SmashWiki:Article of the Week/2007-11

A wavedash is a technique in Melee that causes a character to slide along the ground without walking or running. It transfers the momentum of the air dodge into a spurt of ground-based movement. Like l-canceling and short hopping, wavedashing is considered an advanced technique, and one of the first techniques smashers learn when they train for tournaments.

In competitive play, Luigi and Ice Climbers players make heavy use of wavedashing as their primary movement, while users of nearly every other character wavedash frequently for positioning and maneuvering. (read further...)