Terminology

Grabbing the board’s toe edge between the bindings with the front hand is a Mute grab. But why ‘Mute’? Well, a deaf skater called Chris Weddle was one of the first skaters to execute this trick and, so legend has it, Alan Losi’s father saw Chris pulling the trick at The Ranch Pro/Am contest in 1981 and called the trick ‘mute’ as Chris was quiet and has speech difficulties due to his deafness. Yeah, perhaps not the most thoughtful thing in the world (Chris was lucky not to have been beaten and napalmed for being different) but nevertheless the name stuck.

According to the centre of disinformation, Google.com, the Slob was first invented by Blair Watson. This is basically a Mute grab on the frontside wall or in a frontside spin. Bone the tail. Maybe the dude was fat and messy, I dunno.

An air where you grab the heel edge with your front hand and pull the board up, arching your back. The name ‘Method’ was coined by skateboarder Neil Blender, who described this grab as a method for achieving higher airs.

Front hand grabs the nose of the board. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Pushing down the tail with your back leg usually makes this trick a hell of a lot easier.

Back hand on the tail. Mmm, tail. Poke out the nose, and it’ll be easier to reach the tail. No-one said some of this wasn’t as obvious as a sock on a man’s nose.

Its uncertain origin, as well as the misuse of its name, can best be described by the email sent by my colleague, English editor Tom Copsey. "I couldn't find out where Indy got its name. Scalp mentioned it was something to do with (in skateboarding) the way you went round in the air coming out of the vert ramp looking like how the cars go round the Indy 500 car race thingy. I dunno. Though remember, an Indy can only be done on the backside wall of the pipe. On the frontside wall it's just a frontside air. So an Indy really is only a backside trick but snowboarding has bastardised the language (like the Americans did to the Queen's English) as to mean grabbing with the back hand between the bindings for spins and shit. Though trick Nazis will still slaughter innocents who call a frontside air in the snowboard halfpipe a frontside Indy... Tata. Tom."

This trick is done with your back hand between your bindings on your toe edge. Usually boning out the nose.

A Sad plant or Sad air was any one in which involved grabbing with the front hand on the heel side behind the front foot and boning out the front leg. When street skaters worked out how to do an ollie to sad air, they ingeniously dubbed it a Melanchollie (melancholy = sad, thus ollie to sad air, geddit?) Over time and with the inevitable bastardisation of skate lingo by its younger, mountain-based brother, any backside grab became a shortened version of Melanchollie – Melon – though really these should have the front leg boned out to truly be entitled to the name.

Grabbing the heel edge with your front hand (just like a melon) whilst airing frontside. Invented by Neil Blender who, when asked how he did them, replied that you have to lean into it. As it’s kinda a backside air but all funny and backwards and shit, and was invented by Blender, and sounds the same as lean, it is now spelt L.I.E.N. – ‘Neil’ backwards.

In 1985, Hawk, Mullen and Mountain were on a skate summer camp in Stockholm, Sweden, when Tony started trying a new grab: backhand, heel edge with the arm around the back leg. To quote from Occupation: Skateboarder: “At the time, almost every grab was done and defined. The only way that hadn’t was to grab with your back hand around your back leg and between you