Physics of Skateboarding: The Hippie Jump

What is the Hippie Jump?

• The hippie jump is the most basic trick where the skateboarder jumps while the skateboard is constantly moving on a flat horizontal surface, then lands back on the skateboard itself.

How to do the Hippie Jump?

1. Skateboarder will have to push the board with one of their foot and ride the skateboard on a flat horizontal surface at a certain velocity.
2. Jump while riding the board, without exerting any forward or backward force on the board. To do so, the skateboarder will have to apply downwards force to be able to push themselves upwards which does not affect the forward velocity of the board and the skateboarder. Therefore the skateboarder has the same forward velocity in the air as the forward velocity of the board on the ground.
3. The board should be moving constantly under the skateboarder as the friction of the ground does not affect the velocity of the board much. This allows the skateboarder to land on the board due to gravity pulling the skateboarder down.

Above is a picture of how the Hippie Jump looks like. Skateboarders usually jumps over an obstacle to make the trick seems cool. The amount of downwards force for the skateboarder to jump and a lower center of mass by crouching will determine the height of the skateboarder's jump.

Sources used:

http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/physics-of-skateboarding.html

google pictures

by: A'