The Half Pipe What if you're not like the rest of the kids, and don't like skateboarding on some boring old side walk? Well there's a different type of skateboarding that you can try, and it's called vert ( verticle) skateboarding. A half pipe is a cylinder that has been cut into two, that is used for the potential kinetic energy trade off. Using gravity to get the initial kinetic because of the law of conservation of energy the skater can drop in and get energy. By pumping (pushing down ), the user can use inertia to gain extra momentum, thus gaining speed.