A lot of times when a pro does a nosegrind on a round rail, it looks like an overcrook, and there are arguments in the comments. Just look at Elijah Berle’s recent nosegrind:
herrreinsch
If that’s a Nosegrind, a BS Crook is also a Nosegrind.
cheefdubz_
Sls not knowing what an overkrook is is crazy
redefiled
Frontside overcook of the year.
joedrinksbeer
Back foot went OVER the rail, truck is pinched and board is CROOKed. Almost like this trick has a different name.
Why the discrepancy? Let’s talk about that, and stay tuned for some exceptions.
It comes down to wheel locks, and I don’t mean the kind that keeps people from stealing the rims on your fancy car. Grinding right down the the middle of the truck is possible, but really hard, especially if your trucks are even a little bit loose – you’d have to be dead centered. So skaters use heel locks, toe locks, or cross locks for a 50-50, where one truck is going one way, and the other is going the opposite. That helps you lock in to the grind.
So what about nosegrinds? A toe lock is going to start to push you a little bit backside, like a front crook. You see it this way sometimes, but grinding it out blind isn’t doing you any favors. That’s why nobody denies backside overcrooks. It makes the trick harder, so it’s obviously and clearly intentional.
A heel lock is going to push you a little frontside when the truck turns, letting you see ahead a bit easier. But what’s the difference between a heel locked nosegrind and a pinched crook? Not all that much. Let’s look back at Elijah’s.
Through the grind on both the bail and the make, you can tell that his weight is centered, and the angle of the board moves around a little bit. On the bail, the board comes out completely straight, and it’s not pinched the whole time.
Of course, sometimes actual regular crooked grinds drop their pinch, but nobody is happy about it. See Torey Pudwill’s: https://www.instagram.com/p/DB_0NpZyk6C/
So if a mild pinch and turning a little frontside isn’t enough, what would it take to do an actual frontside overcrook? Here are a few examples, in order of legitimacy. I don’t think anyone will deny the third one. I’ll be doing this in Session so I can come up with the best examples.
First, exaggerated on a rail. Instead of locking in heelside and turning a bit frontside as you go, a real front overcrook would lock directly in as a crook. The wheel is fully pinched and sliding. The bar here is a lot higher than it would be backside for the reasons we talked about, but if it was really exaggerated and obviously on purpose, it would be hard to deny. If a backside overcrook has to be between 30-100% tweaked to count, a frontside one needs to go all the way.
Second, a ledge. You don’t need to do wheel locks on ledges, so intentionally tweaking the board frontside, toward the direction of a noseblunt, isn’t helping you out. It’s obviously on purpose, with the intention of making it harder. I’ve seen a few of these from back in the late ‘80s, but nobody really does this anymore. It’s really hard to lock in because you have to pinch the heel side, and the board isn’t going to want to stay in place. So this one is basically a technicality.
Third, a double-sided ledge. Let’s take a second to talk about the overcrook name. Back in the day, magazines would caption tricks a lot like ‘ollie over to backside tailslide’, which is the only thing you could call it if you approach frontside, but slide like a back tail. A front blunt has to be on the wheels.
So take that, but do an frontside ollie over to back crook, and it’s a frontside overcrook. When video games came out, things that could have been described in a phrase, like ‘ollie over to crook’ had to be simplified: “Ollie + Overcrook.” But 30 years later, that’s just how we talk now.
So that’s the reason pros are hesitant to ever say ‘frontside overcrook,’ even though I do think they’re technically possible. Do you agree? Let me know below.