Stuff You Should Know - How Skateboarding Works

Episode Date: March 11, 2014

Skateboarding started out as something bored surfers did when the waves weren't breaking, but after a few improvements to the design, it took off like a rocket to become its own cultural phenomenon. Come gleam the cube with Josh and Chuck. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

attention bachelor nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, Hey Dude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack

and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and Charles W. Chuck Bryant with me. So this is Stuff You Should Know and Jerry of course is here. Who just celebrated a birthday? Yeah, happy birthday Jerry. Valentine's Day. We're on our Indian sweat lodge that we call a recording booth. Yeah. Man, it's hot. Yeah, part of it's this thing. You want to turn this off? Because it really does put out a tremendous amount of heat. Yeah, Josh, we have

a lamp on our table that we used to see. Well, we can't see any longer. Oh well, blind blind. Yeah. That did make it like 3% cooler immediately. Yeah, it's that lamp. It's the lamp and then like you know, just people generating heat in here. Yeah, podcasters were a balmy bunch. Plus there's a herd of oxen in the corner. That doesn't help. No, it's been the best intro ever, I think. You think so? I think so. You're not being facetious? No. You know the word facetious? What do you got for me? Well, when I was younger, I knew the word facetious. It was a word that my dad used a lot. So I used it in like regular conversation. Correctly? Yeah. Okay. But I'd never seen it written out or so I thought. And then finally one day I ran across in a book again, this word I

kept coming up on and I was like, what is that word? Facetious. Facetious. And I was like, that's facetious. I don't know that I've seen it spelled either. Yeah, it looks like facetious. No, it looks like facet, like a facet of a jewel or something. And then E-S-I-O-U-S. Yeah, there's no I would have so bombed the spelling of that. Right. But the thing is, it's like I was using it correctly in conversation and I'd seen it in books. I just never put the two together until finally one day it clicked. You had to get your tattoo changed. It's facetious across the back of your neck. Yeah, in a heart. That's right. All right. So skateboarding. Yeah, about the same time that I realized the word facetious, what it was correctly spelled as, I was skateboarding at

the time. So that's how it ties in. Gotcha. That was a little skateboarder for a long time. Yeah, it was too. I did not, I'm not old enough to where I saw all the different waves of skateboarding of the four. You saw the first two? I saw, I didn't see the first one. That's pretty funny. That would mean I'm dead. No, there's plenty of old boarders out there. Sure. Yeah. But I was of the age where I definitely had the small sort of plastic board with the single little tail on the back only and clay wheels. No. Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. Clay wheels, it seems to me like that those, the skateboards from biblical times had clay wheels. That's what I think of when I see clay wheels. What do they even look like? Just brown. Were they super dangerous? Well, yeah. And if

you've seen the great documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys, they go over, it's a really good doc, by the way. Yeah. Like amazing footage that they have and good music and highly recommended over the movie version, The Lords of Dogtown. Was Vel Kilmer in that? No, Heath Ledger was. He played the mentor, I can't remember his name. Skip? The Zephyr crew. Yeah, Skip. Skip. Skip went on to found Santa Monica Airlines skateboards. Oh, yeah? Yeah. He stayed on as like a big influence in skateboarding. Oh, that's good. So anyway, I just wanted to point out that I have branched a few different, like I started out with a little clay one, and then in high school is when I got the big huge fat skateboard when they were super obnoxious. Yeah, let's see. That's when I came

into skating. Yeah. 1983, 84. Yeah. Had like a nice Lance mountain. It was my first board. My first board, remember the Nash Tough Tops? No. There was, it was blank on the bottom. There were no graphics, but on the top, cut out in the grip tape was like a star that looked kind of like a saw blade, circular saw blade. And then the big difference was the different colors of the board underneath. So blue or pink or yellow or whatever. Mine was like neon green. Yeah, your big fat one? Yeah. And looking back, like kind of corny. And I think after that is when like true skaters started being like, you know, we don't really care that much about like, awesome graphics. Like we just want like a good board. Good board. You wanted some rib bones on the side. You remember those?

Underneath? Yeah. Yeah, but I don't think people like those now either. Oh, no, not anymore. Like real skaters. No, that the whole point of those, I think it was, you know, to let you rail slide or whatever. Easier, but I think it was also to protect those graphics too. It totally was because I had a little big plastic bumper under the tailpiece too, which is counterintuitive to doing the tricks. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, like who cares about protecting the tail? It's weird. Yeah. I was also a nose bone too. I was not never very good. Oh, I wasn't either. I don't mean to give that off. I mean, I spent a lot of hours skating and I never got very good. I think I pulled off one kickflip once. Really? Once. That's good. I thought it was pretty good too.

