What's In a Name?

Welcome back, all.

First order of business: broken ankle.
Yep, stepped out of  a backside 50-50 going entirely too fast last Wednesday, shattered and dislocated my left ankle. Got out of surgery today, and the prognosis was standard enough, though it may be another six months or so before I feel well enough to skate.

Yup, my foot was wrenched 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Never underestimate the speed of new metal coping...


Now then, enough about me, on to business.

It's  no secret, except maybe among snowboarders and kids who grew up with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, that grabs in skateboarding have different names depending on the direction in which they're rotate, and are therefore different maneuvers. In fact, this is such common knowledge that, you, the reader, are probably wondering why I'm wasting your all-to-precious time for the sake of telling you what ought to be a cardinal truth among skateboarders. Indeed, at this rate I'd be better off to say "Class Dismissed", pack up early, and let my pain meds sing me a chemically-induced lullaby.
Or would I?

I feel that the nomenclature of aerials is a very worthy topic, for a couple of reasons:

1) While I had mentioned earlier in this post that the proper nomenclature of grab tricks in skateboarding is, more or less, common knowledge among skateboarders, this is, sadly, not the case. That being said I feel obliged to rifle off the proper names of every grab maneuver, depending on whether or not it's performed spinning frontside or backside. Odds are you know the name of at least one of the two variations, and if not, feel free to leave a comment in which I'll specify the details of it.

• Frontside Air/Indy Air
• Benihanna/Benibongo
• Lein/Backside
• Lein to Tail/Body Jar
•  Lein Judo/ Judo
• Lein Method/Method
• Madonna/Frigid (not to tail), Sean Penn (to tail)
• Slob/Mute
• Slob Japan/Japan
• Stalefish/Backside Stalefish
• Tailgrab/ Backside Tailgrab

 This list happens to lead me to the reason I was inspired to write this article in the first place.

2)There is no proper name for certain aerial maneuvers. The two main perpetrators of this are, as mentioned on the above list, Backside Stalefish and Bakcside Tailgrab. Both of these tricks have been done frequently enough to warrant being given their own names separate from their frontside counterparts.

....Okay, so maybe Holmes doesn't need another trick named after himself....

Alright, I am willing to concede that there would be no sense in calling a Backside Tailgrab anything but. however I firmly stand by my claim that the Backside Stale needs a name all its own, and I've even gone to the trouble of choosing one.
This, oh loyal reader whom I am amazed is still reading this, brings me to the very reason I felt compelled to write this whole post in the first place.

This is Pedro Barros, one of, if not the hottest new vertical rider coming up. He's performing a Backside Stalefish. He does this trick at every contest I've seen him skate, and he makes it look ridiculously stylish. Anyone who has ever tried a stalefish will tell you that it's an awkward trick frontside, and yet here is young Mr. Barros performing the probably triply awkward backside variation consistently, and with the kind of ease that most people wish they had just pushing down the street....

.....Barr Air, anyone? I think the kid's earned it.