My name is Justin Lauria, and today we're going over the top 15 things that only novice
skateboarders do, so that you know how to avoid looking like a beginner when you go
to the skatepark.
Alright, so I know that one of the biggest factors that holds people back from learning
how to skateboard is that they are actually just too afraid to go to the skatepark when
other people are there because they think they're going to get made fun of if they
look like they're new to skateboarding.
Now, right off the bat, I do want to go ahead and mention that for the most part, these
fears are completely unnecessary, and most of the higher level skaters that I know will
tell you that they don't really give a second thought to the other skaters at the park who
don't look like they know what they're doing, other than maybe wanting to offer a piece
of advice here and there.
It's important to keep in mind that all of those skaters have been through the exact
same process, so they're not going to judge you in a negative way for wanting to practice
and get better at a sport that they've spent years practicing themselves.
However, I know that looking a little awkward in public is easier said than done, so hopefully
knowing a few key things that you can do to avoid looking like a beginner will give you
the confidence boost that you need to finally make it to the skatepark and stop worrying
what other people are thinking about you.
OK, so the first thing that people tend to associate with beginner skateboarders, is a way of holding
your board called a 'mall grab.'
Now, a mall grab is when you carry your board like this, as if the hanger of the truck was
a convenient handle added to the skateboard for the sole purpose of helping you carry it,
allegedly the same way that a kid at a mall would carry his skateboard if he didn't actually
skate, but he just wanted to carry his board around with him in order to look cool.
I personally don't think there's really anything inherently wrong with using your trucks to
carry your board like that, but at some point along the way, such a huge stigma developed
around it that I eventually just stopped carrying it like that altogether so that I didn't have
to listen to the younger kids tell me over and over that I was carrying my board incorrectly.
Alright, so now, the second telltale sign of a beginner skateboarder is setting the
board on the ground with your hands when you want to start riding it.
When you see someone doing this, you can just tell that they haven't spent enough time with
their skateboard in order to develop a more casual way of getting their board to the ground.
A couple of alternatives that you can use would be to drop your board under your foot
like this, or to get a running start and hop on as you throw your board down to the ground
like this.
The third thing that people do that pegs them as a beginner is to push like one.
Most people will push like this when they first start skateboarding, with their front
foot already perpendicular to the board, so that they don't have to adjust it once they
get up to speed and put their back foot on.
However, this does force your body into an awkward looking position, and you will come
off as looking a lot more natural if you, instead, start with your front foot on the
board facing forward, and then rotate it into position once you're up to speed.
Habit number four is another pushing technique that is called pushing 'mongo.'
Pushing mongo means that instead of setting your front foot on the board over the front
wheels and pushing off of the ground with your back foot, you actually start by setting
your back foot on the board and push off of the ground with the foot that you normally
ride with in front.
When you push like this, not only are you making it harder on yourself to get your feet
set up on the board properly, but it also makes it harder to steer, throws you off balance,
and makes you come off as an amateur.
So if that's how you usually push, I would highly recommend that you go ahead and take
some time out of your next few skate sessions and practice pushing with your front foot
already on the board and pushing off of the ground with your back foot.
Number five covers what you do when you need to pick up your board, and if you bend down
and pick up your board with your hands, again you're going to look like a bit of a beginner.
Instead of doing it like that, try to get a little creative with how you pick your board
up.
Learning some of these shouldn't take too long to figure out, so spend a couple of minutes
working on them the next time you're bored.
OK, so let's move on to habit number six, which is always skating in the same stance.
This one doesn't stick out quite as much as some of the others, but the more advanced
skaters at the park understand and appreciate the time and effort it takes to learn tricks
in multiple stances.
So once you learn how to do a trick in normal stance, take an extra five minutes or so and
try to figure out how to do the trick in fakie stance, or even better yet, in switch or nollie
stance.
Now, for number seven we're looking at how you ride up and down ramps at the skatepark.
The most efficient way to ride over obstacles at the skatepark is to use a technique called
pumping, which allows you to increase the amount of speed you gain when you go downhill
and decrease the amount of speed that you lose when you go uphill.
Beginner skaters who haven't mastered this technique yet will go for more of a straight
legged approach to rolling down ramps, which not only means that they'll have to take
their back foot off more in order to push, but it actually makes it harder to balance
and gives you the appearance of being unsteady on your board.
Alright, so on to number eight, which is performing all of your flatground tricks while stationary.
When you're practicing to land your first ollie or your first kickflip, for example,
it can sometimes be a little easier to wrap your head around the maneuver if you put your
back wheels into a crack in the cement and try to land the trick from there.
Once you get the hang of the basic motion though, you should move on to learning how
to do your tricks while rolling.
Not only is it more functional and more stylish, but it's also easier to land flatground tricks
and keep your balance throughout the maneuver if you're moving while you do it.
