Science Of Skateboarding

Reported July, 2007

BOWIE, M.D. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Skateboarding is the third most popular sport with teenagers, but learning to balance on a board with wheels isn’t easy.

Amateur skateboarder Corey Rubin makes skateboarding look easy, but it’s not a simple sport to master. “You have to be tenacious, you have to keep on doing it, and you’ll get frustrated,” Rubin says.

To help skaters feel less frustrated, physicist from the American Physical Society and life-long skater, James Riordon, teaches a few basic principles of science that can help skaters of all levels conquer a few fundamental moves. “Knowing a little about the physics of skateboarding can really help you understand what’s possible and understand why things didn’t work out,” Riordon says.

In a basic move called pumping, the body is used to gain speed without the rider’s feet leaving the board. “What you’re doing is you're turning your body into a type of physical instrument that allows you to put energy back into the ride,” Riordon says.

One of the most well-known tricks is the Ollie. It was invented in the 1970s by Allan “Ollie” Gelfand. It’s a maneuver from which most skateboard tricks are based upon and is used to get the board off the ground without touching it. A skater pops the board up in the air, causing the center of gravity to rise, then hits the other end of the board, leveling it out. It creates the illusion that the skater’s feet are glued to the board in mid-air.“ Particularly, when you see people do some of these incredibly challenging tricks, that even to me look like they defy physics, I have to watch it a few times to understand how these things are even possible,” Riordon says.

A little skateboard science can help even advanced skaters improve their game and keep coming back. “I want to keep excelling; I want to accomplish a lot more tricks,” Rubin says.

The American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

James Riordon
American Physical Society
(301) 209-3238
riordon@aps.org

American Association of Physics Teachers
College Park, MD
301-209-3311
http://www.aapt.org

American Physical Society
College Park, MD
301-209-3000
http://www.aps.org

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