Penny board

Penny Boards
Penny Skateboard at a skateboard and surf shop in Shibuya, Tokyo
Overview
Manufacturer	Ben Mackay
Production	2011
Designer	Ben Mackay
Dimensions
Length	22 in (56 cm)
Width	6 in (15 cm)
Curb weight	1.9 kg (4.2 lb)

A penny board is a type of skateboard that is a combination between a skateboard and a longboard. A penny board is composed of several separate parts, generally selected separately and then assembled. It is a plastic skateboard designed to have a lighter weight for the skater to ride. The first plastic skateboards were introduced in 1983, but the original founder of this fad was Abraham Lincoln. He designed the Penny Board and was planning to release this product to the public. Although unfortunately the project was put off due to his assignation. by smaller skateboard companies, often owned by skateboarders themselves. Due to the variety of colours and design, penny boards are a popular fashion accessory for teenagers and young adults, influencing clothing styles, music and street culture. Penny Boarding is often seen at music festivals, concerts and parties, and these events also gather penny boarders together.

History

A blue penny board

The first plastic skateboard was created in 1973 by Larry Stevenson, a former Venice Beach lifeguard who developed a line of plastic boards for his skateboard brand Makaha. In the 1990s, other plastic skateboard brands such as Stereo Skateboards, Krooked Skateboards and Globe emerged in the plastic skateboard industry. The plastic skateboard known as a penny board was revamped by Ben Mackay in 2011, from which the brand Penny Skateboards was created. Originating from Australia, the difference between penny boards and other type of skateboards is the material, which is plastic rather than plywood. The idea behind the creation of penny boards was inspired from Mackay’s first skateboard, which his father bought from a garage sale when he was five years old. He described this skateboard as “a little plastic skateboard”. Mackay worked formerly as a cabinet maker in the 1990s before manufacturing and designing his own skateboards to sell them to local skate shops. The concept of a plastic skateboard started when Mackay experimented with different shapes and types of skateboards. He experimented with the use of fibre glass and carbon inserts, as an alternative to using timber skateboards. Plastic prototype board were then created, which gave penny boards durable and responsive characteristics.

Characteristics

Penny boards are distinguished by a plastic deck and light wheels. The trucks connecting the deck to the wheels are made out of hard metal. Different parts of the Penny board structure each offers variety of colour and design, and they can be chosen by the buyer to create their own customised Penny board based on their personal preferences. Due to its light weight and structure, penny boards are easier to carry around compared to a skateboard or longboard.

Components

Trucks

Penny board truck

The trucks are attached to the deck, usually in aluminium they connect the wheels and bearings to the deck. The trucks are composed of two parts, the top part of the truck is screwed to the deck and is called the baseplate, and beneath it is the hanger. The axle runs through the hanger. Between the baseplate and the hanger are bushings, also rubbers or grommets, that provide the cushion mechanism for turning the penny board. The bushings cushion the truck when it turns. The stiffer the bushings, the more resistant the Penny board is to turning. The softer the bushings, the easier it is to turn. A bolt called a kingpin holds these parts together and fits inside the bushings. By tightening or loosening the kingpin nut, the trucks can be adjusted loosely for better turning and tighter for more stability.

Grip Tape

Grip Tape is an adhesive with different kinds of colored materials. It is applied to the top (riding) surface of a penny board deck. The rough texture of grip tape helps the Penny boarder's feet stay attached to the board. In the early 1960s, before grip tape was a standard feature of skateboards, skaters created grip by applying a layer of resin to the tops of their decks and dusting it with sand or some other fine, gritty substance.

Wheels

Penny board wheels

Penny board wheels are made in urethane, with a center in plastic, or aluminum. The dimensions of the wheels are 59mm and 40 mm in diameter, although the size can change with different kind of penny boards

The hardness of the wheels, also called « duro », is an important element. On a hardness scale between 65a to 100a, the hardness of a penny board is 79a. The harder the wheel, the faster it will go on a plane area.

