subtle differences between them. (Doesn't make me appreciate them any less. :)
posted by yoga at 9:35 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by yoga at 9:35 AM on October 30, 2014
I wish all those tricks were in slow mo. An unversed person like me can't tell all the subtle differences between them.
Yes, I was in the same boat. "Oh look, he did a jumpy-flippy-board thingy. And another. And another. And another." It's interesting, though, actually--it's one of those things that tells you how much of "seeing" is actually reconstruction from what one has learned to see. It's interesting to sit down and watch an unfamiliar sport and slowly learn to start to see purposive behavior in what at first just looks like pandemonium. It's that experience, of course, that lots of us go through during the Olympics when you start off watching something and can't really see any difference between the way the gold medalist performs and the way the also-ran from Lucky-To-Be-Here-ia performs--but after a while the differences seem glaringly self-evident.
posted by yoink at 10:34 AM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yes, I was in the same boat. "Oh look, he did a jumpy-flippy-board thingy. And another. And another. And another." It's interesting, though, actually--it's one of those things that tells you how much of "seeing" is actually reconstruction from what one has learned to see. It's interesting to sit down and watch an unfamiliar sport and slowly learn to start to see purposive behavior in what at first just looks like pandemonium. It's that experience, of course, that lots of us go through during the Olympics when you start off watching something and can't really see any difference between the way the gold medalist performs and the way the also-ran from Lucky-To-Be-Here-ia performs--but after a while the differences seem glaringly self-evident.
posted by yoink at 10:34 AM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
That's an impressive way of presenting information! I'll have to dig in to see how the coding works.
(Sad there weren't any horses on skates, though.)
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:08 AM on October 30, 2014
(Sad there weren't any horses on skates, though.)
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:08 AM on October 30, 2014
yoink: "Well, insofar as it has both "print" and "video" together I guess that's true. But the "super swanky coding" just amounts to cute transitions between static print elements, doesn't it?"
Nope. That's what I thought at the start, too, but then I clicked on some highlighted term, and realized that there are a lot of dynamic things to click on to change the data being displayed. Not just the highlighted terms, but also the things in the actual graphs. Like, on the plot under "Discarding the bracket, let's compare matches by their length.", click some of those dots, and you'll see a round breakdown for each match.
posted by Bugbread at 4:43 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Nope. That's what I thought at the start, too, but then I clicked on some highlighted term, and realized that there are a lot of dynamic things to click on to change the data being displayed. Not just the highlighted terms, but also the things in the actual graphs. Like, on the plot under "Discarding the bracket, let's compare matches by their length.", click some of those dots, and you'll see a round breakdown for each match.
posted by Bugbread at 4:43 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is very, very cool. Breaking it down in different ways to let you see the 'pace' of a match is neat. I've never watched much competitive SKATE before; I don't recall it being 'a thing' in videos or TV when I was skating ten years ago.
I could identify about 70% of the tricks by sight, the rest by the name subtitles by understanding the terminology, but at least 20% of those tricks fell into the bucket of 'Things I saw Rodney Mullen do a long time ago that I don't think anyone had an actual name for when he did them.' Having them finally defined made me appreciate them all the more!
It's awesome to see flatland skating be popular again. Seemed like it kind of died out during the Endless Handrail Hammers video phase. I never had any inclination to even attempt to skate a handrail because as a Man of Gravity I could never take those risks.
posted by Skrubly at 12:59 AM on October 31, 2014
I could identify about 70% of the tricks by sight, the rest by the name subtitles by understanding the terminology, but at least 20% of those tricks fell into the bucket of 'Things I saw Rodney Mullen do a long time ago that I don't think anyone had an actual name for when he did them.' Having them finally defined made me appreciate them all the more!
It's awesome to see flatland skating be popular again. Seemed like it kind of died out during the Endless Handrail Hammers video phase. I never had any inclination to even attempt to skate a handrail because as a Man of Gravity I could never take those risks.
posted by Skrubly at 12:59 AM on October 31, 2014
I loved this!
I had never heard of this kind of competition and this was a great way to learn about it. I notice though that I am completely spoiled by youtube video's of skaters who manage to land a trick every once in a while, but that one time is what I see. Exactly like Anthony Gatto mentions about juggling. That did make me extra impressed by the final, where the winner didn't miss a single time.
