Powerpasses are sequences of interrupted around 0.5 variations. Often abbreviated to 'PP', they also refer to the individual arounds within the sequence, and they are not composed of passes despite the name. Of the many that exist, the most common ones and fit into two groups: backhand and palm. There is no consensus on what distinguishes a powerpass from a tap, but one may make the case that powerpasses necessitate the changing of slots while taps do not, as well as that taps may be finger-pushed or moved by wrist motion while powerpasses are only finger-pushed. Regardless, there is significant overlap.

The standard powerpass is palm up and backhand and moves towards the pinky rotating counterclockwise as the motion is generated by sequentially curling fingers.

History

The first variant to be found was palm powerpass, which was commonly done by JEB mx spinners, although it remained unnamed. Afterwards, Gollumsk8 did part of a backhand powerpass in a video, but not the whole trick. In 2008, Jamie Enns was able to do the following sequence:

palm powerpass normal > backhand powerpass normal

He then gave the name powerpass to the whole trick. In 2010, he uploaded this trick x2 to his YouTube channel, which popularized the trick.

In 2010, Fel2Fram uploaded a tutorial to the FPSB Youtube channel, titled “Powerpass”, in which he did just the backhand part. Within the video, he specified “Powerpass (upper part)”, but this was the start of a new meaning of the name. 5 months later, he uploaded “The 8 main powerpasses” to his main youtube channel, in which 4 backhand and 4 palm variations were done and named for the first time. Around this time, Supawit was also practicing the trick, and released the tutorial of the switch spread. Jamie Enns, when asked about this change, answered:

“My naming scheme never worked out. Its crazy anyone calls anything a powerpass 7 years after I first said it. Between supawit and fel2fram the name got mixed up. BUT thats not what it’s about! It’s about trying things that haven’t been done before and sharing with the community your discoveries and ideas!”

It is known that Fel2Fram had found 128 variations in total by applying different combinations of modifiers. However, many of them weren’t physically possible, and many uninteresting, thus the main 8 as his focus. However, in 2017, Leftfinger uploaded a video called “Powerpass Show” where the concept of a powerpass itself is deconstructed and many new variations are shown. In 2020, Beck uploaded a video called “Overlapping powerpasses”, popularizing a variant that Leftfinger had shown on his video.

Main Variations

Backhand

For these variations the pen spins around the backhand side of the finger. Mirrored powerpass reverse is commonly used in conjunction with spider spins to create continuous fingerless linkages.

Palm

Commonly and incorrectly denoted with the inverse modifier, the pen spins around the palm side of the finger for each around.

Sub Variations

Thumb-assisted

Created by Taeko, these variations uses the thumb in aiding the push motion for each around within the powerpass.

Knuckle

This variations involves a push using the distal interphalangeal joint for each around push while simultaneously having the pen spinning on top of the knuckles for the entire powerpass. It was first done by Ponkotu, which then later become popularised by Menowa* then being further expanded upon by Allwars.

Still

These variations involve an around 0.5 done continuously without interrupting the trick with another around on a different finger.

This trick was first created and named by Fire@fox as cont powerpass, but for some time the trick remained unused. It was first used within a combo by Van, three years later. He described it as 2 fingered inverse T-pass 23 but, together with other UPSB shoutbox members, finally named the trick dual pass. After being used by smile in 2012 and Sutomo in WT13 the trick became way more popular.

Overlapping

A variation in which two variations of powerpasses are done at the same time, thus adding 0.5 extra revolution to each individual parts. They were popularised by Beck and first done by Leftfinger.

Switch

A loose term describing any powerpass and spread minicombo.

Tutorials

References

RPD Book