Did you know Indy is home to the nation’s largest fingerboarding storefront?
🛹 The shop
Owner Levine Cunningham opened a headquarters for the United States Fingerboarding League at 4005 Madison Ave. in October of last year + it’s one of only five fingerboarding shops in the country.
Levine says there’s a huge community for fingerboarding in Indy and he hopes to make it more mainstream by hosting events and creating a league + ranking system.
Everything in the store is handmade, including Blackriver parks, which are made in Germany from scratch. It’s the largest fingerboarding company in the world — what Levine describes as the “Nike of the fingerboarding world.” The entire front half of the shop is packed with these parks, which are rare to find in the US.
It’s free to come in to look at the merchandise, and for those who are stoked to stick some sick tricks, there are $10 day passes + a $40 monthly membership to use the 30+ parks in the shop.
🛹 The sport
We know you have questions. Here’s what we know about the sport:
Some say the sport was made popular by skateboarder Lance Mountain, who presented it to the world in his video “Future Primitive” in 1985.
There is no average age range for fingerboarders at United States Fingerboarding League — Levine said he sees “kids from five to six that are actually pretty good and then grown adults with full tats… they look like bikers and they’re in here having a blast.”
Much like normal skateboarding, sponsors are also involved with fingerboarding, making it a lucrative sport, in addition to a community-building activity.
Fun fact: In skateboarding, there’s a move called the “Indy grab.” Though we can’t verify that it’s named after our fair city, we dare you to test it out on one of the United States Fingerboarding League’s parks.
