HOW TO BUST A TRICK
TIPS FOR SKATEBOARDING TRICKS:
Perform an Ollie
Steps:
- First, place your back foot towards the end of the tail and your front foot right behind the front bolts.
- Bend your knees. (try stationary first then try rolling at a medium speed)
- Try to stay balanced over the center of your board, pop your tail on the ground as you jump up simultaneously.
- Suck your legs up to your chest and the board will stick to your feet, if it's not sticking you're not doing it right!
- Land on the bolts and roll over to your friend's house and show him how cool your ollies look.
Perform a Kickflip
Steps:
- Get your ollies wired first! ( it's the basis for all street tricks )
- Start rolling about medium speed, and bend your knees, like you're about to ollie.
- Place your back foot on the end of the tail and your front foot behind the front bolts.
- Pop a solid ollie, flick your front foot out to flip your board.
- Suck your legs up, level out land and roll away smooth!
Hardflip
Information:
This trick is named appopriately. It is hard to learn. Before you learn this it might help to learn how to frontside 180 kickflip, frontside pop shuvit, and kickflip.
Description:
While riding the skateboarders board comes off the ground, flips back nose over tail, and completes a half flip. They land on the board and ride away.
Technique:
1. Think about what you're trying to do, and how it is going to look.
2. Pump a few times until you are rolling at a comfortable speed.
3. Place the ball of your back foot across the tail, a little bit more towards the heelside of your board is better. (Heelside is the side your heel is on...obviously). Place your front foot in the kickflip position and a little more parallel with the heelside of your board.
4. Bend down and get ready. Give 'er shit. Pop as hard as you can on the tail, and begin to slide your front foot off the corner of the nose and try to keep it there, out of the way, while the board rotates. As soon as your front foot is almost off the board lift you back foot up and out of the way by moving out in the toeside (opposite of heelside, side that your toes is on) direction.
5. As the board turns vertical in the air, bring your back foot around towards the front of the board to let the board move between your legs.
6. As soon as it is possible, put your feet back on the board and even out.
7. Catch the board, land on all four wheels, and ride away.
Additional Help:
Problem: The board flipped up and hit me in the nuts. Now I'm bleeding.
Reason: You didn't jump high enough and did move you legs around the board.
Solution to avoid the problem all together: Either go for the trick, or don't. If you mess around with this one you'll probably get sacked. Jump high when you try to hardflip. Not only is it impossible to do the trick if you don't jump high, but you'll get hurt.
Heelflip
Information:
The heelflip is one of the more basic flip tricks. It should probably be learned before all other flip tricks except for the kickflip, which could be learned before or after the heelflip.
Description:
While riding normal, the skateboarder jumps and his/her skateboard comes off the ground with them and is flipped by his/her outer toe kicking the edge of the board. They land riding normal.
Technique:
1. Push a few times to get rolling at a comfortable speed.
2. Put your back foot flat across the tail ,and place your front foot just behind the front truck bolts.
3. Bend your knees. Push down as hard as you can on your back foot so that you tail hits the ground. Kick your front foot down and out to the side using your heel and outer toe. Try hitting a corner of the nose to make the board flip easier.
4. Keep your shoulders and legs parallel with the direction you are going. It will make the landing easier.
5. Let the board flip completely and catch it with your back foot. Your front foot should land back on a fraction of a second later.
6. Land on all four wheels and bend you knees to take the impact. Ride away.
Additional Help:
Problem: I can only land heelflips with one foot.
Reason: You might be scared to land heelflips, or your foot could be stuck under the board because of improper board flipping technique, or you are letting the board drift away in the air.
Solution: If your problem is fear you can either just go for it and force yourself to land, or you can try to work your way up. If you usually only land with your right foot, next time try to land with only your left foot. Keep switching back and forth and after a little bit, try to land with both feet at the same time. If your foot is stuck under the board you need to change your heelflip technique. Try to kick off the side of the nose of the board. Don't kick straight down as you might think would be best. Kick out to the side as well as slightly down. Kicking the nose of the board will help flip it and kicking out instead of down will keep your foot from getting stuck under the board.
Varial Kickflip
Technique
1. Push a few times to get rolling at a comfortable speed.
2. Put your back foot flat across the tail. Place your front foot similar to a kickflip position, but with your toes pointing more towards the nose at about a 45 degree angle.
3. Pop the tail.
4. Pull with your back foot to make the board spin 180 like if you were doing a backside pop shuvit. Kick your front foot off the corner of the nose to get the board flipping. In order to catch the nose with your kick you've got to kick out almost straight forward. If you try to flick out to the side the same way you do for a kickflip it won't work because the board has already started spinning. It IS similar to a kickflip motion, but a little bit different.