I was surprised that there weren't any women at the competition. This seems like the kind of tournament where women could compete with men.
posted by blub at 2:26 AM on October 31, 2014
I had never heard of this kind of competition and this was a great way to learn about it. I notice though that I am completely spoiled by youtube video's of skaters who manage to land a trick every once in a while, but that one time is what I see. Exactly like Anthony Gatto mentions about juggling. That did make me extra impressed by the final, where the winner didn't miss a single time.
I was surprised that there weren't any women at the competition. This seems like the kind of tournament where women could compete with men.
posted by blub at 2:26 AM on October 31, 2014
I thought i'd breakdown the nomenclature of the tricks in the final, in the order they were done, for those who aren't familiar with skateboarding. Some of this is pretty interesting, and some of it has changed over time as skateboarding has progressed. There were quite a lot of tricks in the final but they were only really variations of 4 or 5 basic tricks (combined to make them harder). Here goes...
Nollie Heelflip - Nollie means the board is popped from the nose, so the front of the board in the direction of travel. Heelflip means the board is flipped around on its vertical axis 360º by using the heel of the foot.
Switch Heelflip - Switch means you are riding the "wrong" way around. If your normal stance is regular (left foot leading) switch would mean you are riding goofy (right foot leading), and vice-versa. The interesting thing here is that this trick is exactly the same as the first trick, just in the opposite direction of travel. So why isn't it called a backwards nollie heelflip or something? Because the trick is popped from the *tail* of the board (in the direction of travel) so it can't be a nollie, hence switch.
Nollie Backside 180 Heelflip - This is the first trick with an added rotation of 180º on the horizontal axis of the board with the rider turning *with* that rotation. Backside means that the rider turns their *back* in the direction of travel.
360 Flip - The board spins 360º on both its horizontal and vertical axes. The flip on the vertical axis is initiated by using the toes of the foot, so it is actually a 360 Kickflip. However the "kick" is usually dropped from the name and is implied. Important point to make with the board spin on the horizontal axis is that it spins in the direction that the toes of the front foot are pointing (so clockwise if a regular rider, anti clockwise if goofy).
Nollie Double Heelflip - Well the very first trick again, but this time the board spins on its vertical axis twice - 720º.
Fakie 360 Flip - a 360 Flip but travelling backwards, hence "Fakie". Wait, why isn't it switch? If we're travelling backwards surely that implies the opposite stance right? No, because we are still popping the board off the stronger foot. This is how skateboarding differs from snowboarding - in the latter the feet are locked in place, so there is not really such a thing as fakie unless the rider's binding angles/positions are significantly different. In skateboarding you generally have your back foot on or near the end of the tail of the board and your front foot on or behind the bolts that hold the front truck in place.
Backside Bigspin - Backside we have already established means turning 180º with the board on a horizonal axis. Bigspin means the board does an extra 180º relative to the rider. So you could call this trick a Backside 180 180 shuvit, but bigspin is the convention. Actually bigspin has some history - originally the name bigspin referred to a Fakie Backside 180 180 Shuvit so implied fakie, and we get a bit more complicated here because even though we use the term backside we actually turn our *front* side in the direction of travel. Why? Because when riding Fakie the backside/frontside terms are flipped because you are riding backwards. Even more confusing, "Fakie Backside 180 180 Shuvit" Could be named "Half Cab Shuv it" because a Cab refers to a Fakie Backside 360º, so Half Cab = Fakie Backside 180 (Cab being a shorter name for a Caballerial, which was named after Steve Caballero who was the first to do a Fakie Backside 360º on vert). Either way, when you stick Frontside or Backside in front of bigspin it means that the trick is *not* done fakie.
Nollie Double Kickflip - Same as the Nollie Double Heelflip but the flip is done using the toes of the foot so it spins in the opposite direction on its vertical axis.
Switch Double Kickflip - Well, same as the Nollie Double Kickflip but in the opposite direction of travel (weaker stance).
Nollie Backside 360 Bigspin - OK, we can break this down using terms we've already covered: Nollie = popped off the nose in the direction of travel. Backside = turning our *back* in the direction of travel (if this were Fakie we would be turning our front in the direction of travel). Bigspin = The board does an extra 180º on top of the 180º our body is turning. So what about that 360 in there? It refers to the angle the riders body goes through, so the body is actually doing an extra 180º. Since it's a bigspin the board has also done an extra 180º so since the rider has turned 360º the board has actually turned 540º.
