The History of Fingerboarding | Part 1 1960s-2013
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2022
- Hey #fingerboarders! I decided to compile as much of my knowledge of #fingerboard history into one video. It's difficult for me to include everything, mainly due to the fact that I had little to no interaction with the European fingerboard scene in the early 2000's. Hopefully, some of the old fingerboarders like Martin Winkler, Afrobi and Manu Oberle can help me out and make a sequel video from the Europe point of view!
When did fingerboarding start? I know I've asked that question in the past.
#fingerboarding as a hobby had its origin most likely in the 1960s and 1970s. Skateboarders would remove the keychain from a miniature skateboard keychain and ride them with their fingers. While no one knows for certain who first started to perform tricks on the boards, we can imagine that there were people who removed the keychain from the board and used the mini-skateboard as a fingerboard. Fingerboarders quickly realized they could mimic skateboarding and perform fingerboard tricks!
In the early days of fingerboarding, a fingerboard could be a skateboard keychain with the chain removed, could be a piece of plexiglass or cardboard with toy car axles glued on, and could even be built from wood using popsicle sticks with hot wheel axles glued on.
As you can imagine, the early days of fingerboarding required ingenuity, creativity, and a passion for skateboarding.
Later on, as the scene began to build, we start seeing some epic meetups happen, where people from other countries and continents began to make pilgrimages to Germany and Massachusetts for fingerboarding. Let me know if you've enjoyed this video on fingerboarding history. There will be more videos to come! - Zábava
Thank you for watching part 1! I stopped in 2013, since I took a hiatus from the fingerboard scene during that time. Once I reach out to a handful of people and craft a story, part 2 (2013 - Now) will come!
You know I broke my ankle, leg, and foot in 2013 from skateboarding causing me to jump fully into fingerboarding. So I find it very interesting you’ll be making a part 2 from 2013-present day
@@corzlyte I'll need some help lol I took a hiatus from 2013-2015!
@@cdplaya I could help just a bit from my own experience, I joined insta roughly around then and totally missed the FFI days lol. I’ll hit you up on Instagram and tell you what I saw from 2013-2015
I can't wait for Part 2!
CONGRATS ON THE CZcams FB SHOWCASE!
It's so interesting how you mention 2013 being the year when FBs popularity started to die down, that was also around the time when I stopped being a part of the community too (only for now to return back to it at full strength).
Very good job putting this together, I'm looking forward to part 2! I've been able to catch up on quite a lot of what I missed, but I'm sure I'll be learning a lot just as I did with this video!
Yeah its funny, I'm not sure what caused it. I took a hiatus in 2013 for personal reasons (career lol), but had nothing to do with anything that was related to the hobby!
@@cdplaya same thing here in a way, life just got in the way! COVID slowed things back down and I'd say it was what made me curious to check back in. Seeing the scene be as healthy as it is made me very happy
This was just magic to watch. I didn't know about any of the earlier fingerboard stuff, I cant wait for part two
Thank you Rory! You were a major part of fingerboard history too 😁
Thank you Chris for bringing this up. I’ve been fingerboarding since 2010 and am still passionate about it. However the falling popularity and increasing inconsistency of it makes me sad. Hope some day in the future we can say that fingerboarding is back again and we could bring all the people together from around the world into one big community.
And if you need anything that can help with the project, feel free to reach out to me as well.
Let’s make fingerboarding great again!
1986, i was fingerboarding, took the keychain off, but the wheels were terrible, so i used to carve out 80s shaped boards out of perspex, heat up the tail and bend it, then i'd skate them without wheels, ollies etc.. i just realised i did this with zero knowlege or even seeing anyone else doing this.. ah the days before internet when we used our imagination! :). this started a small craze at school, my evenings were busy making these for people, i changed schools at 13 and got thrown out of my very first biology lesson for bending perspex over the bunsen burner. :)
I'm so damn happy to have found your channel - there's so much to catch up on:
At first I rejected fingerboarding when the fad hit my school because all I could see at first had been kids who couldn't have had been further from skateboard culture playing with a toy
meant to pretend instead of doing the actual thing - and I didn't even actually skate yet at this point. It rather reminded me of earlier fads like yoyos or tamagotchies which I had fallen for myself.
Fingerboarding came up again some time after the initial fad had run out in the early 2000's - meanwhile I had picked up skateboarding, online shopping was a thing now and one day a friend of mine also into skating half jockingly announced that he would order us a set of 3 fingerboards (graphic variants "Coca Cola", "Fanta" and "Sprite") for 3 or 4€ at Amazon, more ironically than anything at first.
And then it hit us - suddenly we couldn't stop ourselves playing around with these boards constantly.