That is the trick that you most often see kids not landing. You're right. Just driving down the street. Yeah. If you ever see a kid, like I rarely see a successful kickflip just on the sidewalk. Oh yeah. If you see somebody who pulls off a kickflip, the chances are there's somebody filming them because they know that they're going to be able to pull off the kickflip. In LA actually, I would see more, you know, obviously better skaters out there. Sure. New York. Yeah. True. All right. So skateboarding. Should we get going with a little history? Yeah. Let's talk about the history of this. This is so close to my heart, man. I fell down the rabbit hole today watching like old skate videos and like checking out old Powell

Peralta boards. That was my jam was Powell. Well, we mentioned that there have been four distinct waves of skateboarding starting in 1959. Yeah. And each new wave, like it's just waned in popularity here and there and then come back strong and stronger due to either advances mainly in like skateboard technology. Right. And trickery. Yes. And parental acceptance. Yeah. Because it never really goes away. Skateboarding is either ever since its inception, it's either been mainstream or else forced underground and like practiced by juvenile delinquents who kind of kept it going and advanced it quietly until it came back into the mainstream and parents were like, oh, okay. Totally. You guys can skate again. Yeah. But the true origin

of the skateboard, the first one that came out, the first commercially produced one was in 1959. It's called the roller derby skate. Yeah. And before that, if you've seen the movie Back to the Future when Marty McFly rips the little milk crate off the front of the homemade wooden scooter, that was where skateboards really came from. You just, it was sort of a homemade deal with like a peach crate as the front of your scooter. Couple of handles. Yes, deal wheels from roller skates for super dangerous. Right. But like you say, if you take the peach crate off and take the handles off, you have that two by four with the roller skate wheels and they don't know exactly who did it. They think actually several people probably did it simultaneously. Marty McFly.

In the 40s, they think surfers in California did it. There are kids in France that were seen doing it in the 40s. So it kind of spread, it happened, it arose independently around the world at about the same time. That's called the zeitgeist. That is my friend. So now we're in the early 1960s and it was, I mean, it really took off like a rocket in the first few years of the 1960s. Like 50 million skateboards were sold in those first three years. It's so crazy. And it was everywhere. Yeah. It was like the hot new craze. Well, it was like also like hula hoops and things like that. Like it was, America was in a crazy mood. A craze mood. Right. Like whatever the big thing was. Yeah. And skateboard fell into that big time. The problem is they were pretty dangerous. Yeah.

There wasn't a lot you could do with them. No. Because again, they're steel wheels. It's basically a two by four on steel wheels. Yeah. You could ride down the street and you could fall off of it. Exactly. That was the extent of it. And I think because of the safety concerns, overnight skateboarding just went away. And like 1965, it was over. Yeah. But it still kind of stayed somewhat popular as a thing to do among surfers when the waves weren't breaking. Right. They would just kind of sidewalk surf is what they called it. And they never really saw it as anything bigger than a supplement to surfing. Right. It was just kind of like it wasn't its own thing. Right. Until the 60s, the late 60s or the early 70s, when clay wheels came about, you could do a little

more stuff, I think. Well, clay was better than the steel wheels. Right. But still bad. Right. If you hit a rock in the road, you're toast. And like that's when people started dying from skateboards. Yeah. Which kind of led to its decline again. Sure. And then some surfers, the Zephyr crew, are the ones who like broke skateboarding out once and for all. Well, yeah. Thanks to Frank Nassworthy's invention of the urethane wheel in 1972. Yeah. He founded Cadillac wheels. And all of a sudden, it was like a smooth, like steady, silent experience on a skateboard for the first time. Right. And then you changed everything. It did because it could grip. It wasn't just that it wasn't rumbly any longer. Yeah. It like the urethane could grip like concrete

or. It could go over a pedal or pavement. Yeah. Instead of just stopping. Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, all of a sudden there were way more surfaces that could be skated. And that plus the invention of the truck. Yeah. Which is basically an axle for your wheels that not only allows the wheels to revolve more smoothly, especially when you add a set of bearings. Yeah. But it also allows you to maneuver to the left or the right, which is a big deal. Yeah. And it opens things up. They're twisty. Yeah. And then the kick tail also changed everything. All these kind of came together at about the same time. Yeah. And you mentioned the Zephyr crew in 1975. They held the first basically competition in Del Mar, California. And that's

when, and if you've seen the documentary, it's pretty great. I mean, they had sort of the holdovers from the sixties doing like handstands and all these sort of square antiquated moves. And then these little punks came in there and just like tore the place up and like the judges didn't even know how to judge them at the time because they'd never seen anything like it. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It was a pool. They were skating in pools, right? Or a bowl at least? Yeah. The pool thing came a little later because there was a big drought in the mid-seventies in Southern California. And water was actually in short supply. So people would drain their pools or not refill them or whatever for the summer. Right. And so they started busting in the backyards

