My name is Justin Lauria, and today I'm going to teach you how to ride a skateboard.
First off, you're going to want to know how to get rolling.
For first-timers trying this exercise, I would recommend tightening up these bolts quite
a bit before you start riding so that balancing on your skateboard is going to be easier.
The absolute best way for a beginner to start moving on a skateboard, is to stand with your
front foot on the board, push off the ground with your back foot, then put your back foot
on the board so you can evenly distribute your weight on both feet.
The most useful foot positioning for riding looks like this. The front foot is directly
over the front wheels, and the back foot is behind the back wheels, both perpendicular
to the board. This positioning allows you to steer, speed up, stop, and do most tricks
comfortably and efficiently.
When you're first learning how to ride, it'll probably be easier for you to ride like this.
This is the same stance as before, but with the front foot riding parallel to the board.
This is easier for beginners because since you'll be riding at low speeds, you'll need
to take your back foot off to push fairly often to maintain your momentum, and riding
this way eliminates that extra step of pivoting your front foot back and forth every time
you push.
Despite being told to push this way, it is fairly common for beginner skaters to mistakenly
push like this. This is called pushing mongo, and has a laundry list of issues associated
with it.
For one, pushing mongo drastically reduces your ability to steer while pushing. While
it may not seem that important at low speeds and on a flat piece of concrete, increasingly
you will find yourself needing to steer one way or the other while you're gaining speed,
and if you're pushing mongo, it's gonna be really hard.
Also, pushing this way makes it more difficult to balance, reduces the maximum speed you
can obtain while pushing, and forces you to take extra steps to set up your feet into
a useful stance.
So once you get good at pushing off with your back foot, you can look into a number of other
ways to start moving. Keep in mind, these techniques won't give you very many advantages
over basic pushing other than style points, but knowing some of them can add a little
variety to your skating and make you a little bit more well rounded.
Alright, so now that you're rolling forward on your skateboard, now you need to know how
to steer. The easiest way is to just lean either heel-side or toe-side. Leaning to one
side will cause the trucks of your skateboard to pivot, orienting your wheels so that your
board starts to turn. If your trucks don't pivot enough for you when you try this, you
may need to loosen...these bolts.
There is another, more effective, way to steer but it will take a little practice before
you get it. The whole maneuver starts with turning your
shoulders in the direction you want your board to turn. Once your shoulders are in place,
immediately transfer weight to your back foot so that your front wheels come off the ground.
Then because your body is already oriented in a different direction, the board will curve
around to align itself with your body. Now you can just transfer your weight back onto
your front foot and set down those front wheels.
Once you master this maneuver, you will have learned yet another way to start moving on
a skateboard called tic-tacking.
OK , so once you're rolling around on your skateboard, how do you slow down and
stop?
The easiest way is to just take your back foot off and brake
using the ground. You can use this technique to stop all at once, or slide it on the ground
until you slow down enough.
Note that a lot of the time, braking is going to involve using friction to slow yourself
down. So, the more ways you have to brake, the more life you're going to get out of the
shoes, skateboard decks, and wheels that you buy. Here are a few more ways you can use
to slow yourself down.
This technique is used a lot in high-speed street skating where space can be very limited.
Unfortunately for skateboarders everywhere, this is another way that you'll come to a
stop.
Now, if you haven't already been introduced to the idea, let me go ahead and tell you:
skaters expect to fail...all the time. It's an inevitable part of the learning process.
What this means for you as you're learning how to do these basic maneuvers is that you're
going to always want to have a backup plan. Make sure you're comfortable falling down
at the speeds and terrain that your riding, and if you're not, either dial it back or
strap on a helmet and some pads. Just by spending time skating, your overall comfort level with
riding will naturally increase; so if dropping in on that quarter pipe looks a little too
menacing, give it some time and come back to it another day.
Skate as often as you can, and remember: have fun.