I only got into fingerboarding a few months ago, and I wanted to share a few things I've learned while practicing. A fingerboard isn't just a miniature toy — it's genuinely a discipline of its own. The only difference is that instead of using your feet like in skateboarding, you use two fingers to pull off the technical moves.
The first step is getting to know your board: put your middle finger on the tail and your index finger in the middle, then flick it back and forth to loosen up your hand and get a feel for the board. Only then should you move on to the most basic trick, the Ollie, since almost every harder trick builds on it.
The tip I found most helpful when practicing the Ollie: pop the board with your middle finger using just enough force, then quickly slide the board forward at the right moment to keep it under control. The key is to keep your wrist and fingers relaxed so they don't get tired. Everyone learns at a different pace, so don't get discouraged if your friend picks it up faster.
If you're planning to stick with it long-term, invest in a decent board with grip, and keep your practice table clean so dust doesn't get into the bearings. Play a little bit every day, and your fingers will get used to the board faster than you'd expect.
Source: Chic-DG Skateshop
To mark ten years of Radical Fingerboards, the Australian brand teamed up with Blackriver on a deck graphic called Kangaroo Country. I like that the team explains the thinking behind the design in such detail.
The starting point is the English word "Country". In Australia it means much more than a place. It refers to land, waters, stories, values and the responsibility for an ancestral area. Even the word kangaroo goes back to "gangurru", a word from the Guugu Yimidhirr language that was shared with James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour in 1770.
The graphic draws on the way many Aboriginal art traditions connect storytelling, animals, nature and land. The team stresses that Australia has many different communities with their own languages, laws and artistic styles, so there is no single look that represents them all. The design is therefore not meant to imitate the sacred stories or symbols of any particular group. Instead it is a broader tribute to the natural and cultural importance of the kangaroo, made with respect for Australia's First Peoples.
What stood out to me most is the closing thought: fingerboarding is a culture made of creativity, shared sessions and local scenes, not just the small object under your fingers. For Blackriver and Radical, the deck celebrates a decade and thanks the people who keep the Australian scene alive, one session at a time. According to the post, it should soon be available in the US shop.
Source: Blackriver Fingerboard Shop
Here is a small-town fingerboarding story I really enjoyed. Strathmore, Alberta hosted Fingers on Fire 3 on July 26, 2025, at the Kinsmen Park amphitheatre, starting at 11 a.m. It is free to attend, and competitors pay just $5 per event to help cover the medals.
The organizer, Brandon Kehler, started the event as a no-competition exhibition in its first year. In year two he got the USA Fingerboard League to sanction the contest, one of only two Canadian events it approved. His goal is to build a scene in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which had far less activity than Ontario or Vancouver. He skateboarded until injuries stopped him around age 25 and came back to boards through fingerboarding during COVID-19.
There are three contests: Game of SKATE, Best Trick, and Best Run on a street-style course. More than 20 fingerboard parks were expected, open to any builder whose park meets the safety and quality standards, and Kehler teased a special park from a builder who made a standout display the year before.
Last year drew 10 to 15 competitors per event, and he expected more thanks to growth in nearby Calgary. I like that this scene is being grown from scratch by one enthusiastic organizer.
Source: Strathmore Times
Radical Fingerboards, the Australian shop and brand, turned ten this year, and Blackriver marked the occasion with a collaboration deck graphic called Kangaroo Country. I like it when a brand explains the thinking behind a design instead of just dropping a product photo, and this write-up does exactly that.
The idea starts from the word "Country". In Australia it means much more than a place on a map. It can include land, waters, stories, values and the responsibilities tied to an ancestral area. Even the word kangaroo traces back to gangurru, a term the Guugu Yimidhirr people shared with James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour in 1770.
The artwork was shaped by the way many Aboriginal art traditions link storytelling, animals, nature and place. The team is careful to say that Australia is home to many different nations, each with its own languages, laws and art styles, so there is no single look that stands for all of them. The graphic is therefore not meant to copy or imitate the sacred stories or symbols of any one community. It is described as a broader nod to the kangaroo's natural and cultural importance, made with respect for Australia's First Peoples.
