Fingerboard
A fingerboard is a miniature skateboard that is driven with the index finger and middle finger. Fingerboarding is a relatively young fun sport , which, similar to skateboarding, is about demonstrating or combining certain flip and grind tricks . The tricks are named the same as in skateboarding.
There are numerous fingerboard competitions (contests) and meetings (jams). On July 6, 2019, the tenth fingerboard world championship took place in Schwarzenbach an der Saale , which is regularly held and organized by Blackriver Ramps.
history
Fingerboarding began in the 1970s when the first articles on the subject appeared in skateboarding magazines. As early as the early 1980s, fingerboarding was featured in magazines and skateboard videos. In the late 1980s, the first skateboard key chains appeared, which fingerboarders bent with the help of a lighter so that they could be driven. In the 1990s, a toy manufacturer became aware of fingerboarding and began to produce technically functioning replicas of skateboards. Tech Deck was born and the age of fingerboarding began.
From around 1997 a fingerboard scene developed in Germany and Austria. The "Fast Fingers" competition has been held annually in Schwarzenbach an der Saale since 2000. In 2008 the contest was held for the first time as a world championship due to the growing international starting field.
Categories
There are two categories of fingerboards:
- Fingerboards, which are mainly suitable for collecting (e.g. as a key ring). These copies usually have no imitation griptape (sandpaper) on the top, but are only made of plastic . Some of the individual parts ( rollers , axles ) in these examples are also not interchangeable. Therefore, they are only suitable to a limited extent for exercising fingerboarding.
- More or less faithful replicas of skateboards. These fingerboards consist of various types of wood in several layers of veneer or hard plastic and, like the original skateboard, are covered with real griptape (a kind of sandpaper) or riptape (is often called foam rubber, but is a thin neoprene layer with an adhesive underside). This makes it possible to imitate real skateboard tricks with your fingers or to invent new combinations.
Fingerboards and accessories
Like a skateboard, a fingerboard consists of several components:
- Deck: In addition to symmetrical constructions (kicks and concave), there are now also decks that have different nose and tail, similar to a modern skateboard, i.e. a definite front and rear. The most common materials are plastic or wood, but there are also decks made of carbon, metal, and other materials; the less common ones are often built as a hybrid construction together with wood.
- Axles: Axles are mostly mass-produced from metal for the toy industry. In recent years, however, there have also been manufacturers who produce special axles for miniature sports and set significantly higher standards for quality in lower numbers.
- Wheels: Wheels are made of engineering plastic, PU or metal. T. provided with one or two miniature ball bearings. They are either cast or machined on a lathe (or their industrial equivalent).
- Tape: For better adhesion, a strip is stuck to the deck, which consists of either rubber, neoprene or fine-grain skateboard grip.
- Screws: Are the screws used to attach the axles to the deck.
- Bags: Small bags for fingerboards and small parts. Protects the equipment. FlashBone Bags was the first company of the designer Milan Malagan to develop these bags and bring them to market.
The fingerboard decks, wheels (rollers) etc. are made as authentic as possible to their big brother, the skateboard, with great precision. While the toy industry produces large quantities of fingerboards (with plastic decks), fingerboarders who have been active in the scene for a long time mostly use wooden decks, which are either handcrafted themselves or manufactured by companies in small series. In the case of high-quality fingerboards, the rollers also have ball bearings.
Miniature ramps are available for fingerboards, the real skateboard obstacles ( obstacles ) replicate for fingerboards. There is the same variety here as with real skateboard ramps. The materials used are plastic, wood, metal, granite, ceramic and also cement / concrete.
See also
literature
- Martin Winkler: Fingerboarding: Everything about skating by hand. riva Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-86883-027-9 .
