Fingerboard (skateboard) facts for kids
A fingerboard is a working replica (about 1:8 scaled) of a skateboard that a person "rides" by replicating skateboarding maneuvers with their fingers. The device itself is a scaled-down skateboard with graphics, trucks and moving wheels. A fingerboard is typically 100 millimeters (3.9 in) long with width ranging from 26 to 36 mm (1.0 to 1.4 in). Professional skateboarder Lance Mountain is widely credited for the first fingerboard, and his skit in Powell-Peralta's "Future Primitive" video brought fingerboarding to the skateboarders of the world in the mid-1980s. Around the same time, Mountain wrote an article on how to make fingerboards in TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine.
Although fingerboarding was a novelty within the skateboarding industry for years, as skateboarding reached widespread popularity in the late 1990s, Canadian toy company Spin Master realised the potential for the fingerboards, specifically for products bearing the logos and branding of real skateboarding brands, and introduced the Tech Deck brand. Fingerboards caught on during this period and the brand has since grown into a widely recognized icon in the toy business. Toy fingerboards like Tech Decks are now available as inexpensive novelty toys as well as high-end collectibles, complete with accessories one would find in use with standard-size skateboards. Fingerboards are also used by skateboarders as 3-D model visual aids to understand potential tricks and maneuvers; many users make videos to document their efforts.
Similar to fingerboarding, hand boarding involves a scaled-down version of a skateboard that a user controls with their hands to achieve more intricate tricks and challenges.
Usage
Fingerboards are used by a range of people from those utilising them as toys to skateboarding and related sports professionals envisioning not only their own skating manoeuvres but for others as well and can include the use for planning out competition courses as skateboarding develops into an international sport. Similar to train enthusiasts building railway models, fingerboard hobbyists often construct and purchase reduced scale model figures that would be considered natural features to an urban skateboarder such as handrails, benches, and stairs they would be likely to encounter while riding. In addition users might build and buy items seen in a skatepark including half-pipes, quarter pipes, trick boxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, and any number of other trick-oriented objects. These objects can be used simply for enjoyment and also to assist the visualisation of skateboarding tricks or the "flow" from one trick to the next (colloquially referred to as "lines"). Fingerboarding events feature some of the latest elaborate models and accessories; many of the manufacturers features photos and videos on their websites.
Components
The parts of a fingerboard are: deck, grip tape (grip, rip tape, rubber tape), trucks, bushings, and wheels. The trucks and decks can easily be modified (modding) to reduce weight, improve smoothness or look better. The trucks are screwed to the deck by means of tiny screws. Modding tutorials can be found online. Decks are the major component of a board and where, on a standard skateboard, one would stand. There is a wide variety of decks with material ranging from wood to plastic. Most commonly, decks are made out of wood, as this gives it more "pop" and a more authentic feel. The average deck will have two kicks—a flared end used for leveraging the board—while some old-school models have only one end flared. During the early stages of the fingerboarding scene, decks traditionally had lower kicks like that of a Berlinwood Old Mold or a Tech Deck however, the "default" shape nowadays has medium kicks and low concave.
Griptape is the friction tape adhered to the topside of the deck to enable users to more easily maintain control of the board. There are many types of griptape. Some use standard skateboard griptape, although the griptape may wear out faster on fingerboards as they endure more moisture from the sweat and oils of a user's hands. There are also softer alternatives and grippy tape which is less harsh on a user's fingers allowing them to fingerboard for longer periods of time. Examples of this tape are Riptape, FBS Extra Smooth, No Comply Foamy Greatness, and Yellowood's Slim Tape. Most of these are made a thin layer of foam, with adhesive on the reverse. Trucks are the structures attached to the bottom of the deck that house the wheels and bushings. Some trucks are all one molded piece while others are scaled-down versions of regular skateboard trucks. Example: BRR Trucks, Y-Trucks. As fingerboarding has evolved "collector" and "pro" versions have emerged with some brands shaped using special instruments to make them lighter and look better. Bushings are pliable material that provide the cushion mechanism for turning a standard skateboard but on a fingerboard help stabilize the trucks thus keeping the wheels in the same position to enable stronger tricks and visual appeal. Collector and "pro" brand bushings are made from many different types of squishy material, usually rubberized plastic or rubber. The wheels can determine how smooth the ride is thus what kind of "flow" a user's ride can be. The professional brands are traditionally made out of a variety of different materials, and have small ball-bearings inside the bearings to enhance the smoothness. A couple examples of these wheels, Flatface Wheels, Ywheels, Oak Wheels, and Winkler Wheels.
