Ollie, goofy, coping, grind: every skateboarding term explained simply — your cheat sheet before the other guides assume you already know them all.
## Introduction "What even is an ollie, and why does everyone at the skatepark nod along when someone mentions goofy and coping?" Honest answer: skateboarding comes with its own language, and every guide, video, and spot just assumes you already speak it. This glossary explains the key terms before you trip over them — read it once, and every other skateboarding guide will make sense from line one.
## Board & Gear Start with the gear, then everything else falls into place.
Your skateboard is called a deck in rider-speak — the board itself, usually multi-ply maple, roughly 7.75 to 8.25 inches wide for beginners. You buy it pre-assembled as a complete: deck, trucks (the axles that handle steering), wheels (Rollen), and bearings (Kugellager) are already fitted and matched to each other — clearly the better starting choice over a self-assembled custom setup. Wheel hardness is measured by the durometer: hard wheels (99a to 101a) roll smoothly for tricks, soft ones (78a to 87a) soak up rough pavement for cruising. On top of the deck sits grip tape (Griptape) — the rough layer that keeps your shoes from slipping. On the trucks sits the kingpin nut (Kingpin-Mutter): tighten it and the board gets stiffer and less turny, loosen it and carving gets easier.
On your feet you wear skate shoes — a flat, grippy sole instead of a running shoe's curved cushioning, because they give you board feel and cushion the forefoot on landings. Then there's the protective gear that's non-negotiable: helmet, wrist guards (Handgelenkschützer), plus knee and elbow pads — a mandatory part of your setup, not an accessory.
## Stance & Basics Before you roll, you figure out your stance — your foot position on the board. Regular means your left foot is forward. Goofy means your right foot is forward. Neither is better, it just comes down to your natural side. The two ends of your deck are the nose (the front tip) and the tail (the back end) — both curved slightly upward so you can use them for steering and tricks. Your feet sit over the axle bolts (Achsschrauben), the bolts that hold the trucks to the deck.
You learn to roll by pushing (Pushen): one foot stays on the deck, the other pushes off the ground. Steering is called carving — you shift your weight onto your toe or heel edge, the trucks tilt, and the board curves. To stop, you use a foot brake (Fußbremse): take your back foot off the board and drag the sole along the ground until you're still.
## Spots & Disciplines Where you ride shapes how you ride. Street recreates the city — stairs, rails, and ledges (often curb-like edges) are your obstacles. Park happens inside a bowl-shaped facility: a bowl, or more broadly, a transition — any curved surface that carries you from flat ground into a steep wall. The steepest version is the vert ramp, a ramp with a vertical wall at the top; along its upper edge sits the coping, the metal lip you grind or launch off. Entering a ramp from the top is called a drop-in. If all that feels too intense, two other worlds exist: longboard riding, built for relaxed cruising and downhill runs on a longer, more stable board, and freestyle — flat-ground tricks and footwork with no ramp or obstacle at all. The public training ground for all of it is the skatepark.
## Tricks & Maneuvers The ollie is the foundation of nearly every jump trick: you snap the tail down, the board pops up, your front foot levels it out mid-air, and you land centered on both feet. From the ollie come the flip tricks: in a kickflip the board spins once around its long axis beneath you, in a heelflip it spins the other way. On rails and ledges you ride grinds — the trucks slide along the edge — or slides, where the deck itself slides across it. In a transition you catch air when board and rider briefly launch above the edge before dropping back in. On flat ground, no jump required, there's the manual — balancing on two wheels, like a wheelie — plus freestyle classics like the shove-it (the board spins beneath you without you leaving it), the kickturn (a pivot on the back wheels to change direction), and balance tricks like the pogo and casper. Stringing several tricks together without stopping is called a line or a run — and that's exactly what gets judged in competition.
## Pro Tip Whenever a new term throws you, just ask: board, foot, or spot? Almost every skate word fits one of these three buckets — gear (deck, trucks, grip tape), movement (pushing, carving, ollie), or location (bowl, rail, coping). Sort new terms into a bucket right away and you'll remember them twice as fast.
### What does regular and goofy mean in skateboarding? Regular means your left foot is forward, goofy means your right foot is forward. Figure out your stance by having someone gently push you from behind — whichever foot instinctively lands in front is your front foot. Neither stance is better; it just comes down to your natural side.
### What is an ollie? The ollie is skateboarding's foundational jump: you snap the tail down, the board pops into the air, your front foot levels it out, and you land centered on both feet. Almost every other trick, from the kickflip to a grind across a ledge, technically builds on this exact motion.
### What's the difference between street and park skateboarding? Street skateboarding recreates urban obstacles — stairs, rails, ledges — and rewards technical tricks on edges. Park skateboarding happens in a bowl-shaped facility, in a bowl or transition, and is all about speed, flow, and airs. As a beginner you don't need to pick a side yet; both share the same core technique.
### What is a complete skateboard? A complete is a pre-assembled skateboard from a skate shop: deck, trucks, wheels, bearings, grip tape, and hardware are already matched and ready to ride. For beginners it's the clearly better choice over a self-assembled custom setup — cheaper, better matched, and no guesswork involved.
### What is coping in skateboarding? Coping is the metal edge along the top of a ramp or bowl, usually a round pipe. You grind and slide on it, and it's where you launch off for airs. Without clean coping, a transition is missing the exact point where tricks and landings actually happen.
Skateboarden: Getting Started Overview