How to Kickturn

After you feel comfortable stopping, starting and carving, it's time to start practicing kickturns. Learning how to kickturn is vital.

Kickturning is when you balance on your back wheels for a moment, and swing the front of your board to a new direction. It takes some balance and some practice. If this short little instruction doesn't make it all clear to you, read How to Kickturn for more detailed instructions, and for some great practice ideas.

Once you have kickturns down a little, make sure you can kickturn both directions. Try kickturning while moving. Try it while on a ramp (ride up a little ways and kickturn 180). The more you practice, the more comfortable you will become.

By Steve Cave

How to Skate at a Skatepark, and over Flow

You've practiced a little skateboarding on the street or in a parking lot - but what about how to skate over banks, ramps, down slopes, or at a skatepark?

The sloping curves of a skatepark are sometimes called "flow". Skateboarding over flow, and up and down slopes and ramps is a little tricky. The first key is, always keep your weight on your front foot. So, when riding over a big bump, down a hill (be careful there are no cars!), down your driveway, or through a skatepark, keep your weight on that front foot. That doesn't mean to tense it all up - you need to relax, too!

There is one trick to this key - when you ride up a ramp or slope, pause, and then ride back down fakie, your front foot just changed. Do you understand? Your front foot isn't always your right or left foot, it's the foot that is facing the direction you are going! Do, in when riding up a ramp or hill and coming down fakie, you'll want to transfer your weight from one foot to the other right at the top. It might take some practice!

The second key is bend your knees. Keep your knees bent, and as loose as you can. This will help your body to adsorb the shock and impact of bumps and changes. As a huge rule in skateboarding, the more relaxed and bent your knees are, the better you will skate. And don't hunch your shoulders too much, either. Try to keep your shoulders back a little, and relax. If you hunch a little, that's ok. The main thing is to be relaxed.

By Steve Cave

How to carve on a skateboard

Carving is all about leaning toeside or heelside, to get your board to turn in that direction. It's really simple. Push your board, and while rolling, put weight on your heels. You will slowly turn that direction. The harder you push on your heels, the sharper your turn will be. While skating around, you will be using this a lot. Go out to the street or parking lot, and try pushing forward and carving around things. Try pushing right at something that you don't want to hit, like a curb, and see if you can carve around or away from it.

If you lean your upper body toward the direction you want to carve, you will find it even easier. Carving on a skateboard is very similar to carving on a snowboard, except that you don't catch your edge and die like on a snowboard! If you want to carve especially deep, try bending your knees a lot, and crouching low on your board. Carving is easier on a longboard, but it is a valuable skill in any board sport.

By Steve Cave

How to stop on a skateboard

Now that you know how to get going, you may want to know a little more about how to stop on a skateboard! There are several ways to stop your skateboard.

Footbreaking - The easiest way is to take off your back foot and drag it on the ground. It takes some practice, and you should really spend some time focusing on it now, before you need it, so that you can stop when you need to! Read How to Footbreak for instructions and help.

Heel Drag - This takes some practice, but it's a common way to stop with people who have been skating a while. Basically, you put the heel of your back foot so that it is sticking off of the back of your skateboard, and lean back so that the front of your board comes up into the air. Step down on your heel, but make sure that the front half of your foot is still on the board. Your heel should drag a short ways, and you should stop. This will take practice - you may fall on your back a few times, and launch the board out in front of you a few times while you learn.

Power Slide - Powerslides are popular in the Tony Hawk video games, but they are actually fairly advanced. I mention them because I'm guessing you've played the game and want to do it - it does look pretty cool! Well, hold off on that for a while - you haven't even gotten to kickturns yet!

Bail! - When all else fails, just jump off of your board! If your knees are bent while you ride, this shouldn't be to hard. And if you jump forward, your skateboard will usually stop. Just remember - buying a new skateboard is much cheaper and easier than getting a broken arm, or a new face!

By Steve Cave

skateboard Pushing

Next, we'll learn to push your skateboard. Take the skateboard out to some pavement or concrete somewhere. I recommend a parking lot, after the business that uses the lot is closed. That way there are no cars around, or people.

