Beginners' Guide to Skateboarding

You see Tony Hawk getting huge air at the X-games, you see the kids at the park tearing it up; why cant you do it? The answer is simple, you can! Skateboarding, while an attainable goal, will take every bit of concentration and practice you have. You will need to learn first the basics on putting the board on the ground and rolling down the road and maneuvering. After you get comfortable on the board, you can start with small tricks. The first thing you should learn to do is what is called manual. After that, you should be abe to ollie in no time.

Alright, first off, you need to get on the board and get going. What you need to do first is not be afraid of the skateboard; too many people fall once and never get back on, what you need to do is recognize that you will fall, but you need to know that you will gain control of the skateboard. Comfort is everything on the skateboard and you need to find your most comfortable stance. The two stances on skateboards are regular footed (where you have the left foot forward and the right foot is in the rear), and the other stance is goofy footed (right foot forward, left in rear). So first just get on the board sitting still and figure out which way is more comfortable rolling and turning. The other thing that comfort has a big part in is your pedalling foot, once you get your comfortable stance, figure out which foot is more comfortable to push with, front or back doesn't matter particularly, but most cases people use the rear foot to push.

Next, after you get moving comfortably, you can start maneuvering, turning back and forth by leaning one way or the other. All you have to do is shift weight, left or right, it couldn't be easier if you wanted it to be. Once you get to where you're turning easily by leaning, you can learn the kick-turn which is where you lift up the nose of the skateboard by putting more weight on the tail. All you have to do hear is make sure you have the rear foot firmly on the tail and your front foot directly over the front trucks. In the process, you kick the tail down, and pivot throwing your weight in the direction you want to turn and there you go, you'll be doing 180s before you know it.