and skating in pools. Yeah. And they would bring their own pumps and hoses to drain like all the muck out entirely and then just like skate that pool. And there was at one of those pools, a kid named Tony Alva, who was in that Zephyr crew, was Tony Alva, Jay Adams, and Stacey Perelta. Yeah, among others. Yeah. Right. But those were like the big three. Tony Alva was your guy, right? Stacey Perelta. Oh, I thought you were like a huge Tony Alva dude. Oh, okay. No, I respect for Tony Alva. No, I was always Powell Perelta. Okay. But Tony Alva, at one of those pools, kept going and going and pushing himself harder and harder. And then one day he cleared the coping of the pool. Yeah. And like caught air. Yeah. With his hand at first.

Oh, he did like a handplant? Yeah. That was how that originally came about. But he did leave contact with the pool. Right. And no one had ever done that. And everyone's like whoa. And that was like the creation of vert style skateboarding. Yeah. And Alva went on at like age 19 to found his own skateboarding company. Yeah. He was the first one to use Canadian Maple veneers, which we'll talk about. And it was like really innovative, especially for a 19 year old skate punk from Southern California. Yeah, they all were. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. Like this collection of kids was, were, most of them ended up being like very savvy, like wealthy businessmen, laid on. Right. Yeah. And right after the Del Mar competition, the Zephyr crew kind of

scattered to the wind and went and found purchase and expanded skateboarding as a sport and as a theme. And one of the things that they brought with them from having been part of a crew is to form their own crews of people that they sponsored, which made those people pros. Right. And those pros would go on tour. Yeah. And when those pros went on tour, they were skating, say, Powell Peralta skateboards and showing local kids what could be done with the skateboard. Yeah. And those kids would go buy Powell Peralta skateboards and go out and skate. And it, that whole idea of doing demos on tour. Yeah. With pros who were sponsored by skateboarding companies really helped expand skateboarding in the 80s and created that third wave where

skateboarding just became it. Yeah. I mean, it was big in California and Florida. Like, my cousins were way into it in Florida early on, but it really took off when kids like me in Georgia and you in Ohio were skiing, skating up my like steep driveway and trying to do little 180 turns going back down like it was a wave. And I was, you know, I was one of those silly little kids. Yeah. Like was so caught up in it at first. Well, I had a kid who lived across the tracks for me who had a half pipe, like a good half pipe that his dad built him. And that was part of that rise in 1983, I think that third wave where because I should say we didn't really mention in the late 70s after Alva skateboards was founded and Powell Peralta was founded and all

that skateboarding took a hit mainstream wise. Yeah. And it became associated with punks and like just like just punk kids, bad kids. Yeah. The bad kids and who literally gave skateboarding a bad name. Yeah. And so it was kind of driven underground again. And then in the early 80s, it experienced another rise and its image kind of changed a little bit. Thanks to the Powell Peralta team, the Bones Brigade, yeah, who were actually like they were all young kids and they were skateboarders and all they cared about was skating. But they were also like kind of clean cut as far as the as far as skateboarders went. And like they didn't do drugs, at least they didn't publicly do drugs. Yeah, Stacy Peralta was a good kid. Yeah. And so the kids that he

sponsored like Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, Christian Hussoy, all those kids were good kids too. And they had a tremendous amount of influence on the skaters who were into them. Yeah. And so it kind of changed skating's image a little bit too. It went from like being something that like punk kids were into to something all kids were into. Yeah, it did go into another four year lull toward the end of the 70s, before it started coming back in the mid 80s. And BMX had a lot to do with it. Oh, yeah. That became more popular. And, you know, some skateboarder magazine shutdown or change names to a different, you know, title. And it just like you said, it never went away to the adherents of like, like the true underground skateboarders. Right.

