Fingerboard (skateboard)

A fingerboard is a scaled-down replica of a skateboard or snowboard that a person works with the fingers instead of the feet. A typical one is about 96 millimetres long and 26 to 36 millimetres wide, with printed graphics, trucks and small plastic wheels, and it can be used to perform the same tricks as a real skateboard, such as an ollie or a kickflip. Fingerboards began in the late 1960s as homemade finger toys and later became keychain novelties in skate shops, and the idea reached skaters through a 1985 Powell-Peralta video in which Lance Mountain rode a homemade one. By 1999 the hobby was popular in Europe, Asia and the United States, with contests and fairs, and modern boards use pressed wooden decks, metal trucks and urethane wheels. Skaters also use them to plan tricks, and competitive riders now take part in events such as the Fast Fingers championship in Germany.