Get comfortable just like above, but this time on a surface where your board can roll.

Now try cruising around the parking lot. Take your front foot, and put it so your toes are right over the front truck, or a little behind it, on top of the board. Use your back foot to push off with so that the skateboard starts rolling, and put your back foot back on the skateboard once you are rolling the speed you want to (read is it ok to push with my front foot? if you are more comfortable that way). When you slow down, push off some more with your back foot. To turn, if you are going downhill, you can lean in the direction you want to turn, but this will turn you slowly. A better way to turn is to balance for a split moment on your back wheels, and swing your front wheels the direction you want to go. This might take some practice.

Get comfortable with riding around like this. You should spend some time practicing -- don't get too anxious to do tricks. After you feel pretty good with riding like this, try going down an easy hill, so long as you're careful that there won't be traffic. Spend some time learning to skate. You can try skating at your local skate park, if you have one. At first you might try to go at a time when there won't be very many people around.

By Steve Cave

Regular & Goofy

Next you need to figure out your skateboard stance, whether you are goofy or regular footed. This means whether you should skate with your right foot forward, or your left. If one feels more comfortable than the other, then simply go with that!

The two different ways to stand are called stances - Goofy (skating with your right foot forward) and Regular (skating with your left foot forward).

Here are three tricky ways to figure out how you will most likely feel most comfortable standing on your board:

ONE

- go get a ball or something like that, and sit it on the ground in front of you. Now kick it. Whichever foot you kicked it with will likely be your back foot. You want the balancing foot in the front, and the kicking foot in the back.

TWO

- go to a staircase, and walk up it. What foot did you use to step up the FIRST step? That's likely your back foot.

THREE

- this one's hard, because once you read it you'll know the trick. So just read this first spot and then stop when I tell you to stop. Go find someone, stand with both your feet close together, and ask them to shove you from behind. Go do this now -- STOP READING! Ok, so hopefully you didn't just fall over. You should have caught yourself with one foot. The foot you used to catch yourself is likely the foot you'd put in back.

Just like most people are right handed, most people are regular footed. That's why it's calledregular. Just remember that there's no RIGHT way to do it. If all of these tricks tell you that you are regular, but you just like riding goofy, then ride goofy!

By Steve Cave

Standing on a Skateboard

Now you should be ready to start learning to skate. First, before you try anything crazy, you need to get comfortable standing on your skateboard. If you borrowed it, or if you went to a shop and bought a complete skateboard already built, there's a chance that there may be some things about it that you might find uncomfortable.

Set the board either in some grass, or on the carpet in your living room, and try standing on it, jumping on it, whatever you want. Try balancing only on the front or back wheels. Standing on the board, move your feet into different positions. Get used to the feel and size of your board, and get used to standing on it.

By Steve Cave

begginers

So you've bought or borrowed your first skateboard, and you are wondering what to do with it. You've seen skaters at the park or on TV, and you know what skating's supposed to look like, but how do you get started? What sort of beginner skateboard gear do you need? Well, the first thing you should do is get a pair of skate shoes (check out the Best Skateboard Shoes List). You can skate in regular shoes, but it will be a lot harder and even sometimes dangerous. Skate shoes are built with a large flat bottom, to better grip the board, and often with other features like reinforcement in areas where you'll likely wear the shoe down. You should also get a helmet (check out the Best Skateboard Helmets list). You might see skaters not wearing helmets, and worry that wearing one will make you look weak or stupid, but don't worry about it. It's common now for skateparks to require helmets, and it's just plain smart, especially when you first start out. Wearing other protective pads can be good too, but what you need totally depends on what you are doing (see the Best Skateboard Pads list). If you are trying to do tricks in your driveway, elbow pads might be a good idea, but you really only need knee pads if you are skating on a ramp, or trying some pretty crazy tricks. Wrist braces can be nice, but be careful not to get too used to using your hands to catch yourself when you fall.

By Steve Cave

Follow this tips.

Although I'm no pro, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to skateboarding, and my riding is getting pretty smooth these days since I've been trying to do at least an hour of skateboarding after work each day.