It's always, there's always somebody who's been skating at some point ever since 1959. But in the mid 80s is when it definitely came back to the big time mainstream. Yeah. And I can't tell if it's just nostalgia on my part or else if that was when it like really exploded. But that was my wheelhouse. No, remember the videos, man? Oh, yeah. Bones Brigade videos. Yeah. And that was another thing too. The one of the reasons why skateboarding was able to spread as a sport or recreation or whatever was in part the access to cheap VHS players. Yeah. Because the Bones Brigade made videos and people bought them like you could go to your local skate shop and buy like a Bones Brigade VHS tape for like 25 or 30 bucks. You kind of had to if you wanted to

learn the cool tricks. Right. That's like the only place you could see him at the time. Yeah. And then they were produced in a way like you'd want to watch them again and again. Like I think the fourth one, the search for animal chin actually had like a plot and everything. Oh, really? Yeah. So you would watch these things again and again. These guys became like your heroes. And not only were you watching them do their tricks and, you know, watching their videos, but like you also wore their t-shirts. Oh, yeah. Like you got their deck and it said a lot. Like, I had a Mike McGill deck. I really was into Mike McGill. Yeah. I had a Lance Mountain deck. I was really into Lance Mountain. And I liked Tony Hawk and everything, but I never had a Tony

Hawk deck. Like you identify with a skater based on your personality type. Yeah. And your style. Yeah. Style had a lot to do with it for sure. Sure. Then there was another lull in the early 90s because of the recession is what everyone seems to blame it on. And I know I thought it was weird. I don't remember that happening. But now that I think back late high school, early college, there wasn't a lot of like skate stuff going on in our world. And I wasn't skating at the time, but I was still just young enough to pick up on that fourth wave in the early mid 90s. Well, thanks to the X games. That's what really brought it back big time. And Tony Hawk too. Yeah. He kept it going. His video games definitely helped spread that fourth wave too. And I guess it's

never really gone away. No, it's bigger than ever. Skating. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, another thing I think that helped is that 80s nostalgia craze. Yeah. You know, that how the 80s inform everything today. Part of that was that the, I guess, re exploring that third wave of skateboarding. So like if you go into a band store, they're all like old pal decks or old like vision, vision, street wear decks, vision, where yeah, yeah, and slime balls. Yeah, I have and I still have a pair of vans, old schools, the black and white checker. No, no, no, those were this. I can't remember the name of those. The slip ons. Yeah. The old schools are the black. They have the low top and the high top that has the little sort of white wave on the side. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I still wear those shoes. Yeah. So I think we should talk about the skateboard itself right after this message break. Attention bachelor nation. He's back. The man who hosted some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with a brand new tell all podcast, the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. But I promise you this, we have a lot to talk about. For two decades, Chris Harrison saw it all. And now he's sharing the things he can't unsee. I'm looking forward to getting this off my shoulders and repairing this moving forward and letting everybody here for me. What does Chris Harrison have to say now? You're going to want

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So Choco, we're going to talk about the skateboard itself you promised. Yes. There are three main parts. You have the deck, you have the trucks and you have the wheels. Yeah. And like we said, the trucks connect the wheels to the deck and they service the axles on the front and the back. It's a little T-shaped thing. Right. And I remember definitely like taking a lot of time to get your trucks the way you wanted. Oh, yeah. Some people like them really loose. Yeah, I did. And some people like them a little tighter. If they're looser, you can turn more aggressively. Yeah, but you also get wobble wheel and you get serious wobble wheel. Yeah. But yeah, I like mine a little tighter too. Yeah. Like you want to be able to turn, but you also,

I like the stability of a tighter truck. Yeah. You've also got your wheels, which have a set of bearings. Yeah, the wheels haven't changed too much. No. They're still polyurethane. Yeah. They've changed in size a little bit, but it's the same basic concept. Right. And again, it still depends on your preference. Like you can buy a pre-made skateboard that's all put together, but as you know, any skater worth of salt buys the deck, buys the trucks, buys the wheels that they want, puts it all together. You might as well just go to like a department store and buy your skateboard if you're just going to buy it all together. Yeah, with a little outfit that comes with it. If you're skater 101 out there. Yeah. So the last part, arguably the most important part,

well, one of three most important parts is the deck. Yeah. And the deck has evolved over time. We talked about how the tail kicked up in the early seventies. Just in the rear. Yeah. That allowed a lot of tricks. Yeah. And if you look at a skateboard from the top or the bottom, where you're looking at the outline, that's called the plan. Yeah. And then if you look at how the tail or the nose is kicked up and then the concave to the interior of the skateboard, which allows more control and stability, that's called the concave. So you've got the plan and the concave. And those are part of the deck. They inform the shape and size of the deck. And then on top of that deck, you have the grip tape, which I thought that would have been a recent innovation.

Apparently, grip tape was invented all the way back in 1948 for scooters. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. They did it back then and a guy named Ferdinand Switzhofer invented it. Nice. Yeah. And they changed the name from Switzhofer tape to grip tape. Right. Yeah. And in the eighties too, the thing now is your whole board is covered with grip tape. In the mid eighties, I remember I just had like, there were graphics on top. So they said tape at the front and the back. Yeah. And it really didn't make any sense. Like the whole thing should be grippy. Yeah. But I mean, like again, the power graphics are pretty awesome. Yeah. Steve Caballero had that dragon or like at least you had the bones guy. The decks are not a solid piece of wood.

