How To Skateboard With Pictures

Never try to skate in sandals or flip-flops. You need to be able to move your feet around easily and feel comfortable. Without these, you can hurt your ankle easily and are a lot more likely to fall.

Classic skateboards have curved noses and tails, and have a concave to help with tricks. They come in a variety of sizes, and most are about 31" or 30 in length long and 8" wide. These are the boards to buy if you want to skate at the skatepark or on the street and to do tricks, eventually. Longboards or cruisers have a longer and flatter body. The length of the board varies, but they can be up to twice as long as a classic skateboard, making them much more stable and rideable for beginners. You can’t really do tricks, but if you’re interested in skating as a way of getting around or bombing hills, it’s a great option. Penny boards are good for somebody who wants to leisurely ride a skateboard down the sidewalk, but are bad for somebody who is taller than the average five-year-old and/or want to do tricks. They’re small so they’re difficult to balance easily on. [1] X Expert Source Jon DepoianSkateboarding Instructor Expert Interview. 5 June 2020. A beginner skateboard should cost between $50-$150. Try to have your board set up for you at the skate-shop with the right kinds of trucks and wheels for what you’ll be doing. Just remember, NEVER buy a Walmart board. They will snap quickly and are hard to learn on. Go to a real skate shop.

Make sure to get a helmet that fits your head properly. Before you go to the store, use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your head, just above your eyebrows, in a straight line around your skull. Buy a helmet that fits snugly. There’s nothing lame/childish about pads. It’s important to protect yourself from serious head injuries.

When you’re just beginning, you can practice balancing on grass or carpet first so your board won’t be rolling everywhere. [3] X Expert Source Jon DepoianSkateboarding Instructor Expert Interview. 5 June 2020. Skateparks are great places to skate once you’ve got some experience. If you’re just trying to get the board to stay under you without falling down, parks might be a little intense. If there’s one in your area, go watch some skaters for tips, but stay on the sidelines.

Skating with friends is a big part of what skating is all about. If you’ve got some skater friends, get help learning from them. Learning from friends is infinitely better than learning on your own or on the internet.

Regular foot means that you’ve got your left foot forward and your right foot in the rear. This usually means that you’ll use your right foot to push. Goofy foot means that you’ve got your right foot forward and left in the rear. Usually, this means you’ll use your left foot to push. Rock back and forth a little to see how the wheels move and how much sway you’ve got on the trucks. Just get comfortable.

After you get some momentum, practice putting your back foot into place on the back of the board, just ahead of the tail curl, around the trucks. Get your balance and ride, bending your knees some to keep your balance. Mongo foot means that you feel more comfortable pushing off with your lead foot, and riding with your back foot. Some people see it as acceptable, but it will hinder you later and it’s an awkward motion to swing your front foot around. If you find yourself pushing mongo, try switching from regular to goofy or vice-versa.

Try speeding up, but just a little. Like a bike, some riders find it actually quite a bit easier to keep your balance when you’re moving a little quicker. If you start speed-wobbling, you can tighten your trucks. This will make it harder to turn but you can practice with tight trucks until you get your speed wobble under control. Shifting your weight forward usually helps.

Depending on how loose your trucks are, you may have to only shift your weight very gently, or really bend into it. You can loosen your trucks by turning the large bolt in the center of each truck (lefty loosy, righty tighty). This puts more (tight) or less (loose) pressure on the bushings and makes turning easier (loose) or harder (tight). If you have trouble balancing or falling while turning, shift your upper-body weight in the opposite direction. What really matters is that your feet pivot the deck so the trucks do the turning.

You can also shift your weight back and scrape the tail against the ground if you want to stop. Some longboards have built-in plastic “brake” pads along the back lip of the board, while others won’t. This is usually a bit more difficult, and will scrape away at the back of the board. An alternative that won’t damage your board is to put your heel behind with your toes still on the tail when you do this. Your heel will drag on the ground instead of the tail. You should practice getting on and off before you start skating at high speeds. One exit strategy if you’re riding on flat without pads is to take your back foot off in front of you and walk or run away from the board. [4] X Expert Source Jon DepoianSkateboarding Instructor Expert Interview. 5 June 2020.

