The ollie is a skateboarding trick

Skateboarding trick

A skateboarding trick, or simply a trick is a maneuver performed on a skateboard while skateboarding. Learning and perfecting new tricks is the primary goal of many skateboarders, for whom most of the time spent skateboarding is spent on tricks....

 where the rider and board leap into the air without the use of the rider's hands. Particularly on flat ground, it is not intuitively obvious how the liftoff is achieved, making the trick visually striking.

The ollie is a fundamental trick in street skateboarding, and is used to leap onto, over, or off of obstacles, or over gaps of unfriendly terrain such as grass or stairs. As so many other tricks depend on it - for example the kickflip

Kickflip

The Kickflip, Ollie Kickflip, or Ollie Flip is a skateboarding trick where the rider ollies and flips the board over in the air before landing.It was the first of many modern flip tricks to be invented by Rodney Mullen in the early 1980s....

 and heelflip

Heelflip

The heelflip , is an aerial skateboarding trick where the skateboarder kicks his board in order to make it flip 360 degrees along the board's long axis....

 - the ollie is often the first trick to be learned by a new skateboarder. The ollie typically takes considerable practice to learn.

Origin

In 1976, Alan Gelfand

Alan Gelfand

Alan "OLLIE" Gelfand is the inventor of the ollie, a skateboarding trick.-Life and career:Gelfand moved from New York to Hollywood, Florida with his family in 1968. Alan "Ollie" Gelfand started skateboarding in 1974 after his father bought him his first skateboard. In 1976 he won the South Florida...

, nicknamed "Ollie", while skateboarding in pools and bowls learned to perform no-handed aerials using a gentle raising of the nose and scooping motion to keep the board with the feet.

In 1982, while competing in the Rusty Harris contest in Whittier, California, Rodney Mullen

Rodney Mullen

John Rodney Mullen is a professional freestyle and street skateboarder. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential street skaters in the history of skateboarding...

 debuted an ollie on flat ground, which he had adapted from Gelfand's vertical version by combing the motions of some of his existing tricks. Notably, Mullen used a "see-saw" motion, striking the tail of the board on the ground to lift the nose, and using the front foot to level the board in mid-air. While Mullen was not initially impressed with his flat ground ollie, and did not formally name it, he realized it opened up a second, elevated plane on which to perform tricks.

Mullen's flat ground ollie is now considered to have transformed the practice of skateboarding. Rodney won the Rusty Harris con prop test, was afterwards asked by many riders to demonstrate the trick, and later in the year it would appear with the name "Ollie- pop" as a "trick tip" in the skateboarding magazine Thrasher.

The flat ground ollie technique is strongly associated with street skateboarding; mini ramp

Mini ramp

A mini ramp is a type of half-pipe which is typically less than high. Any ramp smaller than this that is not a vert ramp & is commonly called a mini ramp. Mini ramps can be as small as in height. While many ramps this size are designed to be forgiving to beginners, some are built more...

 and vert riders can also use this technique to gain air and horizontal distance from the coping

Half-pipe

A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, and inline skating. The structure is wood, concrete, metal, earth, or snow. It resembles a cross section of a swimming pool, essentially two concave ramps , topped by copings and...

, but half-pipe riders typically rely more on the board's upward momentum to keep it with the rider, more similar to Gelfand's original technique.

Execution of the Flatground Ollie

The rider begins the ollie by crouching and jumping directly upward. As the rider begins to leap, instead of lifting the feet from the board, he/she "pops" the tail by striking it against the ground, which raises board nose-first. Maintaining contact with the board, the rider lifts the front leg and bends the front ankle so that the outer or top side of the shoe slides towards the nose of the board. The friction between the shoe and the board's grip tape

Grip tape

Grip tape is an adhesive backed friction-surfaced material usually attached to the deck of a skateboard or longboard to give the rider more friction to control the board. It is sometimes used decoratively, since it can come in many different styles and colors. The most common type of grip tape is a...

 helps to guide and pull the board upward, while the rear foot only maintains slight contact with board to help guide it. When nearing the peak of the jump, the rider lifts the rear leg and pushes the front foot forward, which levels the board and keeps it in contact with the back foot.
The skater can gain greater clearance from the ground by jumping higher, popping faster, sliding the front foot farther forwards (starting the jump with the front foot farther back), and pulling the legs higher into the chest to raise the feet higher. Skaters attempting record-setting ollies even contort the legs so that board and feet are not directly below them, allowing the board to rise at or just below the level of the pelvis.

Very low ollies can be achieved using the same technique, but without the tail making contact with the ground. Even basic flip tricks can be achieved without the "pop" of the tail.