It's actually thin layers of veneer and they are laminated and then you spread adhesive and you just, you know, like with a lot of furniture, it's just many layers of thin wood compressed together into a mold and it's a hydraulic press that just smashes it all together until you've got your, a really solid piece of wood. Yeah. And it's definitely a lot stronger than just the sum of its parts. Yeah, for sure. From being molded plywood. And then you cut that plan out. Yeah. And then after that, you spray it with some sealant because you don't want to accidentally ollie into a puddle or a fountain or something like that and have your board warp. Or purposefully. Right. Ollie into a fountain. And then the graphics are put on and then the grip tape.

I get it since that graphics aren't like super cool anymore. Am I wrong? That it's sort of like it's a matter of basic thing. I think it's a matter of preference. It definitely isn't like in the mid 80s. It was like they were so obnoxious. Oh yeah. Remember the Gator one? No. It was like, kind of like, I guess a vertigo thing, but it was made out of different spikes. You would recognize it immediately. You saw it. Yeah. I definitely have the stickers on my car and like it was a thing. We had a shop in Stone Mountain called Surf's Up. In Stone Mountain, Surf's Stone Mountain. Yeah. It was obviously open for like, you know, four and a half years. Right. And they had like skate gear and surfer gear and for all us like,

you know, in inland living people. Yeah. It was funny. We thought they were cool. Like you used to have to, initially at that early wave in the early 80s, like you had to go to like a ski shop. Yeah. Skiing was already established and then like they'd open up a little section for skateboards. Totally. And then eventually it got a little bigger and then all of a sudden there were actual skate shops. Yeah. All right. So that is the actual skateboard in all its three parts. Right. And I guess we need to talk about how to ride this thing. Yeah. Because the fourth part is you. That's right. Although it looks cool just hanging on your wall. Yeah. If you want to impress the ladies. Sure. Like check out my skateboard. Yeah. I was

all into that. But it is like surfing and the reason they compare it to surfing is that it's sort of it's like a smaller version. You have the side stance just like on a surfboard. Right. And if you heard our surfing podcast, you heard us talk about regular foot and goofy foot. Is there a Mongo foot on surfing too? No, because you're not pushing off of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Regular foot is your left foot forward. Yeah. And you're using your right foot to push. Goofy foot is the opposite of that. Your right foot forwards. You're pushing with your left. Which does not feel right. No. And I was a Mongo foot and I never knew it until I looked this up. Yeah. That is when your left foot is forward. I'm sorry. Your right foot

is on the board, but you're using your left foot to push. And your foot is at the rear, not the front. Yeah. And I just, that just feels supernatural to me. Does it? But not supernatural, but very natural. There's ghosts. But apparently Mongo foot is, I think you're sort of frowned upon as a person by real skaters if you're Mongo foot. You need to just be like layoff. I've watched you. You can't even kick flip. So you pay attention to how you stand. That's what you say to people if they give you guff about being Mongo foot. Well, the problem with Mongo foot is you have to shift your feet a little bit once both are back on the board. And I guess you can't like bust a move immediately with a trick. Right. Which

matters if you're like competing for half a million dollars, but not if you're like on your way down to the seven 11. Yeah. If you've never skated before and you want to try it, I would advise to not start with Mongo foot at all. If you don't know any better, because you won't be made fun of. Maybe is that what kept you back? Maybe you'd be like so right now. That was what it was. But I've never seen this before. No, it makes sense though. If they, if you don't know which foot you're prominent with, although I would say if you're right footed, you're probably going to be a regular foot. And if you're goofy, left footed, you might be goofy foot. I think it has to do with handedness. So like if you're right handed, your left foot's

going to be forward. You're going to push with your right foot. If you're left handed, you're going to be goofy foot where you're right foot forward. You push with your left foot. I think you push with your foot in the rear of the dominant hand side or foot side. Right. Yeah. But I think your dominant hand is typically your dominant foot as well. Yeah, it seems right. Yeah. And then if, if, if you, if somebody came up and pushed you, yeah, that's the test. The, the foot you put back to steady yourself, that's the one you want to use to push with before you crow hop and punch them in the face. Right. What, what the H man? Yeah. So I'd never heard that. That's a little trick you can do. Yeah. And I guess you're not, maybe surprise somebody because

