A Snakeboard, also known as streetboard, or pivotboard is a board that was invented in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

in 1989 by James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith. The concept was to fuse the original

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...

with elements of

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...

and

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable ...

to create a fun riding experience. The first prototype was constructed using two square wooden boards, an old

roller skate Roller skates, are shoes or bindings that fit onto shoes that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was an inline skate design, effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad ska ...

chopped in half, and a piece of plumbing pipe to join them together. Many variants were tried before manufacturing began. The first boards to be mass-produced were made from a strong plastic

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petr ...

known as Zytel ST801.

Performance

The rider of a snakeboard stands with one foot on each footplate (the feet are usually fixed to the board using bindings) and, by moving their feet in and out in conjunction with the shoulders and hips, is able to propel the board in any direction using only body weight. This transfer of energy is called nonholonomic locomotion. The board moves in a motion similar to that of a snake—hence the sport's original name of snakeboarding. The rider of a snakeboard can ride the board on almost any terrain (depending on the setup and model of board) and even propel himself uphill and perform extreme stunts similar to those done by skateboarders and snowboarders. Snakeboards allow riders to gain momentum without the need to push themselves with their feet like skateboarders.

History

Skatex International (Pty) Ltd is the name of the first company that manufactured boards of this kind and was the inventors' original company. Skatex International licensed Snakeboard USA to sell and distribute the boards in the United States; the sport rapidly became known as "snakeboarding". James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith jointly owned the patents and trademarks for the sport. In the late 1990s, the inventors licensed PMS (UK), a toy retailer, to manufacturer the "Sydewynder" under license. Over 50,000 Sydewynders were sold in the UK and Europe. The inventors then listed their company Snakeboard International AIM market, a division of the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. Later there was a reverse acquisition of Snakeboard International by a company called MV Sports. MV Sports eventually stopped manufacturing the Snakeboard. However, the sport survives today with more advanced boards and is becoming more widely known as

streetboarding A Snakeboard, also known as streetboard, or pivotboard is a board that was invented in South Africa in 1989 by James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith. The concept was to fuse the original skateboard with elements of snowboarding and s ...

. The remaining snakeboard patents expired in 2011. A snakeboard is self-propelled, and there is no need to touch a foot on the ground. Moreover, it is considerably easier to generate and maintain

momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass and ...

than on a skateboard. To perform a trick, one's feet must be strapped to the board, which makes it harder to "bail out" of a trick or dismount. Although the footstraps limit the amount a rider can manipulate the board, they also facilitate certain techniques. Much like a snowboarder, the rider can perform spins and

somersault A somersault (also ''flip'', ''heli'', and in gymnastics ''salto'') is an acrobatic exercise in which a person's body rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the head. A somersault can be performed forwards, backwards ...

s higher and farther than any skateboarder. At the same time, this means a faster learning curve. While a skateboarder will spend weeks learning the most basic manoeuvres, such as the

ollie Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver, Olive, Olympia, Olga or Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly and Olly. People Given name * Ollie Marie Adams (1925–1998), American gospel and R&B singer * Oll ...

, or jump, a streetboarder (snakeboarder) simply has to strap himself to the board and jump as he would without the board attached. Toe-hooks have been developed in more recent years as an alternative to straps for riders who are not performing complex tricks. These allow the rider to jump with the board but also enable the rider to dismount from the board or "bail" in the event of a fall as they are not strapped to the board.Some of the pro snakeboarder were Ashley Morgan (South Africa),Kelly Dean(USA) Marnie Raath(South Africa), the twins,Lucky(South Africa) Ingo from Germany to name just a few Pro snakeboaders that traveled the globe and all over South Africa and the U.S.A

Names

Snakeboard is the brand name created by the original inventors of the board and comes from its snake-like movement. The trademark for the term snakeboard expired in 2002. The term streetboard began to be used around that time and comes from the idea that it is a “snowboard for the streets”. The original patent for the snakeboard refers to the board as a “Pivoting Skateboard" and in recent years the more descriptive terms pivotboard and pivotskate have been used as a result. The term swingboard has also been used.

Original Snakeboard USA Models

* Competition * Browser / Stud * Pro * Stiffy * Skinner * Ashley

Gallery

File:Snakeboards Streetboards.jpg, Modern streetboard with bindings (foot straps) and a streetboarder in action. File:Snakeboard down.jpg File:Snakeboard Spluge.jpg

References