What is a Game of Skate?

A game of Skate is a game where one player sets a trick, and the other players have to do the trick, or they lose a life.

A game of Skate is most often played on the flat, but you can do it on other obstacles to mix things up, i.e. a mini-ramp, or kerb.

How many lives do you get?

You usually start with 5 lives. This is where the word SKATE comes into play. Each time you lose a life, you get a letter. i.e.

• the first life, you get the letter ‘S’,
• the second life, ‘K’

and so on, until you get to your last letter. On your last letter you get two attempts to make the trick.

Who goes first?

Usually you decide who goes first by playing Roshambo, or rock, paper, scissors. How do you play rock, paper, scissors?

How many players can play a game of skate?

Two players are the minimum to play a game of skate, but you can play with as many players as you want.

What are the rules?

Often there are rules about what tricks you can do, and what tricks you can’t

You can’t:

• put your feet down
• touch the ground with any part of your body

There’s also rules about how you do the trick:

• the toes shouldn’t touch the ground, but there is some leeway with this rule
• you can’t slide the wheels if your opponent pops their trick off the ground cleanly

The beauty of skateboarding is that you can be creative and do almost anything you want, however this often means that the range of tricks are too wide for competitive purposes. Unfortunately this means it rules out tricks like no-comply’s and bonelesses etc.

If you’re not in a competition, you can make up the rules of your game of Skate. You could have a game where you have to do a trick where you put your foot down for example.

Who is the winner?

The winner in the person who is left at the end of the game.

Why play a game of Skate?

• It makes you try harder to do the tricks you can do.
• It makes you try new tricks, and experiment.
• It is a great way of warming up.

Game of Skate competitions

Battle at the Berrics is the most famous game. Also known as BATB, it is a contest at Steve Berra’s skatepark in L.A. The format of this game is a knockout, i.e. only two players per game. The winner of the game progresses to the next round.

Check out this Andy Anderson game where he challenges the boundaries of the rules of the game.

Go check out London-based Jamie Griffin. Jamie is from Ireland and is BATB 2022 champ.