WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE FIRST STARTING OUT.
If you go on the internet and look for the first trick every beginner should learn, you’ll probably find the Ollie. Still, Olling is quite hard in the beginning. Other common tricks everyone knows, such as kickflips, are even harder and could take months or even years! But there are a lot of tricks everyone can learn before trying to Ollie, when first starting out! In skateboarding, I’ve heard saying (and experimented) that what matters most is having fun and staying motivated. And what really works with that is progression. I’m 21 and I’ve started skating for the first time in my life 3 months ago. I’ve found videos on youtube that motivated me so much when I could barely ride around and I’m really grateful so I wanted to share them with you. May they help you as they’ve helped me!
P.s. descriptions are mine and suck. don’t worry, I know. just do what the videos show lol.
THE CHANNELS I RECOMMEND (and love! many thanks to all of you!)
THE PROGRESSION:
a) THE BASICS: (essential) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3NXd3DhH08
- Push: keep your front foot straight on the board and push with your back foot on the ground. once you do it a couple of times, put both feet on the board and have both your feet perpendicular to the board.
- Leaning curves/carving: turn just by leaning in a certain direction, shifting your weight to your toes to turn inward or to your heels to turn outward.
- Kicking turns: turn by lifting the nose of the board and turning your shoulders and body accordingly. this requires some balance.
- Foot brake: stop by sliding your back foot on the ground
b) TRICKS YOU CAN TRY BEFORE OLLIE: (optional)
- Ride around. A LOT. Just ride. Ride every day. Ride everywhere. The more you ride, the more you’ll feel confident on your board, the easier the tricks will be. Plus, it’s super fun.
- Taildrag: lift the nose until the tail of the board touches the ground. balance on your back foot and let the friction bring you to a stop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY451V86kGQ&t=220s (look at 3.32 – 3.35)
- Ticktacking: use alternative kickturns to gain speed in a swift progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVSZZ3Vya74
- Ride off of sidewalks. Just pick up your front wheels and fall off. This helps mostly with your confidence. And with cruising around the city.
- Revert: a 180° turn without the board leaving the ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OFWu34Zxrc
- Caveman: fancy way to get off your skateboard and jumping back on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRV7_i6sfNA (still, the best tutorial I found is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Br-vKTr1Pw&t=1s I know it’s portoguese but I could only master caveman after watching it and I don’t even know the language)
- Manual: ride balancing only on back wheels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvLwOb8VfkY
- Ride fakie: with your feet inverted: if you’re regular, ride goofy and viceversa.
1. Chinese Nollie: 0.37 - 0.50. tiny jump over cracks.
2. Biebelheimer: 0.53 - 1.40. throw the board upside down in a way that makes it turn once it hits the ground and jump on it.
3. Nollie Shove it: 1.53 - 2.25. turn the board under your feet with a little shove of your front foot.
4. Boneless: 2.37 - 2.59. grab your board with your back hand, remove your front foot from your board and use it to jump off the ground, release your board as you land back on it.
5. Fakie FrontSide 180. I think you need to know how to ollie before trying this trick. Anyway, 3.46 - 3.52. pop, twist your body 180° and land back on the board.
6. Hippie Jump: 4.04 - 4.08. you jump over an obstacle as your board keeps rolling under the same obstacle. You land back on it.
7. Rail Stand: 5.00 - 5.52. flick your board so it’s in a primo position and you’re on it. Flick it back landing on it.
8. Fakie Casper Flop. 6.24 - 6.49. flick your board to casper, than flick it back while jumping back on it
9. 180 No comply: 7.02 7.06. pop as your front foot comes off the board, the board rotates 180°, you jump back on it.
10. Nose Pickup: 8.09 - 8.54. come to a stop by putting your whole weight on the nose and shooting the board up in your hand as your other foot comes off the board.
There are TONS of other tricks but either a) I don’t know them or b) I know them but I think they’re harder than ollies (such as powerslides -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayLaGmcW1Bc&t=9s). I do not pretend to know all the tricks you should try or anything. I have no competence whatsoever and I’m still learning the majority of the tricks I listed here. I only made this list because I wished there was one when I first started out. Still, I only put together what I found out by looking on the internet and skating. Please tell me if you know other tricks and tutorials beginners can use.
so, after two days of waffling around my brooklyn apartment on low pile carpet and tile, I figured fuck it; if I’m gonna fall, I may as well fall on asphalt, not my bathroom floor.
what I learned: shore pwky bike path is not as terrible as I thought it would be, although it would be good if I learned what to do on declines other than yell like a girl and fall into the bushes when I inevitably go way too fast. Also, stopping! Any time you feel like figuring out how to actually stop instead of just understanding how to stop, y’know -- it would be appreciated.
Fall count: 1 -- fucking wet sand, fuck you
Distance skated: 2.5 mi
