- published: 27 Aug 2013
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The ollie is a skateboarding trick where the rider and board leap into the air without the use of the rider's hands. Particularly on flat ground, it is not intuitively obvious how the liftoff is achieved, making the trick visually striking.
The ollie is a fundamental trick in street skateboarding, and is used to leap onto, over, or off of obstacles, or over gaps of unfriendly terrain such as grass or stairs. As so many other tricks depend on it - for example the kickflip and heelflip - the ollie is often the first trick to be learned by a new skateboarder. The ollie typically takes considerable practice to learn.
In 1976, Alan Gelfand, nicknamed "Ollie", while skateboarding in pools and bowls learned to perform no-handed aerials using a gentle raising of the nose and scooping motion to keep the board with the feet.
In 1982, while competing in the Rusty Harris contest in Whittier, California, Rodney Mullen debuted an ollie on flat ground, which he had adapted from Gelfand's vertical version by combing the motions of some of his existing tricks. Notably, Mullen used a "see-saw" motion, striking the tail of the board on the ground to lift the nose, and using the front foot to level the board in mid-air. While Mullen was not initially impressed with his flat ground ollie, and did not formally name it, he realized it opened up a second, elevated plane on which to perform tricks.
A sphere to run to, a place to deploy yourself
Boundless in bliss
Shut down the day and enter the Neverland
Free admission
Yeah be the one, the McClane who saves the day
Undefeated
Boneless you're streaming
Fear awaits in darkened places, sanity at stake
Futile to try to escape, the story ends when you awake
But on the other hand a place where you lose control
Unprotected
You try to strike a match but it always breaks in two
Try in vain and
You want to use a phone but no numbers come to mind
Flee and wake up
Boneless you're streaming
Unbridled dreaming
Abandon all reason for good
Feeling so lost inside
Boneless nightmare
Awake