And we had to purchase another of these cheap ass sets constantly because their trucks' tendency to utterly disintegrate.
Eventually we surrendered and bought techdecks instead which at least extended the time until inevitable disintegration and started to actually look into fingerboarding rather than just purchasing a cheap knock-off and making our own thing - and here we finally realized there was a full fingerboarding culture thoroughly rooted in skateboarding, and of course there waere _Berlin Wood_ decks offered at a skateshop nearby, real wooden ply-decks for fingerboarding and a discovery which totally blew our minds.
I almost immidiatly got my first wooden deck, obviously a _Berlin Wood_ as well (not that there had been many alternatives at this time), including this riptape stuff they just had introduced, and it demonstrated how much there was to improve about a fingerboard.
Because the Berlin Wood was just slightly wider than a techdeck I settled for a set of trucks I took from a techdeck oldschool edition because they matched perfectly in width and I didn't have the budget to spend on the freshly introduced BR trucks back then - but I considered _Winkler Wheels_ a worthwhile investion and never regretted the decision.
I skated this setup until it was shorter than a techdeck somehow and because _Berlin Wood_ had diversified I eventually gave it away (something I indeed regret today) and replaced it with a new "deep concave" deck.
This was this for a time - life went on and somewhere along the way I must have lost my board.
But somewhere on this way I learned about the _ASI Berlin_ fingerboard shop and one day I couldn't deal with the nostalgia any longer and got me a new setup there.
Unfortunatly I ended up using it only occasionally for quite some time - until I stumbled across it while cleaning up some weeks ago and wondered if I could do a kickflip first try..
Now I'm hooked again just like I had been as a teenager, but I also realized certain shortcomings with my setup and new options I would have preferred available now so I purchased a legitimate new setup in 34mm and with pro trucks this time 3 days ago, and a rail on top I'm shredding while watching your content!
Thanks for all the amazing info and greetings from Berlin!
Love hearing about your background with fingerboarding! It's such a great hobby and so much fun whether by yourself or with friends 😀 The ASI Berlin shop is so epic - do you stop in there for sessions at all?
Love this so much!!! As someone that has only been in the “scene” for the past year I love learning about all the stuff I missed out on!! Makes me sad but still love learning about it!! Thank u man!!
Of course! I am fortunate that I was tech savvy at my age back then! It helped me stick with the hobby :)
BEAUTIFUL no one else should have mad this but you!!! I’m so happy you’ve made this omg
Thank you, Eusi! Much appreciated especially coming from you. Lovin' the vids you pump out!
a much needed documentation. learned new tidbits that paint a clearer picture. thanks for putting it all together for the community!
You're welcome! There's so much more that I couldn't put into this video. I will be making a bunch more history videos in the future 😁
I remember like 97-98, fingerboard blew up at my summer camp. They were plastic keychains sold at Val Surf. For a couple extra bucks, they'd snip off the chain and glue on grip tape.
Man do I miss the 90s. I still have fingerboards and play with them daily on setups I make myself or scrounge from the scrap pile of a granite and marble business.
Great video. I began skateboarding along with fingerboarding in the year 2000. Your video brought back many memories. Greetings from Nicaragua. Can't wait to see the second part.
Hey Chris, I really enjoyed the history video as I have always been curious about how fingerboarding started and it’s early days. I have never seen any other video like this one and I’m sure it will grow in popularity. I’ve been fingerboarding for about 2 years now, and it’s by far my favorite hobby right now.
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm working on the Part 2 right now hopefully I can get it finished before the end of the month :) I'll be making a lot more history related videos in the future so stay tuned!
Ok!
I freaking love this!!
Thank you! I enjoy watching your unboxing videos, especially the history mystery ones!
i have been waiting for someone to make a video like this!
CANT WAIT FOR PART 2 CHRIS! Nice video!
Fantastic Chris! Can't wait for part 2!
This story gives me goosebumps, can't wait for the next part chris!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Amazing creator! Your documentation is amazing! learning so much!
I have a finger board I made in 1989 or earlier.. I made it out of 3 ply plastic moulded in my fire place (a filed ruler part for middle and margerine tub for the others glued together).. its still awesome and still has the graphics on the bottom as has clear plastic cover/underrail... has lego wheels stuck to it (wiuthout the tyre filled with old blue tac).. the date is still on my board. Its the old style of board too, not the double ended board. I used this at school.. of course this one was the best :)
Yo!!! Would love to see it!!
this is a fantastic video dude super high quality for such a small channel. its crazy that i was looking for a video just like this when i got back into fingerboarding like 3 months ago. i cant wait for a part 2
Thank you! 😁 Working on putting the proper storyline together for part 2, but hopefully it won't take too long!
