3 Top Skate Tricks for Beginners to Master

Skateboarding can be a lot of fun, enjoying life and the outdoors is what its all about isn’t it? As a skater, the more tricks you can perform the more enjoyable skateboarding is.
So, we put five of our top skate tricks together for the beginner. Whether you’ve been skating for a few months or years, there’s always the basics that need to be learned – more efficient and stylish skateboarding can mean the difference between frustration and all round pleasure.

First things first - safety. Keep your shoulder parallel with your board when you’re starting out with tricks like kickflips and heelflips. Because of the freestyling that skateboarding offers, its near impossible to be a hundred percent safe, but there are things that you can do in practice to keep yourself at a lesser risk of danger.

• Wear a Helmet

• Protect Elbows & Knees

• Wear Wrist Guards

• Stretch Properly

Your muscles are at risk if you don’t stretch – skateboarding is an energetic sport. Most beginners ache after every practice for months, and pulling a muscle or bone breakages are common. From neck, shoulder and groin strain to pulled ankles and wrists, ensure you protect yourself properly. No matter how sturdy you think your skate shoes are, or how you think you can pull off a skating trick in confidence, you need to make sure safety is at the forefront of your mind before trying out any tricks.
Now, try to land some tricks:

1 - Ollie

Nobody will learn to do skate tricks without learning to do the Ollie first. After learning to ride your board comfortably, the Ollie is best.
With this trick under your belt, you will be able to skate on flat land or in skate parks with confidence, perhaps making up your own tricks too.
A fundamental trick, the Ollie setup will get you on the first step to moving your board.
So, get your front foot just behind the front bolts and your back foot on the tail at the back of the board, so your feet are v-shaped.
Bend your legs to prepare yourself for jumping, with the back foot pushing down on the tail.
As the board moves up, bring your feet and bend your legs, and bring them both down to land on the bolts. Bend your legs as you land, for balance.
Practise this one on a soft surface until you’re confident enough to do it on the move.

2 - The Boneless Grab

If you’re looking forward to tricks without frustration, try a few old school moves first. The boneless grab is better tried stationary then when you’ve mastered it, try it on the move.
You may want to try this starting slowly and building up your speed as you become more confident:
While the board faces forward, make sure your feet are over the wheel locations to begin, and move your front foot backwards so its behind the other foot – which should be at the back of the board.
With the hand that’s behind you, grab the board in its middle and lift it – you need your back foot to stay with the board.
Whilst you lift the board, jump with the spare foot and as the board goes back down, land your loose foot back onto it.
Easy! You can develop this trick later with another flip or rotation.

3 - Kickflips

It’s basic but it’s a hard trick to learn and will definitely take some time. Try this on grass first, or holding onto something like a fence (not a wall, if you fall you’ll get hurt).
A kickflip can help you move onto more difficult tricks, and you should be able to spin the board at least once when you’ve manage this one. More experienced skateboarders will be able to spin the board more times, so build up to a couple of spins after managing the kickflip on the move.
To flip your board 360, first start with your feet setup with your front foot between the middle and front bolts of your board.
The back foot needs to be down on the tail and you will push this down when your body is ready to jump up.
Push down the back foot to pop the board up, bend your knees as you’re ready to jump, and manoeuvre your back foot to flip the board towards you – you’ll need to get your feet out of the way quickly to return them when you land right onto the bolts.
Again, practise this one on soft ground first.


Author Byline: Check out Urban Street Fashion for more skateboarding tricks and other urban/street news.

Jack loves skateboarding and regularly blogs about urban clothing and streetwear fashion. He also works as a UX designer at Clubnet Search Marketing, a UK based search marketing agency.