Chris Daniels

Jan 19, 2023

The History of Fingerboarding Part 2

The hobby was in full bloom and seemed destined for immense growth with all this coverage in popular culture.

Then, in 2013, the growth stopped. Did YouTube change its algorithm to affect the viralness of fingerboard videos? Were the big fingerboarders of the day aging out of the hobby to focus on their life? Or was it simply that fingerboarding just lost its steam?

We saw the resilience of the scene with new fingerboard companies launching exceedingly more professional products. These products continued to push the boundaries of professionalism.

For example, in 2010, your options for trucks for a professional setup consisted of Tech Deck, Tech Deck knock offs, Blackriver Trucks and Yellowood Trucks. By 2022, that list can be expanded to include Dynamic Trucks, Vortex, UAG, Caramel, among others.

Miniaturism, the art of replicating real life scenes, began to influence the creation of fingerboard obstacles, further integrating fingerboarding into its skateboarding roots.

The previous platform of choice, YouTube, was still around, albeit in a different capacity. YouTube became the channel of choice for medium to long form fingerboard content. We saw the growth of the fingerboard vLogger on YouTube. These content creators create engaging fingerboard related content that resonates with their viewers. Traditional fingerboard videos typically focused on tricks, fingerboard events or unboxings. But now, these individuals realized that you could also create entertaining videos. These personalities broadened awareness surrounding fingerboarding, and made content that resonated to the masses. Fingerboarding’s reach has never been larger.

/r/Fingerboards became the main sub-reddit devoted to fingerboarding. Here, you can see pictures, videos, links and text from other fingerboarders in a style vaguely similar to a message board.

Fingerboard Underground became the prominent fingerboard-related server on Discord. Discord combined the best of both internet chatrooms and VoIP clients, and allowed users to communicate to each other over voice, video and text.

Fingerboarding was featured in an Episode of Post Radical, a Vice produced tv show. Skateboarding legend Rick McCrank hangs out with Martin Ehrenberger and Martin Winkler and explores the world of fingerboarding and the whole culture surrounding the hobby.
In January 2022, Wired featured Mike Schneider in their episode of Obsessed titled “How this Guy Mastered Fingerboarding”. With over 2.5m views in 8 months, it is clear that fingerboarding resonates with popular culture.

It can be said that the very heart of the fingerboard scene exists in meetups. We saw fingerboarders continue to build their local scene, by hosting meetups and events. We’ve even scene the Southern California scene grow to rival the scenes of New England, USA and Germany. Sorry for Fingerboarding was able to get fingerboarding exposed to mainstream skateboarding in partnering with legendary skateboard media content producer “the Berrics”.

Some scenes even got to the point where both permanent brick-and-mortar stores were created. While there were skateboard shops that had fingerboard parks to sesh and items for sale, there were only a handful of dedicated fingerboard shops. This included the first Fingaspeak Store located in Austria (which closed), ASI Berlin (Formerly the Blackriver Store) and PoP Factory, the first dedicated fingerboard store in the USA. As fingerboarding’s popularity began to ramp back up, we saw new storefronts emerge. Axe Ramps, in London, Playhouse, Slushcult, and Socal G8 Sessions in Southern California, USA FBLs storefront in Indianapolis and 6skates in Toronto. These store fronts become the center for an entire fingerboarding community. Fingerboarders can Not only come to purchase new products, but also sesh with their friends. The shop also introduces fingerboarding to the world as a polished, professional, and established hobby.

We even saw the first Professional Fingerboard League established in 2022, the USA FBL. Which held events all over the United States, with events in locations incl Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tustin and Montebello, Ca, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Dallas, Minneapolis and Indianapolis. We’ve scene brands like Grandfingers in Poland create incorporate into skate/scootering camps, and communities such as Pappanjari in Indonesia build communities up.

We even saw the world championship for fingerboarding, Fast Fingers, return for the first time in years. While in a different format, Fast Fingers Online allowed fingerboarders across the globe to compete by submitting their best four trick outdoor line to a panel of judges. The final judging was livestreamed to the world with exceptional professionalism.

2022 was proof that fingerboarding has never shined brighter.