360 Shuvit - You can probably work this one out. Something worth mentioning is that "Shuvit" used to refer to the time before popped tricks, and when people started "popping" Shuvits they became known as "Pop Shuvits" to distinguish between shuvits that weren't popped. Nowadays there is no distinction as generally nobody doesn't pop their shuvits.
540 Shuvit - Easy, right?
Switch Laser Flip - Laser flip means a 360 shuvit spun in the opposite direction with a heelflip. So another name could be a Frontside 360 Shuvit Heelflip.
Nollie Backside 180 Kickflip - Didn't we do this already? Oh no, it was a heelflip last time. See? Variations on a theme.
Switch Double Heelflip - Didn't we do this as well? Oh no, it was a Nollie Double Heelflip last time...
Nollie Frontside 180 Double Kickflip - And again, we are repeating ourselves but with extra spins on the board's vertical axis (flipped using the toes). Oh but this time we are turning frontside, the first time this has happened.
Pressure Heelflip - This is a weird one, i don't ever recall seeing this trick... ever. I have seen plenty of Pressure *Inward* Heelflips (which is just called a Pressure *Flip* (confused yet?)) but never a straight Pressure Heelflip. Pressure flips are done as you would perhaps infer from the name - pressure is applied on the edge of the board by the back foot in a way that causes the board to roll over, the board doesn't really "pop" in the way a normal trick would, it sort of scoops and that causes the board to flip.
Nollie Backside 180 Double Heelflip - Well it's just the Nollie Backside 180 Heelflip with an extra flip on the board's vertical axis. Am i repeating myself?
Switch Frontside Biggerspin - This is the killer. A bigspin means the board does an extra 180º, so a biggerspin means the baord does an extra 360º on its horizontal axis relative to the rider. The rider is turning 180º here, frontside, so the board has done 540º. All of this is switch, so off the weaker foot. Yeah, that's pretty difficult.
Well that covers it, and we didn't see any impossibles, hardflips, forward flips, late flips, or late shuvits. We haven't even begun to think about grabs, slides, grinds, and goof tricks....
As for the whole visualisation thing, yeah it's pretty cool but it's missing some of the point - the author is aware of this as he notes the final isn't just about the actual tricks. Luan had far better style than Cody - just look how much faster and higher (and cleaner) he pops most of the tricks. Even when the tricks are double flips Luan still really goes for it.
posted by lawrencium at 1:11 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Nollie Heelflip - Nollie means the board is popped from the nose, so the front of the board in the direction of travel. Heelflip means the board is flipped around on its vertical axis 360º by using the heel of the foot.
Switch Heelflip - Switch means you are riding the "wrong" way around. If your normal stance is regular (left foot leading) switch would mean you are riding goofy (right foot leading), and vice-versa. The interesting thing here is that this trick is exactly the same as the first trick, just in the opposite direction of travel. So why isn't it called a backwards nollie heelflip or something? Because the trick is popped from the *tail* of the board (in the direction of travel) so it can't be a nollie, hence switch.
Nollie Backside 180 Heelflip - This is the first trick with an added rotation of 180º on the horizontal axis of the board with the rider turning *with* that rotation. Backside means that the rider turns their *back* in the direction of travel.
360 Flip - The board spins 360º on both its horizontal and vertical axes. The flip on the vertical axis is initiated by using the toes of the foot, so it is actually a 360 Kickflip. However the "kick" is usually dropped from the name and is implied. Important point to make with the board spin on the horizontal axis is that it spins in the direction that the toes of the front foot are pointing (so clockwise if a regular rider, anti clockwise if goofy).
Nollie Double Heelflip - Well the very first trick again, but this time the board spins on its vertical axis twice - 720º.
Fakie 360 Flip - a 360 Flip but travelling backwards, hence "Fakie". Wait, why isn't it switch? If we're travelling backwards surely that implies the opposite stance right? No, because we are still popping the board off the stronger foot. This is how skateboarding differs from snowboarding - in the latter the feet are locked in place, so there is not really such a thing as fakie unless the rider's binding angles/positions are significantly different. In skateboarding you generally have your back foot on or near the end of the tail of the board and your front foot on or behind the bolts that hold the front truck in place.
