Scootering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Also see scooter & scooterboy
Scootering, or simply scooter riding is a relatively new action sport. The popular kick scooters are used by the riders for doing tricks, in a similar way to skateboarding and BMX freestyle.
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[edit] History
The origin of scootering is considerered to be the 1999-2001 worldwide 'scooter craze'. At the time when light foldable aluminum scooters became popular amongst young people. Many of them understood the freestyle potential of this vehicle, and started doing tricks on it. One of the breakthrough moments of scootering was the year 2001, when Razor, the biggest American scooter company, assembled the first professional scooter team from some of the best riders of California. One of them was Jarrett Reid, the first two scooter riders to land a backflip. 2001 was also the year of the Core Tour scooter competitions which gathered a lot of publicity for the sport, as well as Jarrett's appearance on the Guinness World Records Primetime show on TV. The succeeding years brought the progress of the sport. 2005 was the beginning of serious competitive riding, as first big competitions were organized. Some skateparks, like The Incline Club in Lakewood, NJ, Skatebarn West in Seattle, WA or ASSIR Empire Skate Building in Montreux, Switzerland are known of having organized a series of big scooter events. In 2007, scooters were featured in a big action sports event, the Australian Planet X Games. Even though the actual competition didn't happen due to some technical issues with the ramp, thousands of people enjoyed seeing riders pushing the limits during the exhibition session.
Throughout the years after the scooter boom people who stuck with freestyle riding often didn't have anyone else to ride with, so they searched online for communities of riders to socialize with. Often a message board would pop up, and suddenly die as the owner abandoned it. Then a new forum would be created, and eventually it would die out too. This went on and on until January 2003, when Andrew Broussard of Vista, CA, created the Scooter Resource. "SR", as it is commonly known to its users, has lasted through the years and is ever growing. Older users often complain about the "n00bs", or newbies, on the site who don't read the rules and search to find answers to their questions. SR has become the one and only place to view the latest and greatest scooter videos. The Scooter Resource started off as "a forum of 14 year-olds fighting" and has turned into the only scooter community of its kind.
[edit] Park
Park riding is the most common form of scooter riding. Kick scooters, due to their construction, can utilize practically all of the possible skatepark structures, from little funboxes, to rails, to huge boxjumps. A skatepark is the best place for the riders to learn new tricks, to practice for competitions and to meet with other riders. While a considerable amount of especially young riders enjoys doing 'flyout' tricks and pushing their trick level constantly, others enjoy more of a 'flowy' style, based on how BMX riders use the park. Park riding is especially popular with scooter riders from California and the East Coast area, due to the big variety and amount of skateparks available there. Street riders often look upon parks as a place to learn tricks to then take it to the street.
[edit] Street
Street riding is another popular form of riding a scooter. Anything in the street can be used as a riding obstacle; the most typical ones are stairs, ledges, handrails and gaps of all kinds. Street riding is about creativity in using the urban environment to ride. Most scooter riders enjoy riding it to some extent, but only a handful of them declare themselves as the ones focusing strictly on riding street (some of them being riders with no skatepark access, who have no other possibility to ride scooters). This is because big street tricks tend do be more dangerous and require more physical condition and commitment.
[edit] Flatland
Riding on flat surfaces is yet another form of scootering enjoyed by its riders. Flat usually consists of long combos involving tricks like 180s, fakies, tailwhips, barspins, and scooter fakies, although tricks like triple tailwhips and briflips can be done on flat too. Some riders even do tricks mirroring BMX-style flatland, which mainly is spinning inverted pogos. Flat riding is riding in the purest form; it is simply you and your scooter, nothing else. It is enjoyed by riders who don't have a local skatepark, or hardly any street spots. Many riders practice flatland riding in their driveways, which contributes to its popularity. Flat is widely considered to be the most technical kind of riding.
[edit] Tricks
Air Tricks
Bunnyhop/ollie/J-Hop- The most basic trick. Done by jumping up, achieving "air".
Tailwhips- Up to six, this trick is done by kicking the deck out and rotating it in a complete 360 degree rotation using the wrists.
