What is a Smith Grind?

Series Summary

Skateboarding is an extremely popular sport that combines athleticism and artistic creativity. Skateboarding tricks are the crown jewels of skateboarding and the Smith Grind is one such skateboarding trick that adds to enjoyment and unique quality of the sport. The Smith Grind combines a board slide and a grind and is a great skateboarding trick for intermediate and advanced skaters. If you would like to learn how to do the Smith Grind you can learn for free from an expert skateboarder.

In this free video series of skateboarding trick instructions and tips learn how to do the Smith Grind from skateboarding expert Shawn Connolly. Shawn will give you free skateboarding trick tips such as what skateboarding tricks to learn before attempting the Smith Grind, and common mistakes made when doing a Smith Grind. Shawn will demonstrate how to do a Smith Grind, a Front Side Smith Grind 180 Out, and a Fakie Smith Stall to help you learn how to do a Smith Grind.

Video Transcript

"The front side smith grind. The front side smith grind is a cool trick because it started out on vert and on pools and on ramps first. What the skater does is, rides up the transition and goes into grind and a board slide on one side of the board at the same time, and then comes back in. Now the modern street style maneuver is exactly the same, except now you ollie up onto the ledge above it, land in the smith grind, and then pop off, land, and roll away. So, what you do for a smith grind is you put all your weight on just your back truck. The front foot is almost just hovering there, keeping the foot and the board in the steady down position, and then you pop out at the end. What's cool about smith grinds is that since your wheels are below the edge of the top of the ledge, you're able to actually get a lot of pop to get you out of the smith grind. So it can be a pretty stylish trick to do, because you can get in, grind, and then actually pop out cleanly and roll away. So this the front side smith grinds."