3 Skateboarding Tricks You Should Know

Ever seen professionals rolling, flipping, and ramping the skateboard with such perfection and fluidity? Well, If you are a skater then it must be a dream of yours to impress people with such amazing, anti-gravity tricks; however, mastering those skateboarding tricks without getting injured or damaging your skateboard is something that requires thorough patience and consistent practice.

Still, one can’t promise that you won’t get even a single scratch during this learning phase. But one thing that is guaranteed is the perfection you dreamt of. Besides patience and practice, you also need to do thorough research to know about famous skateboard moves and the correct ways of doing so (leave it to us). So, in this article, we’re going to break down some of those basic and expert-level skating tricks you should give a shot. Let’s start!

Skateboarding tricks

1. Ollie

Ollie is known as the most basic skateboard skill that not only makes you look cool and move around the board smoothly but is also quite easy to learn. To pull Ollie off perfectly, you don’t need years of practice as the practice of a few weeks is enough. Also, a wide range of other tricks emerges from this Ollie. In other words, if you learn Ollie, you’ll automatically master other skateboarding moves. In this trick, you lift the skateboard a little higher in the air for a few seconds.

To practice Ollie, choose a softer surface like a carpet or grass so you won’t get heavily injured if you fail. After finding the ideal room to practice, put your front foot near the middle of the board. Remember that the position of your front foot on the board will determine the height of the jump. The farther your front foot from the front tires, the higher the jump you’ll get and vice versa.

Generally, it’s better to keep the front foot near the middle, while starting over at Ollie, since doing so will help you maintain a good balance over the board and an adequate jump. After this, put your back foot at the tail of the board. Remember that it’s mainly the weight of your back foot that will provide the leverage required for the jump. So, placing it in the most correct position is important.

It’s better to place only half of your back foot at the tail and then, put your entire weight on the ball. This will lift the front of the board. As soon as the front rises, slide the front foot up to the far end of the board. When in the air, keep your knees near to the chest and ball of feet on the skateboard so there would be a very little weight on the skateboard. Keep practicing to gain perfection and speed.

2. Kickflip

If you have mastered Ollie then you can proceed towards learning Kickflip since it’s an advanced form of Ollie. In this trick, you also raise the skateboard in the air for a few seconds but before it touches the ground again, you need to kick or flip it. At first, this trick might look a bit daunting but remember there’s no rocket science.

First, you need to position your feet on the board correctly; place the front feet behind the front wheels, near the middle, at a 45° angle. Place your back foot at the tail of the board and stand on your foot’s ball. After this, put your entire weight on the tail, via the ball of your back foot which will lift the skateboard into the air.

While performing the kickflip technique, try to do as high Ollie as possible so you get sufficient time to flip the board. Once you are in the air, use your front foot to kick the broad slightly. Remember, you don’t have to kick it too forcefully otherwise it would spin far away from you. While kicking the board, use your baby toe to flick the front edge of your skateboard which in turn, will flip the board.

After completing one rotation, the next thing you should work for is a safe landing. For this, use your back foot and then your front foot to push the board on the ground safely. When on the ground, bend your knees to dissipate the shock of landing and gain better control over the board. Once you have mastered kickflip, you can practice other variations as well, like varial kickflip, double kickflip, kickflip indy, and kickflip underflip.

3. Shove-It

Shove-it is a much simpler skateboard trick than kickflip since in this, you don’t have to raise the board too high in the air. However, Ollie is still a part of the scheme. In shove-it skateboarding, a person performs Ollie first and spins the board to 180° before landing back on the ground.

Again, if you know how to do an Ollie on a skateboard, you can learn the shove-it trick in a day. To start with, place your front foot right above the front wheels of the board. However, the toe should be slightly out of your skateboard. Similarly, place your back foot at the tip of the board while pointing your toe outward. However, since in this trick, you don’t have to lift the board too high in the air, it’s better to place 80% part of your back foot on the tail.

After adjusting your stance, put weight on the tail of the board to raise it from the front. When once the board is in the air, kick the tail slightly with your back foot and move both of your feet in opposite directions; the front foot towards the backward direction while the back foot towards the forwarding direction. Doing so will make the board spin after which, place your feet on the ends of the skateboard for a safe landing. Again, to dissipate the shock, bend your knees during and after the landing.

Practice the trick while railing and once you master it, practice the shove-it technique while stationary. Initially, hold something for support and to prevent falling, and remember that, if you fail to do the trick without falling or tipping over, it means you still need practice.