Put your arms out, but keep them loose. If you’re very rigid, you risk breaking wrists and ankles more seriously than if you use them to cushion your fall. [5] X Research source Roll out any time that you fall. You might scrape yourself up, but it’ll hurt a lot less than if you’re landing with a splat. Bail out if you see something going bad. If you’re going too fast and can’t control your board, just jump off and land on your feet, or roll into the grass. Don’t stick on a board that you’ve lost control of.

For tips on how to do the moves, you can always watch a move in a video in slow motion and pay attention to the foot movement. Sequential photos are another great way to learn. The more you practice, the better you will be. Don’t get discouraged because you can’t land a trick the first or second try. Just practice and have fun, and you will get the trick eventually.

As you stand on the board, practice rocking back, popping the nose up into the air and staying balanced. You can even try it in motion if you work up the nerve. Before you even try the first motion of an ollie, it might be a good idea to just stand beside the skateboard and practice popping it up into the air. Use your foot to stomp on the tail and see how much pressure it takes to pop it up in the air. This is also useful to pop it up to your hands and pick it up easily. One common mistake is to push too hard down on your tail, which prevents your board from going up in the air. Instead, flick down with your ankle to send the board to the floor, then lift later. [6] X Expert Source Jon DepoianSkateboarding Instructor Expert Interview. 5 June 2020.

Don’t start in motion just yet. Before you can nail an ollie on the ground, it’s quite dangerous to try one while you’re skating. You’ll probably wipe out.

This needs to be done in one swift motion, and it’s somewhat difficult to get the hang of at first. You want to jump up into the air and off the board at the same time as you pop down with your back foot. [7] X Research source You’ll leap with your front foot just a little before you leap with your back foot. Imagine you’re running sideways and trying to jump over a cone. You want to do that kind of motion.

No shame in bailing out. If the board hasn’t stayed straight, or it just doesn’t feel right, don’t try to land on it. Land on your feet instead. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to practice your first ollie by just jumping off the board and landing beside it.

One way you can progress from doing an Ollie is to Olly over small items, like. a stick or a curb. [8] X Expert Source Jon DepoianSkateboarding Instructor Expert Interview. 5 June 2020. This is the fundamental skill to learn, which most other popping style tricks are based on. For more information and links to specific trick articles, check out the next section.

Start out simply rolling up to the rail, then jump off of your board and land with just your feet on the rail, letting the board roll away. Next, practice popping the board up as you jump, but don’t worry about where it goes after that. Just make sure that your feet land on the rail. Make sure you roll up to the rail at a slight angle, not completely straight. This way, there’s less risk of one truck getting caught on the start of the rail. Now it’s time for the real thing. Ollie as high as you can, in the direction of the rail. Land with your feet on the bolts and the board balanced on the rail. If the deck is sliding sideways on the rail, it’s a board-slide. If you stay in the direction of the rail so your trucks lock in and grind it, it’s a 50-50 grind. Once you get to the end of the rail, turn the board around if you’re in a board-slide (so it faces the right direction) and land over the bolts. If you’re doing a 50-50 grind, lift the front wheels slightly (by pushing on the tail, again slightly) to the front of the board doesn’t plummet down. An alternative is to ollie off.

Start with your tail on the coping (the metal on the top of the half-pipe) and your foot just behind the bolts, but far enough back to balance. Put your front foot over the bolts, and slam the board down. Don’t hesitate, or you will fall. It takes confidence and power. Be sure to lean forward in this motion. If you don’t, the board will slide out from under you. Your shoulders should always be parallel to the board. Don’t worry about coming down on the other side, just hop off of your board at the top.