Hmmm, how to learn to skateboard. A question that has been asked since the dawn of time---OK well maybe not quite that far back but you get my drift.
Let us take this question back to basics, how to learn to skateboard. Well the first thing you need to do is feel comfortable on your skateboard. We are assuming here by the way that you have already bought your skateboard, and it is a reasonably wide and heavy one to start with. And we are also assuming you have got your skateboard gear, such as helmet, knee pads, wrist braces etc, which are essential items mon brave.
So the way to feel comfortable on your board is to practice getting your balance right. Try different ways to get on the board initially, see how the balance changes when you have a wide stance on the board, or you have your legs close together on the board. Practice running at the board and jumping on it, and keeping your balance as long as possible.
You have to know that when you are finding out how to learn to skateboard you will fall off many, many times, and you will hurt yourself, it goes with the territory I am afraid. But faint heart never won fair maiden, or so the saying goes I believe?!
Find out what position on the board you feel most comfortable and balanced. Once you have done this for a while, you can then practice pushing off and getting some speed up. If you build your speed up enough the easier it is to balance and the longer you will be able to stay on your skateboard. Keep going and make yourself go faster and faster, and start to practice swaying your body backwards and forwards to see the effect it has. Bend your knees and lean forward for extra speed.
Practice pushing down hard with your back foot on the board so that you flip the front up, and see if you can stay on the board. Bend your knees forward again so that you dont fall backwards. All this is good practice,and once you have learnt some basic movements you can step up your activity.
Hope this has helped you in how to learn to skateboard. By the way if you want to be an expert in the next 8 weeks no finer guide has been written than the one you will find if you click on SkateSecrets
Showing posts with label history of skateboarding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history of skateboarding. Show all posts
Monday, 29 June 2009
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Skateboard Moves
Skateboard moves to die for part 1! Let us have a look at the Laser Flip. The Laser Flip is kinda one of the more complicated skateboard moves. They tell me this particular trick was invented by a dude going by the name of Rodney Mullen.
Well Rodney, much respect is due cos you did the world a great favour.
Do you have any idea how to do the Laser Flip? OK, well if the answer was in the negative you may want to read a little further while I describe the trick for you. As I mentioned it is a bit complex but once you get your head and your feet around it you will be fine mon brave.
Place the front foot behind the back bolts and also towards the heel side edge of the board, and place your back foot near the side pocket of the boards tail.
What you need to do is scoop the tail inwards, while at the same time brushing the board in a heelflip motion. These movements have to be done in one sweep for the flip to rotate properly.
The board rotates similar to a heelflip. There is no doubt that it does take practice to get these skateboard moves right but it is well worth the effort once you have mastered them. Once you are shooting lasers with this trick you will be one happy skateboarder. It will probably feel like a work in progress for quite some time but aint that the case with most skateboard moves?
You have to remember Rome was not built in a day. It took those Romans, with a little help from a few thousand slaves grafting away you understand, a long time to put together that great city. But it was a labour of love I figure. Anyway, you get the drift, now get out and practice!
Well Rodney, much respect is due cos you did the world a great favour.
Do you have any idea how to do the Laser Flip? OK, well if the answer was in the negative you may want to read a little further while I describe the trick for you. As I mentioned it is a bit complex but once you get your head and your feet around it you will be fine mon brave.
Place the front foot behind the back bolts and also towards the heel side edge of the board, and place your back foot near the side pocket of the boards tail.
What you need to do is scoop the tail inwards, while at the same time brushing the board in a heelflip motion. These movements have to be done in one sweep for the flip to rotate properly.
The board rotates similar to a heelflip. There is no doubt that it does take practice to get these skateboard moves right but it is well worth the effort once you have mastered them. Once you are shooting lasers with this trick you will be one happy skateboarder. It will probably feel like a work in progress for quite some time but aint that the case with most skateboard moves?
You have to remember Rome was not built in a day. It took those Romans, with a little help from a few thousand slaves grafting away you understand, a long time to put together that great city. But it was a labour of love I figure. Anyway, you get the drift, now get out and practice!
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Learning Skateboarding Tricks
I want to use this blog to give any one out there a quick guide to learning skateboarding tricks. Lets look at a few moves, there are oodles of different tricks but this is just one or two of them to be going on with.
Once you get to learning skateboarding tricks, and feel comfortable doing them, you really start to gain confidence on your board, and you will be flying.
OK here we go with a few:
A Kickturn. Kickturning involves balancing on your back wheels, and then swinging the front of your board to a completely different direction. This will seem real hard the first few times you attempt it, but let me tell ya practice makes perfect, and the kickturn is a pretty cool manoeuvre once you have mastered it.
The Ollie. One of the first you need to master, but it aint that easy to begin with. You should try this with a moving skateboard as it is much easier.
OK, so place your back foot on the tail of your board, and place your front foot between the middle and front trucks of your board. This is your starting position for an ollie, but if you feel better witha slightly different stance thats cool too.
Now you are ready to ollie, so bend your knees, and the more you bend the better height you will get. Then slam your back foot right down on the tail of the board and with your bended knees jump up by pushing off from your back foot, so as the boards tail goes down to the ground you are pushing up fast. You have to get as much height as you can with your back foot.
