Skateboarding World Records

Danny Wainwright from England holds the official record for the highest ollie at 44.5 inches. However, there is video footage of a skater named Jose Marabotto from Peru ollying a stack of skateboards. Many people think that the stack should be over 50 inches tall, but as the trick is only in a video, it's hard to tell and unofficial.

Danny Way holds several world records in skateboarding. He invented the Mega Ramp, a massive skateboarding ramp first seen in the DC Video. In that video, Danny Way breaks the records for longest jump and highest air off of a ramp. Then, in the 2004 X Games, at the Big Air competition that uses a similar Mega Ramp, Danny Way broke his own record for distance and set the current record of 79 feet. The height record is 23.5 feet. In 2005, Danny Way used a similar ramp again to jump the Great Wall of China and became the first person to jump the wall without the help of a motor (read more)!

What about the longest distance covered on a skateboard in a 24 hour period? Sound rough? It is! In 2008, Ted McDonald, also known as "Barefoot Ted", skated his way to fame by covering a record 242 miles in a 24 hour period during Ultraskate IV in Seattle, Washington.

I cannot even comprehend skating that far in a week, let alone in one day. The previous record was held by James Peters for 208 miles.

In 1977 at the Long Beach World Championships, Russ Howell set the world record for consistent 360 spins on a skateboard. He spun around 163 times. I can't imagine staying conscious after that many spins ...

A true "old school" skater, Russ Howell began skateboarding back in 1958. He has competed and won several contests, including the main event at the 1975 Del Mar Contest (seen in the Lords of Dogtown movie).

Gary Hardwick first set the official record for the fastest on a skateboard on September 26th, 1998 during a race in Arizona. His top speed was 63 miles per hour. Later, he reached 73 miles per hour, but that report is unofficial.

Kevin Reimer holds the top unofficial speed on a skateboard that I'm aware of, at almost 80 miles per hour! Kevin's speed was clocked using a GPS. He had no assistance from vehicles, he just pushed and got rolling to that speed (going downhill, no doubt!).

Biker Sherlock has the record for the fastest speed while being towed by a motorcycle - 90 miles per hour.

Tony Hawk still holds the record for the most rotations while in mid air. At the 1999 X Games, Tony Hawk pulled off a 900 - that's spinning 900 degrees, or 2 and a half times. Since then, many other skaters have pulled off the 900, but no one has done a 1080 yet in competition, though many skaters are trying hard to break this record.

On September 17th, 2007, Rob Dyrdek pulled off 46 consecutive frontside ollies in a half pipe, setting the record. The feat was on MTV's show Rob & Big, a show about pro skater Rob Dyrdek, his best friend and bodyguard, Christopher “Big Black” Boykin, their bulldog Meaty, and their mini-horse “Mini”.

On April 6, Danny Way destroyed the Bomb Drop (jumping off a structure on a skateboard and freefalling onto a landing) world record by freefalling 28 feet from the Fender Stratocaster guitar atop the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, landing cleanly on a ramp below. Before this, the record was 12’ 3.6” held by Adil Dyani.

In 1996, Todd Swank (TumYeto and Foundation Skateboards owner) became the first record holder for the Worlds Largest Skateboard. He built a skateboard that was 10ft Long, 4' Wide and 3' high. It weighed 500 pounds, and used all kinds of parts that looked great, but didn't look like skateboard parts (like tires from a sports car!).

Rob Dyrdek took the world record for the largest most realistic skateboard in 2009. Rob’s board is 38′-6″ long and 5′-6″ tall. This board is an exact replica of a Rob Dyrdek Skateboard complete with Silver Trucks, Alien Workshop / CA Skateparks graphics, grip tape and all the nuts and bolts. His skateboard was featured in the first season of his hit show, "Fantasy Factory".

Russ Howell holds the Guinness World Handstand record at 2 minutes. In a conversation with a skater on Silverfish Longboarding, Howell said, "It was [dissapointing] for me when I set the record. At that time, I was doing handstands down long hills at speed (40mpg+) which lasted several minutes. When I arrived at the Guinness site, all that we were allowed was a small 30' x 30' asphalt area. All I could do was to kick into a handstand while the board remained motionless. That's much more difficult than when the board is moving. I held the static handstand for two minutes and to the best of my knowledge, that time has never been challenged; too bad because it would be easy for someone else to break the record if given a larger area."