I find myself in the situation of being a mentor to all the kids in my road who have been attracted to skateboarding by watching me each day. It wasn't long before they were all dragging out skateboards they'd been given one christmas or other and asking me how to ollie. As a result, I've decided to write a series of articles aimed at absolute beginners.

Even though skateboarding is a very individual sport, or art, if you're an absolute beginner and you've never set foot on a skateboard before then there is probably a certain way you should go about doing things, and that is not to think ollying is what you have to learn first. Instead, over the coming weeks I will be writing a series of 'lessons' starting today with the most basic thing you can do - ride your skateboard. If you follow these steps, you should be in pretty good shape.

1. Forget About Ollying

This is probably the biggest mistake the kids in my road make - trying to run before they can walk, so to speak. You've got no chance of being able to ollie until you are completely and utterly comfortable with riding around on your skateboard.

2. Set Up Your Skateboard

Get your skateboard sorted out. If you don't know what the different bits of your skateboard are called then start here and read from there.

As a beginner, the chances are that the one you've got is pretty slow, with Abec 'A' bearings and a thick, heavy deck. Your deck won't have much concave (meaning it won't be very curved) but the good news is that this type of board is less likely to slip away from you so in fact is ideal to learn on.

I would not recommend buying an expensive skateboard at first. Firstly, good skateboards are surprisingly expensive, and if you end up not wanting to skateboard buying one is going to be a waste of money. Secondly, they are a lot faster which makes them harder to ride and less forgiving.

One thing you probably need to do is loosen your trucks because new skateboards tend to have them done up very tightly. Although this is very stable, you won't be able to turn your skateboard at all and if there is a natural lean to the board (as there usually is) you won't be able to correct this while pushing off, so you'll end up riding in to a wall or whatever all the time. To loosen your trucks, simply unscrew your kingpin a few times so that the board is easier to turn. Some kingpins need an alan key and some need a star shaped screwdriver. If you don't have the tools, any skateshop should be happy to do this for you free of charge.

3. Work Out Your Stance

Some things you need to work out straight away - whether you are regular or goofy, and whether you are a 'mongo foot'. Stand on the skateboard in the most comfortable way for you and then imagine pushing off. If you don't know the definitions, look them up in the tricktionary -

• Regular Footed
• Goofy Footed
• Mongo Foot Pusher

The tricktionary is my extensive guide to skateboarding trick names and terms. Knowing the correct lingo before you start will make it easier in future to understand trick tips, articles and so on.

If you are a mongo foot, now is the time to teach yourself to push properly before it becomes too natural for you. There are actual technical reasons why it's bad to push mongo footed - it takes longer to setup for tricks, you are less stable when pushing off (because your weight is behind the skateboard) and beside this mongo footed skaters look awkward and unstylish on their boards.

4. Push Off

Start pushing off up a shallow hill or on a level surface. I have noticed that the beginners have a couple of common problems. Firstly, the skateboard tends to get away from them as they are pushing, because they tend to push from a position where their feet are level with each other or even with the pushing foot behind the front foot. Instead, you should imagine that pushing off is like walking - your pushing foot must step in front of the foot on the skateboard and then push back, just like taking normal steps. Your front foot should be just behind the front bolts.

Pushing Off

Secondly, the action of pushing off should be a smooth, powerful movement, not a short, stuttering one. Most of the beginners tend to take about ten small pushes before getting on the skateboard, when a couple of long, smooth pushes will gain the same speed. Most skateboards also have a lean to them which makes them turn one way or the other. While you are pushing off try to use your foot on the skateboard to lean the board one way or the other so it doesn't turn.

Getting on requires you to twist your foot that's on the board around to face sideways instead of forwards and step backwards onto the back fishtail. Make sure you step on firmly and confidently and don't mess about as this is when you are most vulnerable to falling off. Your feet should be behind the bolts in both cases, so if you don't get into this position straight away, try to quickly shuffle into the correct position. Many beginners step their back foot either in front or on top of the bolts, and if you do this you must step back onto the fishtail quickly otherwise the skateboard is difficult to control.