With the outside of your front foot you guide the front of your board. Your knees need to be as high as poss, they can hit your chest and once you are at the top of your jump try to level the skateboard out and have your feet at the same height.
Then as you come down to hit the ground, bend your knees and roll the board along. Perfect!!
The 50-50, or the truckstand as it is also known as, is simple enough. All it involves is having both feet on the tail of your skateboard and balancing as you move along. Its a neat trick to learn.
Learning skateboarding tricks is great fun, and you can soon look a real pro with a few of these in your pocket. Stay cool.
Once you get to learning skateboarding tricks, and feel comfortable doing them, you really start to gain confidence on your board, and you will be flying.
OK here we go with a few:
A Kickturn. Kickturning involves balancing on your back wheels, and then swinging the front of your board to a completely different direction. This will seem real hard the first few times you attempt it, but let me tell ya practice makes perfect, and the kickturn is a pretty cool manoeuvre once you have mastered it.
The Ollie. One of the first you need to master, but it aint that easy to begin with. You should try this with a moving skateboard as it is much easier.
OK, so place your back foot on the tail of your board, and place your front foot between the middle and front trucks of your board. This is your starting position for an ollie, but if you feel better witha slightly different stance thats cool too.
Now you are ready to ollie, so bend your knees, and the more you bend the better height you will get. Then slam your back foot right down on the tail of the board and with your bended knees jump up by pushing off from your back foot, so as the boards tail goes down to the ground you are pushing up fast. You have to get as much height as you can with your back foot.
With the outside of your front foot you guide the front of your board. Your knees need to be as high as poss, they can hit your chest and once you are at the top of your jump try to level the skateboard out and have your feet at the same height.
Then as you come down to hit the ground, bend your knees and roll the board along. Perfect!!
The 50-50, or the truckstand as it is also known as, is simple enough. All it involves is having both feet on the tail of your skateboard and balancing as you move along. Its a neat trick to learn.
Learning skateboarding tricks is great fun, and you can soon look a real pro with a few of these in your pocket. Stay cool.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
History Of Skateboarding
In this blog we are taking a walk down memory lane and looking at the history of skateboarding.
It started off as "side-walk surfing" and was closely related to surfing back then, a kind of offshoot. Fact is that skateboards we are pretty sure originated in California, so you can see the connection.
They were developed at first it is believed in the 1940`s, but only began to gain popularity in the 1960`s onwards. Surfers used them as a kind of dry surfing run, and kids who couldn`t get to the beach found skateboarding as the next best thing.
The first skateboards were surfboard shaped, but the board widened as people started using skateboards more inventively, and ramps started being used.
The history of skateboarding shows us that once skateboard parks came onto the scene things really started to rock and roll! People started all sorts of cool tricks.
They started doing nose wheelies, which is riding on the front wheels, and the 360 was invented, which is spinning around on the back wheels. I hope this isn`t dullsville for you, but I like finding out about the history of skateboarding, its neat to know how things are connected, and how sports develop and grow.
The ollie was the first skateboard trick of the modern era, and after the ollie things really hotted up.
If ya don`t know what the ollie is, it is to fly off the ground with the board, but not holding onto the board, and then landing back on the board. You can use your feet to press against the board in all types of ways for various manoeuvres and tricks. This must have been ultra exciting when this was first created.
By the way,do you know where the name of the ollie came from? It was the creators middle name Alan Ollie Gelfand.
So thats a brief history of skateboarding. It doesn`t always get the respect it deserves for the complexity and subtlety of the tricks and the imaginative moves.
To learn all the best skateboarding tricks in rapido time click on SkateboardingSecrets
It started off as "side-walk surfing" and was closely related to surfing back then, a kind of offshoot. Fact is that skateboards we are pretty sure originated in California, so you can see the connection.
They were developed at first it is believed in the 1940`s, but only began to gain popularity in the 1960`s onwards. Surfers used them as a kind of dry surfing run, and kids who couldn`t get to the beach found skateboarding as the next best thing.
The first skateboards were surfboard shaped, but the board widened as people started using skateboards more inventively, and ramps started being used.
The history of skateboarding shows us that once skateboard parks came onto the scene things really started to rock and roll! People started all sorts of cool tricks.
They started doing nose wheelies, which is riding on the front wheels, and the 360 was invented, which is spinning around on the back wheels. I hope this isn`t dullsville for you, but I like finding out about the history of skateboarding, its neat to know how things are connected, and how sports develop and grow.
The ollie was the first skateboard trick of the modern era, and after the ollie things really hotted up.
If ya don`t know what the ollie is, it is to fly off the ground with the board, but not holding onto the board, and then landing back on the board. You can use your feet to press against the board in all types of ways for various manoeuvres and tricks. This must have been ultra exciting when this was first created.
By the way,do you know where the name of the ollie came from? It was the creators middle name Alan Ollie Gelfand.
So thats a brief history of skateboarding. It doesn`t always get the respect it deserves for the complexity and subtlety of the tricks and the imaginative moves.
To learn all the best skateboarding tricks in rapido time click on SkateboardingSecrets
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)