This was probably a super tough video to make. So much stuff happened in that time. I interviewed a lot of people from the early days and was myself part of the german szene from 2001 to 2007. So I know how hard it must be to condense all of that into a 13 minute youtube video. It's also a problem that nobody wrote shit down, other than in forums that got turned off decades ago. But great job!
Yea, there is just so much that happened and I cut out so many parts. Love the Switchcraft podcast, it is such a good way to share fingerboard's history!
Love this stuff Chris!
So sick!
Great work Chris! Can't wait for more!
Thank you! Will work on Part 2 as soon as I can!
Beautiful video chris! Thanks for being back!🔥❤️
Thank you, Stolly! Much love!
Very well presented, thank you for the history!
Thank you!
Definitely an underrated channel.
Great job brotha cant wait for part 2 -littleskateboards
Great video! Really brought the story together. 🙏
I'm a little bit late to watch this but damn, this did not disappoint! You have such a great presentation style, a huge wealth of knowledge and deserve a lot of credit and respect for being a true veteran of this hobby who really knows his stuff. I can't wait for part 2 and I really hope you make future informative documentary videos even after that!
Thank you, Xi! I plan to make more for sure!
Awesome video!
Great video watching now brother! Loving the consistent content! 😎🖖❤️ this is truly great
Thank you Enoch! Much ❤️❤️
Fingerboard is our connection 🤗🤗🤗
It is! It's the best hobby too!
Very informational, I lived this video. I'm definitely gonna share it to my friends 🔥🔥
Thank you! Part two will come out soon so be sure to stay tuned... Appreciate the support!
Yo!!!! Darin Langhorst here from Fingers of Fury. I watched both parts last night - a lot of effort went into finding all of the clips and info. Everything rings true for my experiences from 1987 onward which is when I got into skateboard culture which introduced me to the fingerboard keychain fingerboards, then built our own, then Tech Decks, etc. It's been a hilarious 3.5 decades for me. Thanks again for putting a video like this together so people can see the evolution of things!!
Wow, Darin! I watched Fingers of Fury so many times because of your part. Do you still fingerboard? If so, I'd love to send over a fingerboard!
@@cdplaya Sure do. Work and kids gave me less "free" time for a few years but covid was a great motivator for indoor hobbies. I'm building a sick wooden streetstyle park right now and working on another fingerboard related project. Hopefully Fingers of Fury isn't the last time people see me bust a move. Message me and we can figure out a board.
I signed up for Instragram so I could message you - check that account instead.
@@Langhorstiness Awesome! Just followed you and will send a message shortly :)
@@Langhorstiness I just found out about your promodel with Broadcast... The graphic looks amazing! About to scoop one up :) I'll connect with you on Insta about a board!
This is crazy. I never knew fingerboarding had so much culture . I remember putting my whole middleschool on to it. At the time,I believe McDonald's had fingerboards in their happy meals. I was the kid known for skateboarding and fingerboarding at school so ppl would always ask me to bring them a fingerboard. I used to hand out the McDonald's fingerboards lol . Those were terrible,but back then ,any fingerboard was..cool .
The McDonald's fingerboards we're awesome 😎 I used them a lot! I don't have any those fingerboards left but I do have the McDonald's stairset
RZF/FFI OG! This was a great watch, Chris!
Yo Josh!! Hope all is well! Glad you enjoyed the video 😁
@@cdplaya Much love. Glad you took the time and energy to make it so in depth. The pre CZcams days using free hosting sites if you didn’t have access to a server. If it was a free site you run the bandwidth out and repeat on new accounts editing the post with the newest active link. 🤣 Those were some days….
@@joshtoy sign up, upload, share... rinse and repeat! Things are so easy now!
This is an awesome project Chris! Really has a Jon Bois feel to the production, I'm glad someone took the time to make such a well-thought out video. I miss the old FFI heydey, it was so fun to be a part of what felt like a truly underground community
Thank you! Really appreciate the comment :) I miss the old forum-based community days for sure. While I do think fingerboarding is in an amazing spot right now, we are missing that online community aspect that Instagram fails to fill. Discord is a relatively close feel to the forums though!
This dudes German pronunciations are spot on, usually Americans are awful but spot on! Brought back some really fond memories watching this. I used to have some "sponsorships" for finger boarding back in the day.
finally a good doc on the history of fb so sick man
Thank you! After I finish Part 2, I will most likely make a full combined version with even more details around the early days 😁
man i got my first tech deck around 2009ish but didnt get really into it till about 2013 because of the disney motion fb tutorials. I remember going on FBHQ around that time but forums at that point were dying out, after that I found Gavin McLeod on youtube who I learned about the ig scene from and I been following fairly closely ever since.
