About // onbolts.com since 2008
BUILT IT ONCE.
BUILDING IT
AGAIN.
In 2008 I hand wrote a Bulgarian skateboarding site called onbolts.com. Trick guides, foot placement diagrams, common mistakes, a forum. This is the same site, rebuilt with everything I could not do alone the first time.
I was usually the only one at the park
I grew up skating in a small Bulgarian town. Most days I was the only person there. Sometimes a friend came along, sometimes it was a couple of kids still learning to push, and mostly it was me, a board, and no real idea how any of it worked.
There was no YouTube worth the name, and nothing at all in Bulgarian. The clearest picture most of us had of what a trick even looked like came from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
So I started writing the site I wanted to read.
onbolts.com, 2008
I wrote every guide by hand and taught myself web design doing it. That site is the reason I have spent the last two decades building websites for a living.
It ran for four years and four redesigns. It had a guide section, a gallery, a chat room, a games page and a shop directory. The homepage advised that the site looked best at 1280x1024 in Opera 9. There was a MySpace.
The forum opened in April 2008. In the database I still have, saved in May 2009, it holds 12,382 posts across 987 topics from 314 registered skaters, most of them from towns like mine, posting whatever they had landed that week.
I designed this database in 2008 and did not know it
This is the kickflip guide as it stood in 2008. Every labelled region on it is a table in the app you are reading now.
Prerequisite edges in the skill tree
Foot placement diagrams, plus force, direction and weight on every step
Common mistakes, each with a cause and a fix
Tutorial videos, credited to their creators
Trick variations and related tricks
I did not have a database. I had a folder of HTML files and a lot of patience. The structure was already there, it just could not grow.
The old site inside the new one
42 guides went up on the old site. 21 of them are tricks that still have a page here. Everything else in the catalog came afterwards.
beginner
- Caveman
- Coffin
- Drop In
- Fakie Manual
- Hippie Jump
- Kickturn
- Manual
- No Comply
- Ollie, from guide-ollie.html
- Power Slide
- 50-50 Grind
- Backside 180, from guide-backside-180.html
- Body Varial, from guide-body-varial.html
- Boneless
- Fakie Nose Manual
- Fakie Ollie
- Frontside 180, from guide-frontside-180.html
- Nose Manual
- Pop Shove-it, from guide-pop-shove-it.html
- Rock to Fakie
- Fakie 50-50 Grind
- Fakie Backside 180
- Rock n Roll
intermediate
- Acid Drop
- Fakie 360 Shove-it, from guide-fakie-360-shove-it.html
- Fakie Lipslide
- Fakie Pressure Flip
- Fakie Tailslide
- Fakie Underflip
- Nollie Manual
- Switch Ollie
- Axle Stall
- Boardslide
- Frontside Shove-it, from guide-frontside-shove-it.html
- Heelflip, from guide-heelflip.html
- Indy Grab, from guide-indy-grab.html
- Kickflip, from guide-kickflip.html
- Manual 180 Out
- Method Air
- Nollie
- Nollie Nose Manual
- Noseslide
- One Foot Ollie, from guide-one-foot-ollie.html
- Switch Shove-it
- Tailgrab
- Tailslide
- 360 Shove-it
- 5-0 Grind
- Fakie Boardslide
- Fakie Heelflip
- Fakie Kickflip
- Fakie Noseslide
- Fakie Shove-it
- Half Cab
- Kickflip Backside 180
- Lipslide
- Nollie 50-50 Grind
- Nollie Backside 180
- Nollie Frontside 180
- Nollie Kickflip
- Nollie Shove-it
- Nosegrind
- Pressure Flip
- Stalefish
- Underflip, from guide-underflip.html
- Varial Heelflip, from guide-varial-heelflip.html