5. The board is now in motion. Bring up your back foot and get ready to catch it.
6. Catch the board once it has completed spinning and flipping.
7. Land and ride away.
Additional Help:
Problem: I can't flip and spin the board properly.
Reason: This trick combines spinning and flipping the board. It can be hard to get it right.
Solution: Keep trying different places with your front foot. When you kick the board, be sure to kick off the corner of the nose. You will also need to pull the board with your back foot as you would for a pop shuvit, but don't pull as much. The kicking part makes the board spin too.
360 Kickflip
Technique
1. Push a few times to get rolling at a comfortable speed.
2. Put your back foot flat across the tail. Place your front foot similar to a kickflip position, but with your toes pointing more towards the nose at about a 45 degree angle.
3. Bend your knees, but try and keep your shoulders and upper body facing the direction your riding. If you let your shoulders dip forward too much you are going to end up chasing the board.
360 kickflips are all in the legs. I see a lot of kids who try to force this trick by using their upper body and front foot to huck the board. It flies out in front of them and they try catch up to it by jumping forward. Avoid doing this! If you're scooping and kicking right, the board will spin under you. No need to chase it.
4. Pop the tail. While doing this pull your back foot towards you. This makes the board rotate 360. People often describe this as scooping your back foot.
5. Your front foot should gently kick straight out. This makes the board filp and helps it rotate the 360. Watch the slow motion part of the video clip and focus on his front foot. It's barely even kicking. The front foot is like a guide for the board. Watch the slow motion part again and focus on his back foot. It's moving a lot faster and doing most of the work.
6. Now that you've got the board spinning and flipping, bring up your back foot.
7. When the board comes around get your back foot on it.
8. Make sure your feet are spread out properly. A common problem when first learning to 360 kickflip is landing with your feet together, or landing too close to the nose. It helps to visualize yourself landing with the proper foot placement before you try the trick. Think about bringing you back foot towards the back bolts.
9. Get your front foot back on and take it down for the landing.
Additional Help:
Problem: I can't rotate the board a full 360.
Reason: This trick takes a lot of power to learn.
Solution: If you don't have enough power to rotate the board completely, then you'll have to make sure that you really fine tune your technique. A clean pop and a good scoop with your back foot will take you a long way.
Information:
The backside 180 is a variation of the ollie. Before trying to learn how to do this trick you should be able to ollie fairly well.
Description:
While rolling the skateboarder jumps and turn his/her body 180 degrees backside and the board turns a backside 180 as well.
Technique:
1. Push a few times to get going.
2. Set up your feet in the same position you would for a regular ollie. Bend your knees and get ready to do a backside 180.
3. Turn your shoulders slightly in the opposite direction the you're going to spin. This is a wind up.
4. Pop the tail as hard as you can and unwind your shoulders and continue to turn them until they have rotated 180 degrees backside. The momentum will help you rotate. When you pop it should be like a normal ollie, unwind and turn your feet with the board.
5. That previous step is written all weird. It's hard to explain how a 180 works. Just try it a few times.
6. Land riding switch or fakie and roll away.
Additional Help:
Problem: I can't rotate the complete 180.
Reason: You are not spinning fast enough, or you are not going high enough to complete the rotation.
Solution: Don't forget to wind up for the trick. Unwind your shoulders and be sure to follow through with your legs. Also, if you aren't going high enough, try to pop your tail harder and jump higher. When I first tried this trick I could only turn about 90 degrees and would slide the rest, or kickturn the rest. After practice I learned to do the whole 180, so keep trying.
Unknown Trick
Information:
This is a trick I learned my second year skateboarding. I just figured it out on my own, and I've never seen anyone else do it, so I don't know what it's called. Please don't email me suggesting the name. I've received dozens of suggestions by email and really, I don't care what it's called.
Description:
While rolling the skateboarder jumps and the skateboard flips over part way. The skateboarder then kicks the board and it flips back over and rotates 180 degrees like a shuvit.
Technique:
1. Put your front foot flat across the board near the front bolts. Put your back foot near the back bolts with your heel hanging off the side.
2. Put a lot of pressure on the back of the board with your back foot.
3. Jump, and quickly push down with your back foot so that the board flips over onto your toe.
4. Once the board has flipped over, quickly pull up your back foot to flip the board back over. The same motion has to also rotate the board around to do the shuvit part, so you'll have to work at this movement a bit.
5. It's hard (at least for me) to get any height from this trick because the tail is never popped. There isn't much chance of catching this in the air, so just try to land on it anyway you can