What I enjoyed most is the closing thought: fingerboarding is a culture built from creativity, shared sessions and local scenes, not just the little object under your fingers. For Blackriver and Radical the deck is both a ten-year celebration and a tribute to the people who keep the Australian scene going, one session and setup at a time. According to the post, it was due to arrive in the US shop soon.
Source: Blackriver Fingerboard Shop
Seeing fingerboarding in the pages of L'Équipe magazine is the kind of news that is welcome when you have followed this small scene for a while. Issue 2287, dated 5 to 11 August 2026, devotes five pages (48 to 52) to it under the title “Juste deux doigts” (“Just two fingers”).
The reportage was shot at the end of April 2026 at the Finger Skate Contest in Soorts-Hossegor, in the Landes. The text is by Nicolas Herbelot, the photos are by Christophe Berlet, and the cover photo is by Sébastien Leban.
The piece features several familiar figures in the scene: Renaud, aka Rusty Peio, one of the three people who run the Finger Board France account; Hector, a student from Bordeaux who makes three or four boards a week for his brand Die Trying; Lugh, 14, who came with a park he built with his own hands; and Bruno Gradel, who presented Sk8art mini-parks that each take between 40 and 60 hours of work.
The magazine also gives the floor to Damien Bernadet, presented as the French pioneer of the discipline, with 30 years of practice and the Close Up brand since 2007. The line the magazine highlights stuck with me: “Le fingerboard, c'est le piano des board cultures” (“Fingerboarding is the piano of board cultures”).
Personally, I like that the paper shows the craftspeople, the kids and the park builders alike. That is exactly what makes this community so rich. The brands mentioned (Close Up, Die Trying, Otter) are all listed in the French fingerboard brand guide on fingerboard.fr.
Source: fingerboard.fr
Year-in-review posts are usually dry, so Blackriver's Wrapped post made me smile right away. The team describes 2025 as "loud, in the best way" and backs that up with a handful of numbers that give a decent sense of how big the scene has become.
They built or released ten new deck graphics and seven ramps. One graphic is said to have sold out in 0.3 seconds, and three secret collaborations leaked before the team could even pretend they were secret. On top of that come nine new shops in the Blackriver family and nearly 100 supported events.
What I find more interesting than the stats is the tone. There are many kilometres driven in a van with gear that really shouldn't have fit, encounters with people who felt like old friends right away, and a whole wave of new fingerboarders pulled in by the community. In between are anecdotes like vanished wheels, lock nuts eaten by a vacuum cleaner, and Wi-Fi that always dropped at the worst possible moment.
In the end the team thanks the community: "chaotic, messy, sleep-deprived and somehow perfect", built by the fans and held together with stickers. The full review is supposed to follow later. For me the post is a nice reminder of how much happens in such a small niche when many people put their time into it.
Source: Blackriver Fingerboard Shop
In even years, the fingerboard world gathers in Germany. Fast Fingers 22, the 22nd edition of the world championship, took place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Schwarzenbach an der Saale, Bavaria.
The event is organized by Blackriver, which has run it since 1999. It takes place in person in even years and goes online in odd years. This edition was held at Blackriver's headquarters.
The program included a contest for the 2026 fingerboard world champion title, prize money for the podiums, open sessions, judged runs, and battles between pros, experienced riders and amateurs. Entry cost 50 euros for participants, and judges could also register.
The fingerboard.fr page even offers practical tips: the nearest airport is Nuremberg, about 2 hours by car, followed by Prague (2 h 30) and Munich (3 h 30). From Paris it takes about 10 hours by car, and 7 hours from Strasbourg.
I find it fascinating that a competition has kept the same format for more than a quarter century. For official information, the site points to fast-fingers.com and the Instagram accounts @fastfingers_22 and @blackriver_official.
Source: fingerboard.fr
I love stories where a hobby quietly turns into a neighborhood project, and this one from Los Angeles is a great example. In Atwater Village, near the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, there is a miniature skatepark built for fingerboards, sitting on the dirt barriers along the L.A. River. It has no street address, and according to LAist, nobody really knows who built the first version or exactly when.
