What Types of Skateboarding Are There?

Vintage Skateboarding
What Types of Skateboarding Are There?. Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

There are PILES of types of skateboarding, and new types always seem to be popping up. Here's a list:

  • Slalom (as in down a slope, weaving between obstacles, sometimes standing and sometimes not!)
  • Downhill (usually on a longboard, the bigger the better, if you want to live!)
  • Freestyle (graceful dancing with a skateboard, usually to music. This style is mostly dead, but it's where Rodney Mullen started, and why his style is so amazing and unique)
  • Street (skateboarding on streets, sidewalks, in parking lots, plazas, any flat terrain, usually mixed in with hand rails, stairs, etc. Sometimes also called "flatland" skateboarding, but flatland can have no stairs, rails, etc.)
  • Vert (short for "vertical" skateboarding. Vert skateboarding is on large ramps, most commonly in humongous "half pipe" vert ramps made of wood)
  • Pool (just like in the movie Lords of Dogtown, this is draining a swimming pool and skateboarding in it)
  • Park (as in, in a skate park. Skate park skateboarding is sort of a mix between pool, street and a little bit of vert)
  • Cruising (this is usually done with longboards. Cruising is riding a skateboarding from place A to place B, or just skateboarding out in the world for the sake of skateboarding, without thinking about tricks or flying down hills)
  • Off Road (also called "dirtboarding", this is riding a large board with huge wheels, and your feet are usually strapped in, like on a snowboard. This type of skateboarding is both very very fun, and a great way to get hurt really bad!)

There are plenty of other styles, but this is a pretty solid list. And with the way skateboarding is always evolving, there will always be new styles!