if you think about it too much, like, all right, push me. Then you try to put both feet back at once and you end up just hopping. So there are a few different, quite a few different things you can do. Back in the day, it was all about like the downhill slalom, which is boring. I mean, super speed is not boring. Scary. It is a little scary. I suffered a pretty decent head injury once. Really? Yeah. I got the wobble wheel going downhill and I was like, I got to bail out. And right before I went to go jump on the grass, the board went boop. Yeah. And I went forward and landed on my head and skidded on my head entirely. No helmet at all. Right. No. Yeah. It's like 1990. Right. And yeah, it was, it was something. Yeah. I remember I have not been the same since most

neighborhoods have one hill, you know, that you don't dare go down. And my best friend, his name was took actually at the time and then at high school. He had a hill like that. And I remember standing at the top of it and thinking there's no way I should be doing this and getting on the skateboard and trying to go down. And like you said, bailing out into the grass is always, if you're in a neighborhood, a nice way to go about things. Is that what you did? I think I went all the way down. Nice. Actually, but yeah, it's a little scary, you know. No way I do that now. I remember a car was driving past and stopped and went, oh my God, are you okay? I was like, wow, is that bad, huh? And they finished their beer and drove on. Right. Through their can.

So you also have freestyle, which is doing tricks and things on a flat surface. And we're going to get into the tricks a little bit in a minute. Which if you are like, ah, what's freestyle? It sounds stupid. Look up Rodney Mullen or Per Wellender on YouTube. Check out some of their, especially their 80s stuff, the early, mid 80s. Yeah. They were doing some pretty cool stuff. And some of it is like that stuff that you were saying that California dudes doing like handstands on a skateboard. Or just the 360s like standing in one place with a nose in the air. But then they would take their hands and like flip their board 360 degrees eight times and land on it. They were pretty good. Yeah. Pretty great stuff. And it gave great activity, you know.

For sure. It's definitely like a choreography in a skateboard. Yeah. Well, I have a feeling you're about to say vert skating. I wasn't, but I will. Are you ready? They didn't give rise to vert skating. Well, vert skating. Yeah. It kind of, that came out of those dog town guys. Yeah. In the swimming pools. Yeah. Cause a pool is considered vert skating. Vert is short for vertical, right? Because you're skating on vertical surfaces like a pool or a bowl or a half pipe or a quarter pipe or whatever. Right. Or if you're like me, two milk crates and a piece of plywood. Did you do that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Josh pipe. It was not that stable. So vertical is when people started leaving and catching air, leaving the side of whatever

surface they were on. Yeah. Which was really exciting at the time. Yeah. I can't imagine having been there. And it's only gone up and up since then, you know. Yeah. And then you got street skating, which is, if you've seen ladies and dudes on the street, like jumping up the air onto a park bench and grinding that park bench or a railing. Right. Or smashing themselves trying to grind a railing. Yeah. That is street skating. Or if you've ever played the Tony Hawk video game, did you ever play that? Yeah. The first one. Yeah. If you play that enough, people who've played that enough know what I'm talking about. You start walking around in life and everything you see. You think, oh man, I could grind that. Right. So hard. Yeah. If I could really skate.

Yeah. Not in real life. No. But yeah. So street skating kind of, I guess you could say it combines freestyle with obstacles using obstacles in the built environment. That's street skating. Yeah. And that's the stuff that usually you'll see frowned upon by businesses and people thinking like these hooligans are out there. Right. Which skateboarding is not a crime, man. Nope. Although if you use a skate, go to jail. But to combat all that crime stuff, a lot of cities built skate parks in the 70s. Yeah. What they didn't realize is that when those kids fell and cracked their heads, their parents were going to sue. Yeah. And so all of a sudden the insurance premiums for skate parks went through the roof and all the cities shut them down. Yeah. And they went

away for a very long time. And then I guess there was some changes in liability laws that allowed skate parks to come back. And so now skate parks are back. Yeah. But they're very frequently put up by cities that are like, we'll build a skate park. And they don't ask the skaters how to build a skate park. So they build like a terrible skate park. And the skaters don't use it. And the cities are like, use skate punk kids. Right. Use the skate park. And they're like, your skate park sucks. And they're like, no, it doesn't. And yes, it does. And they skate away. Or they do it well. And it's too crowded. Well, if there's one thing I know is that for every skate park in any city, there will be a group of skaters saying this place sucks. Sure. I remember when we shot at a skate

park, remember? Oh, yeah. These local kids and it was a new skate park. One of them, that one kid was pretty good. Yeah, he's all right. But I asked him, I was like, guys, this is great, right? This is new. And it's indicator and like, they're like, no, it sucks. Yeah. Well, then that one kid lied. He said he lived from like a seedy or part of Atlanta and hit us up for bus fare. He's a total person. Yeah, one of the crew saw him like go into his house like a block away in this very nice neighborhood of Decatur and hide his skateboard in his backyard. They can be different. They can be like smaller half pipes and ramps and rails and things and obstacles to my recommendation, if you ever visit LA is to go to Venice Beach to their newish skate park there. And it is like

