The Skate Labs glossary

Skate Labs sits where two worlds meet, and both have their own slang. This page puts the words in one place. Skate words first, then the game, then the crypto words you might bump into on the Dash.

Stance and direction

• Regular: left foot forward.
• Goofy: right foot forward.
• Switch: riding with your opposite foot forward. A regular skater riding goofy is riding switch.
• Fakie: rolling backwards in your normal stance.
• Nollie: in your normal stance, but popping off the nose instead of the tail, with your front foot on the nose.
• Frontside: turning or approaching with your chest facing the obstacle or the direction of the turn.
• Backside: turning or approaching with your back facing it.

Tricks and terrain

• Ollie: popping the tail and sliding the front foot to jump with the board. The base of most street tricks.
• Shove-it: the board spins under you without flipping. A pop shove-it adds the pop.
• Flip trick: any trick where the board flips along its length, like a kickflip or heelflip.
• Grind: sliding along an edge on the trucks. A 50-50 uses both trucks.
• Slide: sliding on the deck itself, like a boardslide.
• Manual: balancing on the back two wheels while rolling. A nose manual uses the front two.
• Stall: stopping on an obstacle for a moment, like an axle stall on coping.
• Transition (tranny): curved terrain like mini ramps, bowls and quarter pipes.
• Coping: the metal or concrete edge at the top of a ramp or bowl.
• Flat ground (flatground): just the ground. Where most games of SKATE happen.
• Line: several tricks in a row in one run.

The game

• Game of SKATE: two or more skaters trade tricks. Miss a trick you have to match and you get a letter.
• Set: to land a trick that the other skater then has to match.
• Letter: one letter of S-K-A-T-E, earned by missing a match. Spell the whole word and you're out.
• Take: one filmed attempt. In Global SKATE, each attempt is one official take filmed in the app.
• Redo: in Global SKATE, the one extra try you get on your final letter.
• Answer window: how long your opponent has to match a trick in Global SKATE: 24 hours, 72 hours (the default) or 7 days.

Crypto words

• Blockchain: a shared record kept by many computers. Old entries can't be quietly changed.
• Solana: the blockchain Skate Labs is on.
• SOL: Solana's native coin. Transaction fees are paid in it.
• Lamport: the smallest piece of a SOL. One SOL is a billion lamports.
• Address: a public ID on a chain. Fine to share, like a handle.
• Private key: the secret that signs transactions for an address. Never share it.
• Recovery phrase (seed phrase): words that can rebuild a wallet's keys. Never share them, never type them into a website.
• Wallet: an app or account that holds the keys to your addresses.
• Transaction: a signed instruction that changes the record. Can't be reversed on Solana.
• Explorer: a read-only website that shows what's on the chain.
• Token: something made by a program on a chain. Identified by its address, not its name.
• NFT: a token where each one is unique.

Skate Labs words

• Global SKATE: the free Game of SKATE you play by video, in testing on iPhone and Android.
• The Dash: your Skate Labs account on the web, at dash.skatelabs.app, with an optional Solana wallet.
• SPOTS: the map tab in Global SKATE, with around 30,000 skateparks.
• The ARK: the skate culture archive on skatelabs.app.
• Testers: people trying the app before it's in public stores. Join at skatelabs.app/testers.
• $SESH: the planned Skate Labs token on Solana. It is not live. No token exists yet. You never need it to play.
• PIXELBOARDS: planned digital decks on Solana. Nothing is minted yet.
• MONGO: a sensor prototype. Nothing has shipped, and no pre-order has been taken.

A worked example: reading a call out loud

Your friend sends a challenge and the trick reads "Nollie, frontside pop shove-it". Using the list:

1. Nollie: front foot on the nose, pop off the nose.
2. Frontside: the board spins frontside.
3. Pop shove-it: the board spins 180 under you without flipping, with a pop.

Three entries, one trick. Now you know exactly what you have to match.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up fakie and switch. Fakie is rolling backwards in your normal stance. Switch is your opposite stance.
• Mixing up nollie and fakie. Both pop from the nose end, but a nollie is rolling forward with your front foot on the nose; fakie is rolling backwards.
• Thinking an address is secret. It's public. Keys and phrases are secret.
• Treating a token's name as proof. Only the address counts.

FAQ

Do frontside and backside mean the same thing in every trick?

The idea is always which way you're facing or turning, but how it applies changes between spins, grinds and ramp tricks. Each trick article explains its own.

Is a "take" the same as a try?

In Global SKATE, a take is your one official filmed attempt.

Do I need the crypto words to play?

No. Global SKATE never needs a wallet.

Next: Game of SKATE rules, explained

Join the testers at skatelabs.app/testers and play a Game of SKATE with your friends. Global SKATE is free and in testing on iPhone and Android.