As a skater in the mid - late '70s, very few "tricks" had been invented yet.
As the late '70s turned into the early '80s, there was an explosion of new "tricks" being invented - it was an amazing time of massive progression in skateboarding.
Many of today's street tricks were actually invented on vert and in pools and then applied to street.
Layback - a Layback is when you put your trailing hand down.
But the style of the day was "surf style" - the same maneuvers being done in the water by the surf pros were emulated and duplicated on concrete waves.
The legendary Dogtown dudes, (Z-Boys, original members of the Zephyr skate team) were surfers first and skaters second.
So, they'd emulate their favorite pro surfers.
One of the biggest and earliest influences was Larry Bertlemann.
His low-slung, hand-on-wave, roundhouse cutbacks were powerful and graceful at the same time.
Encyclopedia Of Surfing - Larry Bertlemann
So the Dogtowners were big on doing "Berts" - short for Bertlemann.
You can clearly see the resemblance in these two shots.
"Kickturn Bert" - a bert is where you put your leading hand down.
Vertical Bert - This is one of my favorite shots from back in the day - I learned these by starting low and working my way higher and higher until I could do them as a grinding bert.
These pics show a variety of surf-inspired moves from back in the day.
Most of these involve a fast roundhouse turn - kind of like a power slide - that screetches the wheels and makes everyone in a skatepark turn and look.
Grinding Layback
Extended Layback
I still like doing these, even today. (at 57)
The low-slung nature of the move makes them fun to do - when you can pull them off.
Backside Bert