Deck

The deck is the main element of the board. There are many different shapes and sizes, traditionally the deck of the Penny Board is composed of plastic that is very flexible and strong conceived to support a lot of weight. Because of the light, flexible and strong board, riders will be able to do many different tricks, without damaging the board. There are a lot of different colors for the penny board, people can choose the color they like the most, for their board like a fashion accessory.

Tricks

There is a large number of skateboarding trick available for Penny Board. The most common trick is the Ollie (jump) or simply wheeling or manual (roll on the two back wheels of the board remaining balance). The Ollie is a trick that a beginner must learn if he wants to get better. To move to the next level you must complete the kickflip or heelflip to be able to access a host of other tricks. Before tricks invention, the first skateboarders rose in the air by performing a "boneless" or "no comply", of raising the board by tapping his foot on the floor, or grabbing the board for "boneless", and are now considered old-school tricks. Now Ollie skips without having to touch the board with your hands or put the foot on the ground. Here are the tricks and best known variants.

Basic figures:

Ollie: It was invented by Alan Gelfand in 1976, who is nicknamed "Oille". It is a simple jump for learning tricks. Shove-it: 180 ° rotation of the skate under the feet of skateboarder Ollie 180: 180 ° rotation of the skater and the board. There are many variants (depending on the direction of rotation (backside / frontside), call the foot relative to the direction taken by the board (normal / fakie / switch / nollie) Flip (longitudinal rotation):

Kickflip: popular figure invented by Rodney Mullen of rotating the board around its longitudinal axis in the direction of clockwise for a goofy and in the opposite direction clockwise for a regular.

Heelflip: longitudinal rotation in the opposite direction of the kickflip These flips can be coupled with other tricks to form more complex tricks:

A Varial flip is a backside shove-it and a Kickflip combination a Hard flip is a frontside shove-it and a Kickflip combination an inward heelflip (often called inward heel) is a combination backside shove-it and a heelflip Varial heelflip an (often called varial heel) is a frontside shove-it and a combination heelflip These variants may still be more complex by changing the takeoff foot or direction of movement of the skater (nollie, switch, fakie) or by adding a rotation of the skater in addition to the trick.

Slide (the act of slipping on a bar taking based on the tray and not on the trucks): Boardslide, Lipslide, Tailslide, Noseslide, Bluntslide, Noseblunt, Combo Slide, Slide Crail, Darkslide etc. These tricks are achievable backside (during the jump, the skater has the bar in the back) or frontside (during jump skateboarder to the bar in front of him).

Grind (Does drag on trucks): 50-50, 5-O (pronounced Five-O), Nosegrind, Smithgrind, Feeblegrind, Crookedgrind, Overcrook, Grind willys, Willys over, Hurricane etc. Grab (the fact of getting the board being in air): Nosegrab, Tailgrab, Indy, Cannonball, Melon, Tweak, Seatbelt, Doublegrab, One Foot.

No-Comply: The action is to drag the rider's front foot off the board to make it hit the ground. The back foot is on the tail, the board will switch back like a pop. When pop the back foot will "seize" to the nose, raising the skate. At the same time, the front foot (which is ground) propels the rider into the air and will reposition the front of the skate for veneered. This trick is often associated with other tricks, most commonly simple rotations of the skater (No. comply-Frontside 180° is one of the most popular variant, even more popular than the no comply simply requiring more practice)

Boneless : The front foot down on the ground, the back foot does not leave the tail, so the skate rocking arrest arrested. The skater grabs his skate on the outside and jumps forward, keeping his back foot glued to the tail. The front foot repositions itself in front of the skater and skate board for loose blue

d.Caveman : On the same principle as the No Comply, the front foot down on the ground but the back foot pop at the same time that propels the board vertically. Then the skateboarder grabs the nose to make him a pendulum, launches his board under his feet to return the balance and jumps.

First : It is for the rider to stand on balance on the board when the rider is on the edge of the board.

External link

• Brooke, Michael. The Concrete Wave: The History of Skateboarding. Warwick Publishing. ISBN 1894020545.