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A fingerboard or finger-skateboard is a miniature version of a skateboard complete with moving wheels, graphics and trucks. A fingerboard is 96 millimeters long or longer; some range up to 110mm long, and can have a variety of widths. Skateboarding tricks may be performed using fingers instead of feet. Lance Mountain helped develop fingerboarding as a hobby in the late 1970s and wrote an article on how to make fingerboards in TransWorld's SKATEboarding magazine in 1985.

Although fingerboarding was a novelty for years, they became a collectible toy as skateboard manufacturers realized the potential for product branding and profit starting in the 1990s. Fingerboards 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, handboarding is a scaled-down version of a skateboard that a user controls with their hands instead of just fingers, while finger snowboarding utilizes a miniature version of a snowboard.

History

Popularity

Fingerboarding is popular in Europe in countries such as England and Germany; there is growing popularity in Eastern Europe. Besides skateshops and the internet the world's first fingerboard store opened in Steyr, Austria. Fingerboarders have regular "contests, fairs, workshops and other events". Teri Werner, owner of Boards and More, a skateboarding shop, in San Pedro, California, commented on the fad stating she promotes fingerboarding and skateboarding by holding contests on the store's fingerboard ramp with one contest having "175 entrants in two categories, plus another hundred spectators."

The kids specifically come here to buy their fingerboards. We sell them for $9.99, but they come to us because they trust what we do. We're kid-friendly, and we keep it alive by having ramps available for them to play with. We sell fingerboards like crazy.

Fingerboard-product sales were estimated at $120-million for 1999.

There is a growing scene in America due to many US-based companies sponsoring and hosting fingerboard events; most notably Mike Schneider (owner of Flatface) hosts the "Rendezvous" event is held 1-2 times a year since 2006.

Usage

Accessories

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 visualization of skateboarding tricks or the "flow" from one trick to the next (or to create "lines"). Fingerboarding events feature some of the latest elaborate models and accessories; many of the manufacturers features photos and videos on their websites.

Video sharing

Fingerboarding is a good match for videography as the action can be controlled and framing the activity offers opportunities for creativity. With the rise of the online video business from early 2006, fueled, in part, because the feature that allows e-mailing clips to friends, several thousand finger board and handboard videos can now be found on popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Thus even if the weather does not permit a skateboarder to practice outside they could try a potential trick with their scaled-down fingerboard and related items and share the video with whomever they wished.

Handboards

Handboards, similar to fingerboards, are a scaled-down version of a skateboard roughly half to a third of the size of a standard skateboard (11 inches) 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.

Fingersnowboarding

Similar to fingerboarding, fingersnowboarding is snowboarding on a small-scale snowboard controlled with one's fingers. Fingersnowboard brands are: Tech Deck, Flick Trix. 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. (A photo of the course can be seen here.)

See also

• Skateboarding brands

References

1. ^ Waters, Mark (2000-03-03). "The Fingerboard Controversy: Are toy-skateboard makers promoting skateboarding or just profiting?". Transworld Business. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
2. Hocking, Justin (2004). "Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End". Soft Skull Press. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference About Fingerboarding was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. "Fingerboard Tuning". Fingerboardstore.de. 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
5. Mullen, Rodney (2004). "The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself". HarperCollins. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. ^ "YouTube videos of fingerboarding". YouTube. 25 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
7. ^ "YouTube videos of handboarding". YouTube. 25 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
8. ^ "YouTube videos of fingerskating". YouTube. 25 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
9. "Fingerboard Events Forum". Fingerboard.de. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |last name=, |first name=, and |coauthor= (help)
10. "Roll-up halfpipe for miniature toy skateboard". Mattel, Inc. 2000-08-03. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |last name= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |me mola yahi creo ke kedaremos first name= ignored (help) Patent number: 6350174; Filing date: Aug 3, 2000; Issue date: Feb 26, 2002.
11. "Amusement ramp and method for constructing same". Pillsbury Winthrop LLP. 19 July, 1999. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |first name= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |last name= ignored (help) Patent number: 6623367, Filing date: Jul 19, 1999; Issue date: Sep 23, 2003.
12. "Reciprocating plaything and method for playing". Thomas L. Adams. 10 December, 2004. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthor= (help); Unknown parameter |first name= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |last name= ignored (help) Patent number: 7261613; Filing date: Dec 10, 2004; Issue date: Aug 28, 2007
13. Vienne, Véronique (2003). "Fresh Dialogue 3: New Voices in Graphic Design". Princeton Architectural Press. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
14. Perez, Juan Carlos (September 13, 2007). "US online video popularity keeps climbing". MacWorld. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
15. Zawadski, Alison (September 13, 2007). "A Work in Progress". Le Provocateur. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
16. ^ "Snowtopia 99: Tom Sims Wins World Fingersnowboard Championships". Transworld Business. 17 December 1999. Retrieved 2007-12-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |first name= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |last name= ignored (help)
17. "Snowboarders Finally in Olympics, But Are Conforming Grudgingly", Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 1998.

Further reading

• Finger Skate Board Tricks and Tips Prepack by Susan Buntrock (2000); Scholastic, Incorporated - ISBN 0439217148.
• Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End by Justin Hocking, Jeff Knutson, Jared Jacang Maher (2004); Soft Skull Press - ISBN 193236028X. (See Whaling chapter by Justin Hocking).

External links

• Fingerboarding at the Open Directory Project
• Finger Board Trick Tips includes The Anatomy of a Finger Skateboard.

Videos of boarders

• YouTube videos of fingerboarding
• YouTube videos of fingerskating
• YouTube videos of handboarding
• YouTube videos of fingersnowboarding

• Hand games
• Hobbies
• Skateboarding