the cement bowl. It's like a huge series of connected swimming pools. Yeah. And this is where you'll see some like, you'll see the old school guys that aren't leaving the bowl that are just like carbon it up is like sweet as pudding. And then you've got guys that will really know what they're doing. Yeah. Like catching air and doing, you know, 360s and and there's a bulldog that rides a skateboard there too. I've heard of that. You should see him. It's quite amazing. I'm sure it is. Like you can't catch air or whatever, but just the fact that a dog is using a skateboard is pretty awesome. So should we talk about some tricks? Let's. Well, almost every trick on earth is based on the Ali. The trick named after Alan Ali Gelfand. He invented it in the

early 1970s, mid 1970s. And that is basically when you jump up in the air and if you've seen skateboarders do it, you might wonder how on earth do they jump up in the air and have that skateboard seemingly attached to their feet. I never was very good at it. Oh, really? No. I could all be pretty good. I was more of a sidewalk surfer than like a trick aerial guy. Yeah. You know, why wasn't a trick aerial guy either? But I could all you know, well explain the Ali. Oh, well, okay. So the Ali is let's say you're on your board and you're on a flat surface. You kick your the tail of the skateboard down really hard against the ground. Yeah. And what this does is this exerted force allows you to overcome the force of gravity. And since you're

jumping at the same time, you jump into the air, you're taking off your own downward pressure on the board. So the front of the board, the nose goes up high in the air. Yeah. And the fact that you've slapped the tail against the ground means the tail comes up into the air until it's even with the nose. Yeah. And the board's flat in the air. And it looks like it's attached to your feet if you do it right. Yeah. And all of a sudden you and the board are four feet into the air, and then you come back down and you land it. Well, that's an Ali. It's funny you mentioned four feet. The world record, Danny Wainwright of I think he's from England, recorded a 44 and a half inch Ali. Wow. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. Was it like standing still? No, you know, it's

like, you know, they just set up something to jump over. Oh, got you. And keep adding layers until, you know, you can't jump any higher. Yeah. And then you've got like, you know, 10 feet to get going and then just pop up and it looks like it's attached to his feet. And the Ali is so integral to so many other tricks. Yeah. That it's almost not a trick any longer in and of itself. It's like the basic mechanic of whatever other trick that follows. Right. But like you pretty much can't do anything without Ali. And that's how those guys originally caught air on vert skating was to Ali off of the coping the top. Yeah. And then you would catch some serious air because you already had that extra momentum behind you as well. All right. So we'll talk about a few of the terms

here in a minute that if you watch the X games and you're not familiar and you hear these words, we're going to clear it up for you right after this message. Attention, bachelor nation. He's back. The man who hosted some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with a brand new tell all podcast, the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. But I promise you this. We have a lot to talk about for two decades. Chris Harrison saw it all. And now he's sharing the things he can't unsee. I'm looking forward to getting this off my shoulders and repairing this, moving forward and letting everybody here for me. What does Chris Harrison have to say now?

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Okay, we're back, Chuck. We're going to talk about the names of tricks, different types of tricks. Yeah. All right. So if you've ever watched the X Games and you hear the sort of annoying announcers admittedly using all these words you've never heard, we're going to explain what some of these words mean just to help you follow along a little bit. That's right. You might hear, speak on front side there or whatever. Front side is when you're facing the obstacle and performing a trick as opposed to back side when your back is to the obstacle. Yeah, like you're basically going backwards on the skateboard. That's right. Yeah. A 180 is a pretty basic trick, but it's, well, it's where you Olly and you in the board

turn 180 degrees to facing the opposite direction. Yeah. Like you go up the ramp and then you turn in midair and you come right back down. You can also do it on a flat surface or you could 180 on to like a park bench or something. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. But the 180 also kind of forms a basis for a lot of other tricks, especially vert tricks like 360s and 540s all the way up to 1080s. Yeah. And you can like grab the side of your board and just do all sorts of cool stuff. Yeah. Tony Hawk famously completed the first 900 degree turn and for many years they thought that was it until a 12 year old named Tom Schaar in 2012 pulled off the first 1080 and they filmed that it wasn't in competition. The first one in competition was a guy named Mitch Brusco.