Records

The highest official flat ground ollies are generally performed in ollie contests.

• The highest preferred stance
  Footedness
  Footedness, similar to handedness, is the natural preference of one's left or right foot for various purposes. While purposes vary, such as applying the greatest force in a kick or stomp, footedness is most commonly associated with the preference of a particular foot in the leading position while...
  
   ollie was 45 inches (114.3 cm) from the ground, performed by Aldrin Garcia
  Aldrin Garcia
  Aldrin Garcia is an American amateur skateboarder who currently holds the World Record on Highest Ollie at 45 inches. It was achieved in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA during that Maloof High Ollie Challenge on 15th of February 2011...
  
  .
• The highest switch stance
  Footedness
  Footedness, similar to handedness, is the natural preference of one's left or right foot for various purposes. While purposes vary, such as applying the greatest force in a kick or stomp, footedness is most commonly associated with the preference of a particular foot in the leading position while...
  
   ollie was 40.125 inches (101.9 cm), performed by Alex Bland.

The world record for the highest number of consecutive ollies is held by Rob Dyrdek

Rob Dyrdek

Robert Stanley "Rob" Dyrdek is an American professional skateboarder, actor, entrepreneur, producer, philanthropist, and reality TV star. He is best known for his roles in the reality shows Rob and Big, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and Ridiculousness .- Personal life :Rob Dyrdek was born in...

, who performed 215 ollies on the television show Rob and Big.

Nollie

The most common variation of the ollie is the nollie (short for "nose ollie"), where the rider reverses the roles of the two legs so that the front foot pops the nose to the ground, and the rear foot lifts and guides the tail.

The switch stance ollie uses a similar body motion, but the nollie is subtly distinct: For one, the rider is always moving forward, with the body positioned in a nollie stance--closer to the nose and with the front foot on the nose. Secondly the rider usually postures the body differently to compensate for this stance with respect to the forward motion.

Other Variations

• Switch Ollie, an Ollie performed like a Nollie but riding in the opposite direction (Switch Stance).
• Fakie Ollie, an Ollie done while riding backwards
• The Chinese Ollie - executed without "popping" the board, instead the skateboarder uses cracks in the sidewalk, by "bouncing" off of them, to get air-time.
• Ollie 180
  Degree (angle)
  A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
  
  , an Ollie where the skateboarder and the skateboard spins 180 degrees after leaving the ground. Both the skateboarder and the skateboard rotate in the same direction (Frontside or Backside) with the skateboarders feet sticking to the skateboard. This trick is usually referred to as a frontside or backside 180, or less frequently and more popular with older skateboarders and/or when performed on a bank/quarterpipe, a frontside / backside ollie
• Nollie 180, just like the Ollie 180 but done from a Nollie.
• Half-Cab, just like the Ollie 180 but done in fakie. If rotated 360 degrees the trick is called a Full-Cab or Caballerial
  Caballerial
  Caballerial, Full Cab or Cab, is originally a ramp skateboarding trick, however the trick is now also done by snowboarders. It is another name for a Fakie 360 ollie, or in snowboarding, a switch nollie frontside 360. The Caballerial was named after professional skater Steve Caballero, who invented...
  
  , named after Steve Caballero
  Steve Caballero
  Steve Caballero is a professional skateboarder and musician. Steve was born in the year of the dragon, and has had several board graphics that feature dragons. He was born with scoliosis.-Life and career:...
  
   who invented the trick. Cab and half-cab spins only include fakie backside. A fakie frontside 180 is not a half-cab.
• Switch Ollie 180, just like the Ollie 180 but done from a Switch Ollie.
• Ollie North, an Ollie where the front foot is kicked forward over the nose of the board. Sometimes wrongly called a one-foot ollie, even though both feet are used to perform the trick.
• Ollie South, an Ollie where the back foot is boned straight down (after popping the board) while the front foot levels out the board, and then the back foot is brought back up to catch the tail of the board to stop the momentum of the tail from rising too high above the nose of the board.
• Boned Ollie, an ollie where the board is dipped down and the legs are practically horizontal, like a "Melon Grab" but without the skateboarder actually grabbing the skateboard.
• Ghost Ollie, an ollie where the skateboarders feet are above the board but the board and the skateboarder are still in air.
• Boneless, an ollie where the skateboarder grabs the middle of the board with his back hand while kicking the ground with his front foot.

External links

• Ollie defined, video tutorial, and tricks to help
• Ollie Video
• How to Ollie tutorial with pictures
• Ollie Trick Tip with video
• How to Ollie - A wiki
  Wiki
  A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
  
   article from wikiHow
• Learn How To Ollie Today