Lapper

A lapper is an old plastic accessory that’s still used in certain skating circles – most commonly in pool skating, I believe. It’s a plastic pad that fits under the truck but extends out on the kingpin end. It then bends and comes up, forming a plastic slope up and over the top of the kingpin. This means that the chance of getting your truck “hung up” (in other words, stuck) on coping or curbs is reduced drastically.

Laser Flip

A 360° varial heelflip – in other words, a fancy name for a 360° heelflip, the opposite of a 360° flip. Note that in a Laser Flip the varial rotation of the skateboard has to be frontside since otherwise it would be a 360° inward heelflip.

Late Flip

A general term for any flip trick or varial performed after ollying rather than as part of the ollie like with most flips. In order to do a late flip the skateboarder ollies very high and at the peak of his ollie will kick downwards or shove the board around with one, the other or both feet in order to accomplish some kind of late flip. Since either foot can replicate almost any other flip trick out there, a lot of late flip variants are possible.

Some common late flips are late front-foot kickflips, late back-foot heelflips and late shuvits.

Latte Flip

An ollie heelflip from a Cooper stand position.

Layback Slide

1. Generally, any grind or slide where one hand is trailing behind the skater on the coping, resulting in the skater literally “lying back”. There are numerous variations on the layback, including the grey slide. 2. A specific downhill slide, which is basically a Coleman slide with both hands on the road.

Lazer Flip

See laser flip. Yeah I’m English… deal with it.

Les Twist

Essentially a gaytwist with a melon grab.

Lien Air

A lien air was originally described as a “frontside backside grab”. As most backside grabs are now melon grabs instead, the lien air can be described more easily as a frontside melon grab on vert.

Lip Trick

Any trick performed on the lip of a suitable obstacle. Almost always refers to a stall on the coping of a half pipe or quarter pipe.

Lipslide

A slide on the middle of the skateboard where the board is roughly at right angles to the obstacle. In a lipslide the tail of the skateboard crosses the obstacle in order to start the trick.

See also the boardslide which is closely related to the lipslide.

Longboard

The name says it all – a long skateboard. How long the board can be is pretty much up to the manufacturer, and like “normal” boards, they come in all different shapes and sizes for different styles of riding. However, I’m not quite sure at what length a board becomes a longboard. Maybe there’s some official industry standard somewhere I’m not aware of?

Longboarder

Someone who rides a longboard.