4PLY MAG

obstacle frequency

The chart above tracks the annual sums of obstacle types over the past 4 plus decades. The dashed linear trend lines show rates of increase or decrease.

Transition went from 80s domination to a steady release of 2 to 4 covers per year starting in the mid 90s. Meanwhile handrail skating trended upward from not existing to the prevailing cover staple it is today. Ledges and hubbas, once becoming a standard obstacle along with the popularity of street skating in the early 90s, has held steady through the eras.

Covers by Staircount

There are fewer yardsticks in skateboarding more readily quantifiable than counts of stairs. We took the time to count steps (and even estimate some equivalents) for handrails, big drops, and hubbas/out ledges. The chart below shows the high water marks for each year, plus linear trend lines.

With both handrails and gap tricks down stair sets there are clear apexes in the timeline. Jaw’s drop down the Lyon 25 and Steve Nesser’s 51-stair grind illustrate the maxing out of the stair count concept in terms of what is possible and what is interesting. Moderns stair counts, while still large, are usually accompanied by the additional challenge of a gap, curve, kink, drop, or other unexpected element. The days of adding a couple more stairs to get a cover are over.

Rails
The stair count for handrails plateaus around the start of the 2000's. That's how long ago people got tired of regular handrail skating. People traded out bigger rails for better rails and I guess it got harder to get a rail cover without a kink, curve, gap or drop. No one cares about a 15 rail anymore (But two 50's down two 9's is gangster). Felipe Nunes' cover is the only rail outlier noticably under the trendline, but he's lightyears above the trendline for people with no legs.

Stairs
Couldn't imagine a more understandable plateau. If people keep trying to skate bigger stairs there's going to be a point where the impact will give everyone flamingo knees like Jaws. I guess there aren't that many tricks that look good down stairs in a photo, so until some freak ollies a 30 I doubt we'll see much stair coverage.