- Varial Kickflip, from guide-varial-kickflip.html
- Disaster
- Fakie 5-0 Grind
- Fakie Frontside Shove-it
- Fakie Kickflip Backside 180
- Fakie Nosegrind
- Fakie Varial Kickflip
- Fakie Varial Heelflip
advanced
- Fakie 360 Hardflip
- Fakie Backside Pressure Flip
- Fakie Big Spin, from guide-fakie-big-spin.html
- Fakie Double Heelflip
- Fakie Double Kickflip
- Fakie Double Varial Kickflip
- Fakie Feeble Grind
- Fakie Frontside 360
- Fakie Frontside 360 Shove-it
- Fakie Frontside Big Spin
- Fakie Heelflip Backside 180
- Fakie Heelflip Frontside 180
- Fakie Impossible
- Fakie Inward Heelflip
- Fakie Kickflip Frontside 180
- Fakie Kickflip Underflip
- Fakie Nosebluntslide
- Fakie Overcrook Grind
- Fakie Salad Grind
- Fakie Smith Grind
- Fakie Suski Grind
- Fakie Triple Kickflip
- Fakie Varial Kickflip 180
- Fingerflip
- Nollie 360 Hardflip
- Nollie 360 Shove-it
- Nollie Backside 360
- Nollie Backside Pressure Flip
- Nollie Big Spin
- Nollie Double Heelflip
- Nollie Double Kickflip
- Nollie Double Varial Kickflip
- Nollie Feeble Grind
- Nollie Frontside 360
- Nollie Frontside 360 Shove-it
- Nollie Frontside Big Spin
- Nollie Heelflip Backside 180
- Nollie Heelflip Frontside 180
- Nollie Impossible
- Nollie Inward Heelflip
- Nollie Kickflip Frontside 180
- Nollie Kickflip Underflip
- Nollie Lipslide
- Nollie Nosebluntslide
- Nollie Overcrook Grind
- Nollie Pressure Flip
- Nollie Salad Grind
- Nollie Smith Grind
- Nollie Suski Grind
- Nollie Tailslide
- Nollie Triple Kickflip
- Nollie Underflip
- Nollie Varial Kickflip 180
- Primo Slide
- Switch 360 Hardflip
- Switch 360 Shove-it
- Switch Backside 360
- Switch Backside Pressure Flip
- Switch Big Spin
- Switch Double Heelflip
- Switch Double Kickflip
- Switch Double Varial Kickflip
- Switch Feeble Grind
- Switch Frontside 360
- Switch Frontside 360 Shove-it
- Switch Frontside Big Spin
- Switch Heelflip Backside 180
- Switch Heelflip Frontside 180
- Switch Impossible
- Switch Inward Heelflip
- Switch Kickflip Frontside 180
- Switch Kickflip Underflip
- Switch Lipslide
- Switch Manual
- Switch Nosebluntslide
- Switch Overcrook Grind
- Switch Pressure Flip
- Switch Salad Grind
- Switch Smith Grind
- Switch Suski Grind
- Switch Tailslide
- Switch Triple Kickflip
- Switch Underflip
- Switch Varial Kickflip 180
- Fakie 540 Big Spin
- Fakie Bigspin Impossible
- Impossible, from guide-impossible.html
- Nollie 540 Big Spin
- Nollie Bigspin Impossible
- One Wheel Manual
- Switch 50-50 Grind
- Switch 540 Big Spin
- Switch Backside 180
- Switch Bigspin Impossible
- Switch Boardslide
- Switch Frontside 180
- Switch Heelflip, from guide-switch-heelflip.html
- Switch Nose Manual
- Switch Noseslide
- Backside 360
- Bluntslide
- Cab
- Casper Flip
- Crail Slide
- Double Heelflip
- Double Kickflip
- Fakie Bigger Spin
- Frontside 360
- Frontside 360 Shove-it
- Hardflip, from guide-hardflip.html
- Heelflip Backside 180
- Heelflip Frontside 180
- Hospital Flip
- Invert
- Inward Heelflip, from guide-inward-heelflip.html
- Japan Air
- Kickflip Frontside 180, from guide-kickflip-frontside-180.html
- Kickflip Underflip
- McTwist
- Nollie Bigger Spin
- Nollie Boardslide
- Nollie Heelflip
- Nollie Noseslide
- Nose Manual Flip Out
- Switch 5-0 Grind
- Switch Bigger Spin
- Switch Bluntslide
- Switch Frontside Shove-it
- Switch Kickflip
- Switch Nosegrind
- Tre Flip, from guide-tre-flip.html
- 360 Hardflip
- Backside Lipslide
- Backside Pressure Flip
- Big Spin
- Crooked Grind
- Darkslide
- Dolphin Flip
- Double Varial Kickflip
- Fakie Bluntslide
- Fakie Tre Flip