The first tricks on its tiny ramps and rails started showing up on social media in March. Ryan Diaz, who now helps run the park's accounts, found the spot and began expanding it. It reportedly started at about six by six feet and has since grown to roughly 90 feet long, about four feet tall, with ramps, rails and plenty of painted details, including a big Dodger Blue "LA" and a shark mural nodding to Jaws.
What stood out to me is that it is not just a place to film clips. Saturdays are build days starting at 11 a.m., when Diaz and co-manager Gilbert Medrano show neighborhood kids how to pour concrete and shape new obstacles. Diaz hopes the city might one day recognize the park as a local landmark.
The visitors quoted in the piece make it even nicer. One longtime fingerboarder says it feels like real skateboarding, and another regular, who gave up skating after a serious injury, stops by every day after work because fingerboarding lets him land tricks without getting hurt.
Personally, I find it inspiring that a spot like this can pull in builders, kids and old skaters alike. If you are ever in Los Angeles, it sounds like a Saturday build day is the best time to visit. Have you seen a public fingerboard park near you? I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Source: LAist
Fast Fingers is the contest every fingerboarder seems to know, and Blackriver announced the 22nd edition in April for June 20, 2026 in Schwarzenbach, Germany. The pitch is simple: pros, newcomers, kids and old-timers at the same real tables, with prize money and the title of Fingerboard World Champion 2026 on the line.
The announcement lays out the format in detail, which I appreciated. Round 1 is a runs round with five heats of 20 riders and 45 seconds each. The top four from every heat advance, plus the ten best remaining scores. Round 2 is Best Trick: five tricks with one attempt each, and only the three highest scores count, which sends 12 riders on. Round 3 is one-minute runs, and the best six reach the final, where they play a Game of S.K.A.T.E. to decide the champion.
Visitors could buy tickets at the venue, with regular admission at 10 euros, a reduced price of 6 euros and family tickets starting at 12 euros. Doors were set to open at 10:00 and the contest to begin at 12:00, and riders and judges could register through the organizers' link page.
The history section is a nice read too. The first contest took place in 1999 at the Blackriver Skateshop, the event became a world championship in 2008, drew more than 800 visitors from 22 countries in 2019, and went online in 2022. From now on it alternates: a live event in even years and Fast Fingers Online in between.
Source: Blackriver Fingerboard Shop
A skate brand opening its store to fingerboarders is worth noting. On June 13, 2026, from 2 to 6 p.m., the Vans Store at Paris La Défense hosted the Vans Fingerboard Jam.
The event was organized by Vans together with two fingerboard brands: Close Up, a Parisian brand founded in 2006, and Otter. The program featured in-store sessions every 30 minutes, led by riders and designed for beginners as well as experienced players.
Riding on site was free for the whole event, with activities for all ages, whether you came with family or friends. A wheel also gave a chance to win exclusive prizes; the event page does not say what they were.
It was free. Online booking for session slots was recommended but not required: if the web slots were full, you could simply show up at the store.
What I like about this format is that it speaks first to people who have never touched a fingerboard. Since this discipline grows mostly through sessions among enthusiasts, opening the door to newcomers is a good idea.
Source: fingerboard.fr
Blackriver, the German fingerboard brand, posted its look back at 2025, and the numbers are fun to read. The team released 10 new deck graphics, built 7 ramps, and counted nearly 100 events they supported over the year.
They also say 9 new shops joined the family. One graphic reportedly sold out in 0.3 seconds, and three secret collaborations leaked before the team could keep them mysterious. A wave of first-time fingerboarders also joined the scene, which is the part I find most encouraging.
The tone of the post is playful: lost wheels, lock nuts sacrificed to the vacuum cleaner, Wi-Fi that always fails at the worst moment, and endless requests for just one more sticker. Behind the jokes you can see how much of the hobby runs on events, park building and community.
It is a brand blog, so take the figures as the team's own summary, but as a snapshot of how busy the fingerboard world was in 2025 it is a nice read. The post is dated April 2026.
Source: Blackriver Fingerboards Blog
