SOME SKATE TRICK TIPS

With both your feet on the board, lift up the heel of your back foot so your weight is on the ball of your foot and your toes. That part of your foot should be centered at the tip of the tail. Your front foot should be about 2/3 of the way up the board, angled slightly forward. Your toes should be near the toe edge of the board and, depending on shoe size, your heel may be hanging off of the heel edge. Smack the tail to the ground with your back foot and jump off of that back foot--getting the timing down is probably the hardest part. As you jump, your front foot slides up to your nose, pulling the board into the air. At the peak of your ollie, level out your board, then wait for the landing. Always land with your knees bent. When ollieing a gap, try not to think about clearing it; instead, think about popping a nice big ollie. The hardest part about ollieing most gaps is getting in the committed mindset. When you're in the air, spot your landing and keep those shoes on that grip tape until you roll away.

Set up your feet in the ollie position. Your front foot, though, should be adjusted back towards the heel edge a bit and your toes (or rather the front of your shoe) should be just behind the centermost mounting bolts of the front truck. Do an ollie, but rather than only sliding your front foot upward and forward, you must also slide your foot (again, probably your shoe) to the heel side enough to start your board in a spin. This action requires you to actually kick your front foot off of your board; the last point of contact between the front of your shoe and the board should be in that little concaved dip just before the nose. The spinning board then hovers for a second between your sprawling legs. When you see the grip again, stop the rotation with your back foot, then put that front foot back on, right on top of them bolts, and land.

This trick can be tough to learn, but it's a great trick to take over gaps, or just to switch your stance during a run. Set your feet up the same as you would for an ollie. When you're first starting it helps to put your foot closer to the nose for a little more control. Pop your ollie and start turning backside… as with any body rotation, your shoulders lead and everything follows. You should reach the peak of your ollie as you are 90 degrees through your rotation. This is where you spot your landing, making sure to keep your weight directly over your board. When doing this trick over a long gap, a skater will usually ollie as far out as he/she can, then rotate really late. When doing this trick down a big drop, or stairs, it's better to rotate nice and smoothly throughout. For a solid landing, all four wheels should land at once, and you shouldn't have to slide the last part of the 180 around right when you land. Plus, sliding around like that will put flat spots on your wheels.