I miss the days when id hit the play ground and literally no joke everyone was playing with tech decks that was elementary school we played with them everyday and once i got to high school thats when i learned how to actually use one good i could kickflip all kinds of shit i got so good that no idy wanted to play skate no more it was like a curse once i got good i lost all my friends
Those plastic McDonald’s boards were my first experience of fingerboarding, then I stopped and found tech decks in high school then quit for years and now I’ve been using the proper gear for a couple years, if only I kept doing it I’d be amazing by now😂
0:07 love the voice crack
love the vids bro, we need to meet up at the outpost for a sesh!
6.62k subs keep it up btw new subscriber here 🙂
🔥🔥🔥
RZF is where I became a man after the great techdeck messageboard heist with Nick Allen
Same fam - I grew my first nut hairs while on RZF lol
the heelflip the “dad” did in the mcd commercial!??
This was great! I started around 2007 and started falling out around 2012/13. This was a great time in my life.. I recently found my collection (og berlinwood shapes, prete, morningwood, lowpro, no comply etc.) and started messing around with it again.. I missed it so much. If you want to get a kick watch the videos on my Channel, very cringy for me to watch now haha
I'll check it out! Yea, that time between 2007-2013 was magical for me, personally. You have quite the collection!! :) The fingerboarding scene now is amazing in its own right!
So we all really lived the same life lol. I started around the same time. I recently found my old flatface g12 with some black river trucks and winklers. I remember the OG CloseUp complete with the insane concave back when 29mm was considered wide.
I remember my first fingerboard was a plastic keychain i bought from ccs skate catalog. It was probably a couple of years before tech deck came out. They even started to sell mini ramps and fun boxes in their catalog. I wish i still had it.
hi man , plis, make a video of history of Tech Deck !
My first fingerboard was a Santa Cruz 1998. They were very flat and had little concave, a few waves in and they had the board design that lasted. A friend at the time also have me a load of Hud New York fingerboards but weak friends stole them and i got rid of the collection anyway, would love to see those hud new york fingerboards again tho. 10 yrs ago after a 6 year break i got a tech deck again and Recently got a pro board with bearings from china, it's been awesome
I had a Ron Whaley Santa Cruz from that time too! Yeah there was almost no concave at all during those early boards. I think gen 3 is when Tech Deck introduced steeper concave... Which would be late '99 although a collector could verify this!
@@cdplaya cool we had the same brand boards first, I can't find an image of the one I had. Just remembered a toy machine one I had too which I'm unsure if the concave was there or not but it would of been an early edition. Was just browsing and saw some Tony hawk Pro skater edition tech decks which I'd never seen and they look awesome in package. I can add that those clear plastic keyring boards in around 2000-03 could be found in dollar store type places and would sometimes come with wax so the board can stick to the fingers and kids could Ollie without any real practice
Wicked
Great video! And I really want to know what do you think about my oldest idea and concept about "I.D Fingerskate"in Daily motion ( The First video platform, did you remember it?)
I can do my tricks in both worlds but I never recording a massive video or something, let me know if this works or sucks!
Thank you for your history job and cheers from Colombia
Omg, I just watched it... So good! The tricks you do with an ID card are insane!
cool
can you please do some product reviews? especially for lower priced products for us lesser folk, thank you
I found my grandmas old key chain finger board and took the key chain off and put two pieces of grip tape on it
This was very beautiful. It was a nice experience watching this and learning about the history of what I love to death.
Thank you! Much ♥️!
How do people remember the dates like this!? I can't even remember what day it is half the time >.
I had to triple check everything! I remember the early dates (1998-2005) really well... Things blend together after that haha
Shout out flux pavilion last 10 seconds of vid lol
Eyyy
Brasill!!!!🚀🚀🇧🇷🎯🎯💫
What's the name of the video at 11:40!? Core memory unlocked Alexis something right??
Opus 0 by Alexis Milant!
@cdplaya omfg yes!!!! Tha k you so much for these videos. So many memories and good times flooding back.
I NEED HELP. around 2010 there was a british CZcams fingerboarder who was sponsored by winkler wheels and i believe also BRR. his videos were top notch. i believe one of his main videos was to a song by the fray. i have been searching for him for so long but cant remember his name and cant find any videos of his on youtube! anybody remember who im talking about?!
🇮🇩🇮🇩✌️
Video @11:37?
Opus 0 by Alexis Milant :) Can be found on CZcams!
today the fingerboard can be more expensive than the skateboard
Cool video, but those skateboard keychains u showed images of are from the 80s, not 60s
Yeah, couldn't find a picture of one from that period
Cool video man had no idea fingerboarding had this much history ❤️
Glad you enjoyed it!
I subbed my boah
Thank you!