Backside Bigspin - Backside we have already established means turning 180º with the board on a horizonal axis. Bigspin means the board does an extra 180º relative to the rider. So you could call this trick a Backside 180 180 shuvit, but bigspin is the convention. Actually bigspin has some history - originally the name bigspin referred to a Fakie Backside 180 180 Shuvit so implied fakie, and we get a bit more complicated here because even though we use the term backside we actually turn our *front* side in the direction of travel. Why? Because when riding Fakie the backside/frontside terms are flipped because you are riding backwards. Even more confusing, "Fakie Backside 180 180 Shuvit" Could be named "Half Cab Shuv it" because a Cab refers to a Fakie Backside 360º, so Half Cab = Fakie Backside 180 (Cab being a shorter name for a Caballerial, which was named after Steve Caballero who was the first to do a Fakie Backside 360º on vert). Either way, when you stick Frontside or Backside in front of bigspin it means that the trick is *not* done fakie.
Nollie Double Kickflip - Same as the Nollie Double Heelflip but the flip is done using the toes of the foot so it spins in the opposite direction on its vertical axis.
Switch Double Kickflip - Well, same as the Nollie Double Kickflip but in the opposite direction of travel (weaker stance).
Nollie Backside 360 Bigspin - OK, we can break this down using terms we've already covered: Nollie = popped off the nose in the direction of travel. Backside = turning our *back* in the direction of travel (if this were Fakie we would be turning our front in the direction of travel). Bigspin = The board does an extra 180º on top of the 180º our body is turning. So what about that 360 in there? It refers to the angle the riders body goes through, so the body is actually doing an extra 180º. Since it's a bigspin the board has also done an extra 180º so since the rider has turned 360º the board has actually turned 540º.
360 Shuvit - You can probably work this one out. Something worth mentioning is that "Shuvit" used to refer to the time before popped tricks, and when people started "popping" Shuvits they became known as "Pop Shuvits" to distinguish between shuvits that weren't popped. Nowadays there is no distinction as generally nobody doesn't pop their shuvits.
540 Shuvit - Easy, right?
Switch Laser Flip - Laser flip means a 360 shuvit spun in the opposite direction with a heelflip. So another name could be a Frontside 360 Shuvit Heelflip.
Nollie Backside 180 Kickflip - Didn't we do this already? Oh no, it was a heelflip last time. See? Variations on a theme.
Switch Double Heelflip - Didn't we do this as well? Oh no, it was a Nollie Double Heelflip last time...
Nollie Frontside 180 Double Kickflip - And again, we are repeating ourselves but with extra spins on the board's vertical axis (flipped using the toes). Oh but this time we are turning frontside, the first time this has happened.
Pressure Heelflip - This is a weird one, i don't ever recall seeing this trick... ever. I have seen plenty of Pressure *Inward* Heelflips (which is just called a Pressure *Flip* (confused yet?)) but never a straight Pressure Heelflip. Pressure flips are done as you would perhaps infer from the name - pressure is applied on the edge of the board by the back foot in a way that causes the board to roll over, the board doesn't really "pop" in the way a normal trick would, it sort of scoops and that causes the board to flip.
Nollie Backside 180 Double Heelflip - Well it's just the Nollie Backside 180 Heelflip with an extra flip on the board's vertical axis. Am i repeating myself?
Switch Frontside Biggerspin - This is the killer. A bigspin means the board does an extra 180º, so a biggerspin means the baord does an extra 360º on its horizontal axis relative to the rider. The rider is turning 180º here, frontside, so the board has done 540º. All of this is switch, so off the weaker foot. Yeah, that's pretty difficult.
Well that covers it, and we didn't see any impossibles, hardflips, forward flips, late flips, or late shuvits. We haven't even begun to think about grabs, slides, grinds, and goof tricks....
As for the whole visualisation thing, yeah it's pretty cool but it's missing some of the point - the author is aware of this as he notes the final isn't just about the actual tricks. Luan had far better style than Cody - just look how much faster and higher (and cleaner) he pops most of the tricks. Even when the tricks are double flips Luan still really goes for it.
posted by lawrencium at 1:11 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
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posted by angryostrich at 7:18 AM on October 30, 2014