It's very similar to riding a bike.
If you've ever tried to keep your balance on a bicycle while you're not rolling forward,
you know how much more difficult it is to do than while you're rolling.
Now let's look at number nine, which involves what is known as tic-tacking which essentially
just means that you landed your trick a little bit off balance and you had to pick up the
front of your board in order to align it with the way that your momentum was going.
Now, on this point, I do want to make an important distinction.
I'm not saying that advanced skaters don't have this happen to them while they're working
on a trick.
It happens to skaters at every level all the time.
The difference, however, between a beginner skater and an advanced skater is that a beginner
skater will consider a trick landed in this way a make, and an advanced skater will consider
it a do-over.
If you're filming the trick and planning on posting it somewhere online, you will be amazed
at how big of a difference these few extra attempts can make at giving you the appearance
of style and control.
Alright, so for number ten, I want to talk about what the bottom of your board looks
like.
One part of becoming an advanced skateboarder is practicing tricks from multiple disciplines
of skating, and if you're carrying around a board that looks like you just walked out
of the skate shop all the time, there's a good chance that you're missing out on some
of them.
One of my favorite ways to give your board a little character is to do boardslides on
ledges and rails.
For a tutorial on the easiest version of that trick, the backside boardslide, you can click
the link up here or in the description section below.
Now, let's take things over to the mini ramp for a bit and talk about number eleven, which
is starting your runs in the mini ramp from the bottom.
When you start learning how to skate a mini ramp, one of the hardest things to overcome
is learning how to drop in for the first time, but once you do it for the first few times,
it'll start to become completely second nature to you, and you won't have to feel afraid
of the maneuver any more.
So, a good way to help you wrap your head around what it's going to feel like to drop
in is to ease your way into it by practicing fakie tail stalls, starting low in the ramp
and then working your way to doing them up on top of the coping.
It might not make total sense why this would be easier at first, but essentially what it
boils down to is when you do a fakie tail stall, you're doing a reverse drop in followed
by a drop in, so you already know what the reverse of the motion you're trying to do
feels like, and then on top of that, you're keeping your body weight on the inside of
the ramp so you don't have to worry about committing to leaning forward.
So that makes it a lot easier to wrap your head around what it's going to feel like when
you're coming back in.
Number twelve is another mini ramp habit, and it occurs when you do tricks that are
supposed to involve rocking your board over the coping like this, but by just barely setting
your trucks over the edge instead.
For tricks like the rock to fakie and the rock n' roll, take the time to develop the
motion enough to be able to set the middle part of the board on the coping, and rock
your board forward so that your wheels touch down on the deck.
It might be a little harder to do your tricks this way at first, but the extra style points
that you get from it are more than worth the added effort.
Alright, so let's move on to number thirteen which involves doing runs in the mini ramp
that only consist of the same one or two tricks over and over again until you're blue in the
face.
Now, it's perfectly OK to do this when you're just getting the hang of pumping back and
forth on a half pipe, but if you really want to add some style to your runs, make sure
to keep learning new tricks so that you don't have to repeat yourself as often.
If you'd be interested in a big list of easy to learn mini ramp tricks, you can check out
my video on that topic, which I'll put a link to right at the end of this one.
Now, let's talk about number fourteen, which is not knowing how to fall gracefully.
One of the most useful things you'll learn as you improve at skateboarding is learning
how to fall down without getting hurt.
If you're a beginner, you may want to spend some time practicing what it feels like to
fall from a little bit of a height so that when it happens during a skate session, which
it will, you'll have already developed the muscle memory necessary to fall in a way that
keeps you from hitting your head or breaking any bones.
Alright, so finally, bad habit number fifteen is using the terms 'frontside' and 'backside'
incorrectly.
Unfortunately for the sport of skateboarding, the use of these terms has evolved to have
so many nuances and exceptions that learning how to use them correctly in every case becomes
fairly difficult to do.
If you're doing a trick that involves approaching an obstacle where it's on one particular side
of you, you use one definition.
But, if you're approaching the obstacle straight on or if you're doing a trick that doesn't
involve an obstacle, you use another definition, except for in the case when you're riding
in fakie stance, in which case, everything is completely backwards.
So, it does take a few minutes to explain, but it is information worth knowing, and once
again, you can click the link that I'll put at the end of the video for the full breakdown.
Alright, so after hearing everything on the list, I'm sure you can probably tell that
most of this stuff will just come to you naturally as long as you're spending some time skating
on a fairly regular basis.
So, if nothing else, I hope this video at least gave you some motivation to go out and do
some skating, when you do get new clips, make sure to tag them on Instagram with the hashtag
#nsiskateboarding so I can easily find them and share them with the rest of the community,
and lastly, never stop improving.