A Stable Riding Stance

For the first few times just ride out the skateboard until it stops, but soon you should get used to pushing more before you run out of speed. Again, this needs to be done confidently, as if you hang about there is every chance the skateboard will slip out from you as you are only riding on one foot.

5. Turning

When you've got some decent pace just practice gently leaning the skateboard to turn left and right. You don't need to physically lean your body, but just put more of your weight into your heels or toes.

After a while try lifting the front wheels briefly as you lean to get a sharper turn. Do this by applying a bit more weight to the back tail until the front wheels are off the ground, then aim the nose a bit more towards whichever direction you are facing and put the front wheels back down again. Do this repeatedly while you turn to turn in as tight a circle as possible.

6. Stopping

There are quite a few ways to stop on a skateboard, but most of them are quite advanced - things like powerslides and 'boneless' stops will be covered later.

The obvious way for a beginner is what's known as a tailstop. This is where you grind the tail of the skateboard into the ground, letting the friction slow you down. It works pretty well, although it's not very efficient if you're going really fast. You will also wear away the tail of your skateboard - personally I don't mind this, but you might, depending on how precious you are about the board. Put it this way - it will take a hell of a lot of tailstops to wear the board down entirely, by which point you almost certainly will want a different one anyway.

Another technique is to do a sort of 'reverse push' - where you use your pushing foot to slow yourself down gradually by taking small steps onto the ground that push against the direction of travel. Although again this isn't that great when you're going really fast. In those situations you should probably just jump off and worry about what happens to the skateboard later!

Turning also slows you down.

My advice is to use tailstops. Even though it wears your board out, it is a useful 'trick' to learn because it's a start towards practicing your balance. When you first do one, you're going to need the confidence to stomp the back down quite firmly and then ride out the tailstop at an unfamiliar angle (with the nose in the air) until you come to a halt. While you are doing this, try turning at the same time as well. All these little things will add up and be very useful later on.

SOURCE: http://www.board-crazy.co.uk/skateboarding_beginners_1.php

This is how starts!

Skateboarding was first started in the 1950s, when all across California surfers got the idea of trying to surf the streets. No one really knows who made the first board -- instead, it seems that several people came up with similar ideas at the same time. Several people have claimed to have invented the skateboard first, but nothing can be proved, and skateboarding remains a strange spontaneous creation.

These first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels slapped on the bottom. Like you might imagine, a lot of people got hurt in skateboarding's early years! It was a sport just being born and discovered, so anything went. The boxes turned into planks, and eventually companies were producing decks of pressed layers of wood -- similar to the skateboard decks of today. During this time, skateboarding was seen as something to do for fun after surfing.

In 1963, skateboarding was at a peak of popularity, and companies like Jack's, Hobie and Makaha started holding skateboarding competitions. At this time, skateboarding was mostly either downhill slalom or freestyle. Torger Johnson, Woody Woodward andDanny Berer were some well known skateboarders at this time, but what they did looked almost completely different from what skateboarding looks like today! Their style of skateboarding, called "freestyle", is more like dancing ballet or ice skating with a skateboard.

Then, in 1965, skateboarding's popularity suddenly crashed. Most people assumed that skateboarding was a fad that had died out, like the hoola hoop. Skateboard companies folded, and people who wanted to skate had to make their own skateboards again from scratch.

But people still skated, even though parts were hard to find and boards were home made. Skaters were using clay wheels for their boards, which was extremely dangerous and hard to control. But then in 1972, Frank Nasworthy invented urethane skateboard wheels, which are similar to what most skaters use today. His company was called Cadillac Wheels, and the invention sparked new interest in skateboarding among surfers and other young people.

In the spring of 1975, skateboarding took an evolutionary boost toward the sport that we see today. In Del Mar, California a slalom and freestyle contest was held at the Ocean Festival. That day, the Zephyr team showed the world what skateboarding could be. They rode their boards like no one had in the public eye, low and smooth, and skateboarding was taken from being a hobby to something serious and exciting (Read more about the history of Dogtown and the Zephyr team). The Zephyr team had many members, but the most famous are Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta.

But that was only the first big jump in the evolution of skateboarding - continue to the next page for the rest of the history...

By Steve Cave