Learn to Skateboard - Top 5 Tips & Tricks
You see them zooming down the street popping ollies, kickflips, noseslides, and 360 flips at the skateparks: skateboarders, lovers of street surfing, and you want to be one of them! It’s easy enough to buy your board (for recommendations check out our article here!) and gear, but once you’re standing in the street holding your new skateboard and wondering where to start, it can feel overwhelming, to say the least. No matter why you want to learn to skate, whether its to keep up with your friends, or connect with your kid, we’re here today to give you some stellar resources to help you along your journey to becoming King of The Road.
Just Do It
Nike was a little tongue in cheek when they first threw out this iconic slogan, but do you know what? It’s absolutely true. Nothing can make you learn quite like starting at the beginning when you're clueless. If you haven’t read our post about the History of Skate: From Surf To Street, that’s an excellent place to gain some inspiration. The first people to attach wheels to 2x4s didn’t have anyone to teach them, yet the entire sport of skateboarding has evolved from that moment until now. It’s unnerving to plant both feet securely on a wobbly piece of wheeled wood, but if you just get out and try it, you might find it comes to you quicker than you expected! Like most things worth doing, you’ll get bumped and bruised along the way, but we’re betting you’ll get the hang of it pretty darn quickly. If you’d like even more tips and tricks for learning solo, read our article, How To Learn To Skateboard By Yourself.
Step By Step
If just hopping onto your board and hoping for the best sounds like a deal-breaker for you, we’ve got you covered. Our article, How To Get Kids To Absolutely Love Skateboarding includes quite a few topics that will help you break it down even more! The first and most important thing you can do for yourself is to keep yourself safe with the right gear. A helmet (this one!) and pads (these!) will keep your noggin and joints in good working order after you eat it – although we hope you don’t! After you’re all set to go, get out and practice, practice, practice until you’re perfect, perfect, perfect! Find a buddy to help you along and give yourself time to grow. Before you know it, you’ll be shredding with the best of them.
YouTube
If you’re not on the YouTube train, you are missing out. YouTube has become a nearly bottomless pit of resources for everything under the sun, skateboarding included! If you type, “learn to skateboard” into the search bar, you will receive no fewer than 550k results! If you’d like to watch someone before you try it, look no further. There are entire channels dedicated to teaching you to skate, as well as tutorials from some of your favorite pro skaters. Set aside an hour or two and watch a few instructional videos from various channels. Once you connect with a particular skater, subscribe to their channel and get watching! Who doesn’t love a private instructor for free?! Here’s an excellent skateboarding instructional video from one of our favorite channels, Go Skate. Subscribe and shred, skaters!
Braille Skateboarding
If YouTube is too intimidating, time-consuming, or just isn’t your jam, head over to Braille Skateboarding. Their team has put together tons of free tutorials, and if that’s not in-depth enough for you, they offer their amazing “Skateboarding Made Simple” plan. While this plan requires you to spend a bit of money (you get what you pay for!), it promises to have you skating and performing tricks within a shockingly short amount of time. This is a sure fire way to guarantee your proficiency at skateboarding, even if it means shelling out a little bit of dough. And if you’re lucky enough to live in the San Leandro, CA area, Braille can offer you private lessons! Which brings us to our final tip…
Hire a Professional
While we’d look at this as a last resort (there are so many FREE resources available to you!), sometimes it feels best to learn a new skill one-on-one with an experienced and capable teacher. We detailed the whole process for you in our post, How To Find A Great Skateboard Teacher, but if that doesnt give you enough of a start, hit up your local skate shop. The staff members are usually super friendly and since they learned to skate once themselves, they are full of ideas on how to help you along. Most shops have a list of private teachers in the area that come highly recommended. If you end up paying for lessons, you will want to make sure that your teacher is vetted and has super reviews – no one wants to pay $50 and have their time wasted. Check out your instructor on Yelp before booking a lesson.
Anyone and everyone can learn to skateboard, and that includes you! Learning to skateboard not only keeps you active and outdoors, but it also gives you freedom in a way that is unique to other sports. Pro skater Ryan Sheckler said it best, “No one can tell me what to do on my skateboard. I can do whatever I want.” So get out there! Whether by yourself, with the help of YouTube or a private teacher, don’t wait another day to get started skating. We promise you won't regret it.