180, 360, 540, 720, 900, etc.- A spin of the body and the scooter.
Barspin- Rotating the handlebars 360 degrees. A technical trick that can be implemented with other tricks into "combos", or combinations.
Turndown- A stylish maneuver in which the rider pushes the deck out to the side, and turns the bars down and over to the side. Can be done straight-legged or bow-legged.
Lookback- A variation of the Turndown, done by "looking back" rather than "turning down", to make the scooter deck horizontal while turning the bars. Can be done straight-legged or bow-legged.
Tabletop- Pushing the bars downward and pulling the deck up so that the scooter is horizontal, resembling a flat table.
Unturndown- A variation of the Turndown where the rider pushes the deck outward and pulls the bars to the side, but does not turn them down.
Invert- A difficult and stylish maneuver, the scooter is turned upside down, similar to a table and unturndown.
Fingerwhip- Doing a No-footer, and reaching down the smack the deck into a tailwhip motion. Can be done with multiple whips before and after.
Nosegrab- Reaching down and grabbing the front wheel.
Indy- Grabbing the deck between your feet on your frontside with your frontside hand.
Tailgrab- Grabbing the back wheel.
Benihana- Grabbing the back wheel with your frontside hand while you backside hand is still on the handlebars, and extending the back leg below the deck.
Method- Grabbing the backside edge of the deck between your feet with your frontside hand.
Indy Nosebone- Indy, but with back leg bent so that the rider is in a forward-facing sitting position over the tail, and the scooter pointed slightly upward.
Tobaggan- Sitting position one the deck and turning the bars 90 degrees.
No Hander- Removing the hands from the handlebars.
No Footer- Removing the feet from the deck.
Stalefish- Similar to Method, but with your knees bent toward the tail and your hand stretched toward the front.
Madonna- grabbing the tail with your frontside hand and extending your back leg behind you.
Judo- same as Madonna, but with your back leg extended in front of you.
Mute- similar to Indy, but grabbing behind your back foot.
"Scooterfakie"- turning the deck 180 degrees, keeping one foot on, so you are rolling with the deck in front of you. Can also be done in fakie.
"Feeble"- sliding or stalling an object so that the back half of the deck is off the object and the front wheel is rolling parallel to the ledge.
"Scooterflip"- Taking one hand off the scooter in order to spin it vertically 360 degrees.
"Bri-flip"- Turning the bars 90 degrees sideways to spin the scooter vertically 360 degrees without removing a hand.
"Superman Deck Grab"- Straightening the legs out behind you and grabbing the deck high in front of you.
[edit] Equipment and scooter modification
Most of the scooters used in this sport are typical lightweight aluminum scooters. However, to withstand the harsh riding conditions, certain modifications are performed to reinforce the scooter:
[edit] Locked folding mechanism
The folding mechanism of the scooter is disassembled, then the necktube is bolted to the deck using only three bolts or screws.
[edit] Bolted bars
The foldable handlebar design is highly inconvenient for freestyle scooter riders. That's why those who can't afford switching to aftermarket bars, drill through and bolt the stock bars to stop them from moving and to get rid of the clamp that can cause some pain when a knee is hit onto it when landing. Sometimes, a longer pipe is used instead of the original handlebars to provide a more comfortable grip for the ones preferring a bigger size. This pipe is often taken from a trolley, or shopping cart.
[edit] Deck reinforcements
Stock decks are very prone to breaking after hard landings. To avoid this, they are reinforced with steel or aluminum flat bars or square pipes.
[edit] Aftermarket parts
Due to the scooter's technical similarity to other riding gear, scooter riders can utilize some of the non-scooter specific products to tune up their rides. This involves rollerblade speed skating metal-core wheels, skateboard bearings and griptapes and bicycle handle grips and headsets. There are also scooter specific upgrades available such as custom forks and one-piece handlebars. There are also Buff Bars sold at www.scooterresource.com which are very legitimate 3 piece bars which are easily replaceable and very good looking.
[edit] External links
- Scooter Resource – The biggest online scooter community.
- TrotiTube - A French scooter video-oriented website.
