Nobody worried about cushioned high-impact socks or heavy-duty shoes with reinforced toes for better gripping at Summer Slam, which was held August 9th at Flyway Memphis.
These athletes were using their bare index and middle fingers to propel the three-and-a-half-inch or so “fingerboards” on miniature ramps.
“It’s basically miniature skateboarding,” says fingerboarder Henry Marrs, 15. It’s all about finger placement. “It’s like ballet or learning how to sing. You learn different positions and tweak your voice or feet.”
Placing your fingers on different parts of the fingerboards “helps you learn new tricks.”
“There are big pockets of the fingerboard community on the West Coast and on the East Coast [and] throughout the country,” says Flyway Memphis owner Schuyler O’Brien. “But we realized the last couple of years there’s a big community here.”
They plan to hold more fingerboard events about every two months.
“It’s just a very cool little hobby.”