- Feeble Grind
- Forward Flip
- Frontside Big Spin
- Ghetto Bird
- Laser Flip
- Nollie 5-0 Grind
- Nollie Bluntslide
- Nollie Frontside Shove-it
- Nollie Kickflip Backside 180
- Nollie Nosegrind
- Nollie Tre Flip
- Nollie Varial Kickflip
- Nosebluntslide
- Salad Grind
- Smith Grind
- Suski Grind
- Switch Crooked Grind
- Switch Hardflip
- Switch Kickflip Backside 180
- Switch Tre Flip
- Switch Varial Heelflip
- Switch Varial Kickflip
- Triple Kickflip
- Varial Kickflip 180
- 540 Big Spin
- Bigspin Impossible
- Fakie Crooked Grind
- Fakie Hardflip
- Fakie Laser Flip
- Gazelle Spin
- Nollie Crooked Grind
- Nollie Hardflip
- Nollie Laser Flip
- Nollie Varial Heelflip
- Overcrook Grind
- Switch Laser Flip
- Bigger Spin
Eighteen years, then two months
The concept was never the missing piece. The framework was already on the old site: how one trick depends on the trick before it, what a guide needs on it, why the mistakes deserve as much room as the steps.
What I did not have was time. I grew up, took a job, and spent two decades building websites for other people, because that is the part that pays. A catalog this size needed years of evenings I was never going to find.
So the thing that changed is not the idea. It is that I finally had help. This version was built in about two months.
Read what already exists
For every trick I gather the tutorials worth watching and read them against each other. Coaches contradict each other constantly on foot position and timing. The guide gets written from where they agree, and the places they disagree get said out loud instead of flattened into one confident answer.
Write the mechanics, not the feel
Most trick tips describe a sensation, which only helps if you already have it. These describe where your weight sits, which direction the force goes and how the board answers, so every common mistake has a cause attached to it and a fix that follows from the cause.
Connect it to everything else
A kickflip is an ollie with a flick, so the ollie is a prerequisite, and that becomes an edge on the skill tree. Every trick is checked against what it depends on and what it unlocks. Those links are what turn a list of tricks into a map you can navigate.
The volume is machine work. The judgment is mine, and everything here gets checked by someone who skates.
What is here now
Every trick connected to its prerequisites, the whole map at once.
A 3D simulator, starting with the ollie, kickflip and pop shove-it.
Log what you practiced and watch it add up over weeks.
Share a clip of a trick and get eyes on it.
Who is building it
Martin Bonov. I skate, I design, and I have been making websites since the one that started all of this. Onbolts is my project, and right now it is mostly me, the way it was mostly me in 2008.
How it stays free
Onbolts does not make money and there is no plan for it to. No ads, no paywall, no premium tier holding the useful part hostage. I run it because I want it to exist, and I will keep running it for as long as it stays something I can afford.
If that ever changes, it will be said here first.
Build it with me
I will take any idea, any correction, any suggestion. If a trick is wrong, tell me and I will fix it. If a trick is missing, send it over.
And if this sounds worth your time, there is room on it. Skaters who can check the tutorials, people who can film, anyone who can write or design or code. There is no money in it, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What there is, is a project that will still be here in twenty years.