As someone who loves skateboarding I wanted to tech myself on how to get better. I’m not only writing this article to help other beginner skateboard enthusiasts, but for myself too. I’ll be talking about, and showing examples, on how to do tricks. Manual, riding switch, and the kick turn are good starting points for beginners and different foot positions.
In case you didn’t know, there are different footings regarding how you put your feet on your skateboard. If you put your right foot on the back of the board, you have regular footing. If you put your left foot on the back of the board, you have goofy footing. It doesn’t really affect anything as far as riding or doing tricks, it’s just what feels best for you. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get with the tricks.
Trick One: Riding Switch
In order for you to perform this trick, you have to go into the opposite stance. What I mean by that, is if you’re goofy, or right-footed, you go regular footed, and vice versa. It feels weird at first since you aren’t used to that positioning, but that’s normal. This trick can be pretty hard to adapt to due to the fact you’re using the opposite footing with what you’re comfortable with, but it helps you get used to riding on both footings and it’s good practice for that. This trick can also help you with balance as well.
Trick Two: Manual
For this one, you take your back foot on the end of the board, and lean back slightly to make the board lift up, this way the front wheels lift off the ground as you ride. I’ve done this trick many times before, and balancing can be very difficult the first few times you do it. My advice is to keep practicing and you’ll get the hang of it. You can keep going back and forth lifting up the front wheels and putting them back down on the ground again here and there to get used to the feeling. You will fall multiple times not just for this trick, but for skateboarding in general, so make sure to be careful.
Trick Three: Kick Turns
Once you learn and master the manual, this trick is easier to pull off. For this trick you have to set your feet up as if you’re going to do the manual with your back foot at the end of the board. Then you lift your board up using the weight of your back feet. You’re basically doing the manual, except now you use your body to turn and move around a bit more instead of just going straight. This not only helps with balance, but it also helps with getting in more control of your board and just riding it in general. Getting used to the feeling can be difficult, but if you practice the manual, it won’t be as hard to pull off this trick.
Although skateboarding can be pretty complicated and intimidating, it’s definitely fun to learn about. Learning about its history, its tricks, watching people skateboard, etc. It’s also a fun way to exercise. You can learn a lot from skateboarding, and you can engage in so many different cool tricks that’ll help you improve with balance and control of the board. Best of luck to those out there who are beginners.
