Nomenclature of the RipStik

He really wanted a RipStik, a friend had one and he had learned to ride the board last spring. Thus a final shopping item on the trip home was a RipStik. As an instructor I know that a good portion of mastering any field, be the field economics, physcis, or castor boarding, is learning the vocabulary, the language of that field.

While trying to pull the nose of the board into the air, he would invariably fall. I asked him what he was trying to do and he said, "A manual." He then explained a manual and a "nose manual."

The word seemed odd, he was I felt trying to do a "wheelie." I figured the local neighborhood kids on this remote island must have either developed their own odd language or have mixed up terms they might have heard.

To my surprise, my son was using exactly the correct term. Now I wanted to know how the "trick" became known as a manual. I realized that RipStiks and Wave Boards were probably borrowing the language of skate boarding. This hunch would lead to the etymology of the term. The trick was originally performed on an elevated, flat pad that had the name "manual pad."

The manual pad was an obstacle and the term originally applied only to wheelies done over an obstacle. A manual pad was typically elevated by 30 to 45 centimeters. Over time the presence of the obstacle was lost as a necessary ingredient, so the wheelie maneuver is now known as a "manual."

Pohnpei is the most remote of locations, hard to imagine how the correct terms seeped through to this location. One question lingers for me, why is the elevated pad called a "manual pad"?


Post-script:
"Manual: A balancing trick involving rolling across an obstacle on the back wheels only. The name 'manual' is now often used by skaters when they are doing wheelies - the same trick, but on flat ground. Technically, it's only a manual when done across an obstacle (for example, a manual pad) but this has been largely forgotten - not something that particularly bothers me, because the distinction is meaningless and I prefer the name manual myself, especially when you think about the differences between a manual and wheelie in BMX riding. " - Skateboarding tricks beginning with M

A manual pad is a flat table like surface raised 15 to 30 centimeters above ground level on which tricks were performed. A good friend noted that, "A manual pad is a type of printer that has a flat table like surface. The printing is done manually." - JS. Hence the source of the term!