Skateboarding - http://maxpages.com/danman/Grinds

Soyale:
Soyale is a combination of the soul grind and the royale! The trick is always done alleyoop. If it's done forwards, it's called a torque soul. The soyale is one of the harder tricks, but also on eof the best looking. Keep your weight in the front end of the souling foot or on the royale foot, so that the soul foot will not catch dirt or fall into the unsmooth surface and make your fall backwards. To not fall forwards, you have to lean backwards, and make sure that your heel on your soul foot is down at all times. The more you lean your weight on the non-souling foot, the better the tricks look, but then it's also harder as it increases the chance of the non-souling foot sweeping your momentum away. To land in the soyale on rails, you have to jump and spin away from the rail. Have your upper body over the rail or into the stairs - that way, you can catch yourself if you miss it. Get as low as possible for style.

Backslide
The backslide is like a frontside, except that you lift your front foot, and only grind on the back foot. It is preferably done grinding on the outside frame and outside boot as well, like in a royale. If you can do the royale, this should not be a big problem. If you can't do the royale, - well go learn the royale first! When comfortable with the royale, and your weight is on the back foot, try to lift the front foot a little, not much, only a few inches. When you feel comfortable with this, do the royale grind again, and lift it even more. When you can lift it about one foot, or 30 cm, try to grab it too. Now you're backsliding. You've got the balance now - grinding in the groove from your outside frame and outside boot, and leaning forwards, but having your weight on your back foot. Now we need to look at the locking in part, that might be a little hard. If you're not careful, you will fall backwards really fast, so you need to land in the groove, and lean forwards a lot. That should be it! You can grab your non-grinding skate in different grabs - safetygrab being the most common. It used to be the rocket grab that was the most common, but it has gone oldschool a long time ago. Another oldschool combination is the christgrind, where you rest your non-grinding skate on top of the grinding skate and look like Jesus!

Unity:
The unity grind looks hard, but it really isn't, it just takes a little practice, and once you have gotton it, it'll stay with you for a long time. If you can do a frontside, and are comfortable with royales - grinding in the groove between the outside frame and the outside boot - you should be able to do this trick! It is like a frontside, but your legs are crossed! When doing the unity, your back leg's foot is put in front of the other, so that the leg's foot is grinding in front of the other. When doing a savannah, your back leg's foot is put behind the other, so that the leg's foot is grinding in front of the other. Approach the obstacle with a moderate speed - you can do this trick with just any speed, so you can just slow down, if you do not feel comfortable with it. Jump and cross your legs as you land. It is easier if you land in the groove. When your skates are positioned in the grooves of the two skates, you are perfectly balanced - even more than in a frontside. If you can't get your skates to be in the groove, just go lower - bend down in your legs. If you go too low, your skates will slide out of the groove, so stay in the royale groove, or where your frame matches with your groove. A few years ago, this trick was the thing, but as skating has developed, it isn't that cool of a trick anymore - it's too oldschool. If you want to do it...do it backside.

Savannah:
The Savannah is like a unity, exept that you cross the front leg over the back leg - opposite of the unity. This might seem very unatural to you, and also hard. But really, - it is all mental! When doing the unity, your back leg's foot is put in front of the other, so that the leg's foot is grinding in front of the other. When doing a savannah, your back leg's foot is put behind the other, so that the leg's foot is grinding in front of the other. Think of the trick, as you were to perform an alleyoop unity! If you're grinding a coping, and you are about to do a unity, go in the other direction, and land in the same unity position. Now you're going backwards - or what? - No, you're doing a savannah! When done on rails it is the same thing, but it is not as easy to think of. Now, approach the obstacle with a moderate speed - you can do this trick with just any speed, so you can just slow down, if you do not feel comfortable with it. Jump and cross your legs as you land. It is easier if you land in the groove. When your skates are positioned in the grooves of the two skates, you are perfectly balanced - even more than in a frontside. If you can't get your skates to be in the groove, just go lower - bend down in your legs.

Torque:
The torque is one of the harder tricks to master. It's like a frontside, but you lift and grab your back skate. Actually it is very similar to doing a fahrvergnugen. The instructions for this trick is close to the instruction we gave for the backslide. If you can do fahrvergnugens well, then you're not far from doing this trick either. When doing fahrvergnugens, practise leaning all your weight on your front foot, and just let the other foot trail. It's easiest to do this if you get as low as possible...almost so low that your butt touches the obstacle you're grinding. When you can do that, try jumping up on the obstacle, leaning on the front foot like you just did in your fahvergnugen, and grabbing your other skate at the same time. If you haven't got the trick by now, you probably haven't turned the 90 degrees around, so that you are in perfect frontside or backside position, depending on which you are doing. When you are learning this trick, the difference from backside and frontside grinding shouldn't be big. When doing this trick, you will probably find that it is easier to do backside than frontside on ledges and rails. It isn't on halfpipes and quarter pipes, since you have to turn 180 degrees around. When you're doing the torque on quarterpipes and halfpipes, the easiest way to get out of the trick is to go down fakie if you're doing the trick frontside.

X:
X-grinds where 'hip' back in the old days, but after a short while, they became oldschool - very oldschool. But now they're back and is considered newschool. They are really easy when you do them forward. The easiest thing is to have your souling foot in the back - resting on it, and then just plant the topside foot. Actually it doesn't matter which foot you have in front - the x-grind is performed easiest if you have your weight on your soul foot. So don't do this...go for the harder one. Lean your weight on the topside foot - if not, there's nothing really to it. To add a little more spice to the trick, do it alleyoop - that's harder. When doing it alleyoop, lean your weight on your back foot.

Neighborhood:
Like a frontside, except you turn your back foot's toe to point in instead of out. (Front foot is frontside, back foot is backside)Start by going to the rail as if you were going to do a soul or topside soul - depends on if you're doing it frontside or backside, leap onto the rail and at the last moment turn your back foot another 90 degrees. Make sure you legs are far enough apart that you can make a firm base for your body, and bending your back leg would be a good idea.

Tabernacle:
This trick has different names: Darkslides and Roughgrinds are the same - it's when you do a tabernacle with your boots grinding on the boot's grooves rather than the frames. Tabernacles are when you're grinding on the frames. Jump up into the trick, like you would do with an acid or topside acid, but turn your back skate another 90 degrees so that the toe of your back foot points on the opposite direction of your front foot. Your weight should be in the middle of the two skates, just like with a good old frontside or backside. The tricky party about the tabernacle and the neighborhood grind is the difficulty you'll have when trying to keep your legs locked in the position. So do everything you can to keep them locked.

Trainingwheel:
The training wheel is probably the most oldschool and lousiest trick you can do, but if you're making fun of old skate movies, and generally oldschool skaters, this is the trick that will make people laugh! The trick is like a soul grind, but instead of grinding with your front foot, you place it on top of the obstacle you're grinding on the back wheel, so that the front foot is rolling on top of the obstacle. Obviously you can't do this trick on rails, but only on curbs, ledges, quarterpipes and halfpipes.

Wheel Barrow:
Another oldschool trick is the wheelbarrow. It's a little harder than the training wheel. Your back foot is in royale or backslide position, while your front foot is rolling like you do it with the training wheel. Oldschool, oldschool, oldschool trick!!!

Danman Skate Team

Kansas

USA

Dan- superstohs@yahoo.com , Tony- scandalous_tony@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Wed Jun 13, 2001 1:30am EDT