Tech Deck makes hard plastic as well as wooden skateboards and borrows designs from many well-known skateboard manufacturers, such as Blind, Flip, and Element. They use grip tape, and professional graphics on most of their decks. The stock trucks on Tech Decks are made of die-cast metal and have two separate axles for the wheels to roll on. The wheels are made out of plastic along with the bushings. Some fingerboarders prefer the feel and performance of decks made from wood. Wooden decks can be made from 3-7 plies of a given veneer; maple, walnut, and mahogany being the most popular. All of the hole-drilling and shaping is done by hand or with the aid of a machine, thus the price is higher. A wooden deck from a popular company can have a low to high price range usually depending on the quality of the deck one is to purchase, prices range from US$5 - US$60. Wooden fingerboard companies are now offering custom designs; the buyer can choose from their line of graphics or send in their own. The wooden boards come in a variety of widths from 26 – 36 mm and concave can vary greatly from maker to maker. Some companies offer even more customization options such as the choosing of the plies used to go into the deck, as well as the width/length of the deck.
Along with wooden decks, advanced fingerboarders also tend to prefer using wheels modeled on real skateboard wheels, made from sturdy compounds and outfitted with ball-bearings. Companies such as Oak Wheels, FlatFace Fingerboards and Joycult Wheels manufacture and sell bearing wheels that are made from a range of materials, including teflon, urethane, silicon, fiberglass, and even clay. The wheels are usually put into a lathe to ensure the best shape. Once the wheels have been readied, bearings are put into place to increase the smoothness of the wheels rolling on the axle. Tuning screws for the wheels cause the wheels to roll more smoothly.
Instead of using the stock axles and kingpins that come on Tech Deck trucks, some more advanced fingerboards use tuning screws, softer 'foam griptape' and custom kingpins to ensure that wheels and hangars are more properly secured. Blackriver Trucks, YTrucks and Dynamic Trucks are three brands that manufacture fingerboard trucks designed to work with more precision, allowing a fingerboarder to pivot quickly and do tricks without worrying that the trucks will come apart. These fingerboard trucks (and other specialty fingerboard products) are often sold at a much higher price compared to Tech Deck products. Board rails can also be added to the deck bottom similar to those used on a standard skateboards. Fingerboards made with plastic are sometimes modified by heating the plastic to shape it, such as making the kicks higher or adding concavity.
Fingersnowboarding, handboards and fingersurfboards
Similar to fingerboarding, fingersnowboarding is snowboarding on a small-scale snowboard controlled with one's fingers. In December 1999 the first-ever World Snowboard Fingerboard Championships was held with a cash prize of C$1,000.00. Sponsored by companies such as Gravity Fingerboards, Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboard Life magazines and others the competition featured twenty competitors utilizing a custom "fingerboard snowboard park." Tom Sims, a world champion of snowboarding, ended his run by landing his fingersnowboard into a flaming shotglass of Sambuka; he was treated for minor burns and donated his winning prize to Surfrider Foundation's Snowrider Project and to Board AID.
Handboards, similar to fingerboards, are a scaled-down version of a skateboard roughly half to a third of the size of a standard skateboard (29 centimeters or 11 in) and utilizes a person's hands rather than just their fingers to control the board and perform tricks and maneuvers. Handboards, because of their larger size, more closely match details of a standard skateboard. For instance a skateboard truck, the wheel structure, would more likely to match part for part an actual skateboard truck rather than be a cast one-piece construction or otherwise simplified. If a user preferred a particular type of wood or decorative style that could also more easily resemble a full-scale skateboard.
See also
In Spanish: Mini-tabla para niños