He did it at the X games and that is three full rotations in the air. And obviously you have to land it successfully for it to count. And to live. And it's amazing, man. Three full rotations in the air. These dudes are getting up super, super high now. Yeah. You ever heard the word fakie? I have. Fakie is basically where you remain in your regular stance, but you're going backwards. Yeah. So you're doing like you're going into a backside trick. That's right. A pop shove it is when you do an ollie with the 180, but your body isn't moving. You're just popping up in the air and flipping the skateboard around underneath you. Right. And then landing on it. Yeah. And then we talked about grinding. There's a couple of ways you can

grind. A true grind is when you're on the actual axles. So you got to be going forward. Or you can go sideways and grind on your board and that's called a board slide. Yep. Or a rail slide. And then the kick flip, of course, is the one that you see people busting butt on. Which I've pulled off once. That's right. The famous Josh kick flip. And then, of course, Chuck, there's the manual, which is another way to say a wheelie. I was good at those. Frontside manual. Yeah. Backside manual. I could do like I was not good. I think that's becoming clear. Like I thought it was cool if I could do a little wheelie and do a little 180 turn on the ground. Yeah. No, I'm with you, man. I understand. I wasn't very good

either. But Chuck, I had years of enjoyment. Twice. Third wave and fourth wave. Yeah. Love skateboarding. Love it. I just love skateboarding. I think everybody should go out and skateboard all the time. She's never going to be one of those old men that's like quit grinding my rail. Well, yeah. If I had a nice rail out, I'd be like, hit the hell off of my rail. But I would still, it's not like a hate skateboarding in general. Yeah. But you might chip in and help build a halfpipe in your neighborhood. A way for my really nice rail. Right. That's a good idea. If you do want to try skateboarding, obviously, these days with the safety consciousness of people, you should get a helmet and some knee pads and elbow pads. And if you're smart,

maybe some wrist guards, although that might not be cool. Well, no, actually, that's another reason skate parks often go in uses because there's local ordinances that say you have to wear a helmet and pads. And of course, skaters are like, that sucks. Yeah. But the wrist guards, that's a common injury because you'll often go to brace yourself with your arms when you fall. And they say to try and fall on your fleshy parts of your body. But you're really kind of at the whim of where gravity takes you, I think, at that point. Well, you know, that was another reason I think I wasn't ever that good is because back when I was a kid, they were all fleshy parts. It's hard to get air. We should have been safe. I was when you fell. I was.

You got anything else? No, man, that's it. Skateboarding. If you want to know more about it, you should type skateboarding into the word search bar at howstuffworks.com. That's the first thing you should do. You should follow that up by watching skate videos and go and buy a skateboard and go skating. Yeah, you know, I want to get a longboard now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's the old man style. Yeah, just cruising. Yeah, get on a flat surface and use it to carve in the concrete wave. A mode of transportation. Yeah, are you going to learn to do handstands on it? No. Let's see. Since I said handstands and then laugh, that means it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this Josh. What are you hiding? And I'm glad to get this email because I knew I

wasn't crazy. So let's just get into this. You know, what can I say? I don't even remember this most recent reference. All right, well, let's just explain here what's going on. This is from Ben. Ben says, Hey, guys, I've been living like a troglobitic troglodyte for the past six years because I just discovered your amazing podcast a few weeks ago. I've been listening to several per day and have since gone to over 100. So he's binging. He said, just notice something in a during the Ken Kat scuba dive episode. Not one of our best. On August 12 2008, Josh goes into detail about he was a certified scuba diver and that the one time he was in open water, he not only got seasick, but also got a slight case of the bends due to surfacing too quickly.

Then in 2013 and the diving bell episode, Chuck says, I thought I remembered many moons ago, you mentioned something about getting the bends. And Josh quickly and confidently retorted, I've never had the bends. So I know this is almost five years later, but it begs the question, what are you trying to hide, Josh? You have answered some of the greatest long, long lasting questions in history. But this is one of the few times where you simply added another mystery into the pile of the enigma and conspiracy that is our world. So have you ever had the bends? So in 1990, I was skating down a hill and I fell and hit my head. Yeah, I would call it a mild case of the bends. Okay, so you just don't remember denying you had the bends? Right.

Okay. All right. Well, there's your answer. Yeah. Well, not only do I not remember denying having the bends, when I denied having the bends, I had forgotten that I'd had the bends before. And again, this is a very mild case, but it wasn't just seasickness. It was directly related to having just spent a half an hour underwater. You know? All right. So I would call that the case of the bends. I think that clears it up then. That is from Ben Helms from Mount Shasta, California. And I'm sure Ben will be unsatisfied with your explanation of Ben. I just forgot. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Let's see. If you want to get in touch with Chuck and I, you can tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. You can join us on facebook.com. You can see us on our YouTube channel. Just look

up Josh and Chuck on YouTube. Tons of fun there. And send us an email to stuffpodcastthediscovery.com and really and join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast,

or wherever you listen to podcasts. On the podcast, hey dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.