Know Your Stance – You have to know your stance in order to maintain the best balance. You’re either goofy, with your right foot forward or regular, with your left foot forward.
Need help learning your stance? Have a friend or loved one stand behind you and gently give you a nudge enough for you to take a step forward. The foot you step forward with is naturally your front foot.
Proper Foot Placement – Proper foot placement should always stem from doing what is most comfortable. However, when you actually don’t know how to skate, what’s most comfortable is often far from proper.
Have your front foot just below the front bolts of your front truck. Then have your back foot on the tail of your skateboard behind the back wheels.
Need help with proper foot placement? Send in your stance to our free video feedback service! And get a detailed response from our team of skate instructors.
How to Pedal – Essentially, there’s a right way and a wrong way to pedal on a skateboard. The wrong way is called mongo, or when a skater takes their front foot off the board to pedal. Make sure to pedal with your back foot and lean forward. Place your front hand on your front knee if needed.
How to Stop – Stopping on a skateboard begins with knowing your limits. Don’t go down a super steep hill or attempt a drop in if you’re not an experienced skater. Instead, focus on braking with your back foot, taking it off the grip tape slowly and dragging it on the ground. This is often called foot braking.
How to “Pop Up” Your Board – Skaters are masters at getting their skateboard to do what they want them to do. Yes, we’re talking about an ollie or kickflip, but even learning how to pop up your board from the ground into your hand will help give you confidence and advance as a skater. Practice popping your board by smacking your tail until the nose reaches up to your hands. Master this and you’re on your way to not only advancing as a skater but looking like one too.
How to Maintain “Your Center” – Maintaining your center sounds like something out of a Kung Fu movie but it’s actually an integral piece of advice for the first time skateboarder. Your center is the core of your body, it’s where your head, shoulders, hips, and legs all meet in the performance of skateboarding. As you learn to ride your skateboard and perform more and more maneuvers, always be conscious of your center of gravity and crouch or expand when needed to maintain it.
How to Turn on a Skateboard – Turning on a skateboard for the first time skater can feel like rocket science but in reality, there’s several proven tips our skate instructors have been teaching for years. One of which is to make sure your trucks are not too tight and able to flex when you change your weight. While the easiest way for beginners to turn is by lifting your nose and front wheels to “tic tac” to a new angle, eventually you’re going to want to shift your weight using your head, shoulders, hips and even your toes to “lean” into a turn. It might sound difficult but we promise the more you try the better you’ll get a turning on your skateboard.
How to Progress on a Skateboard – Progress is a tricky word (no pun intended) when it comes to learning how to skateboard for the first time. Because while it is a sport and we do want to progress and get better, we should never lose sight of the fact skateboarding is all about having fun. So just know if you’re having fun, you’re doing it right. That being said, progressing on a skateboard is really a two headed monster: consistency and challenging yourself.
If you don’t skate as much as you can (3-5 days a week) it’s going to be hard for you to progress. And if you never push yourself, if you don’t face your fears, if you don’t fall down and get back up, well, you’re missing some of the prevailing aspects of what it means to be a skateboarder. However, don’t forget, it’s you who’s in charge of progress and it’s you who sets your own standards.
How to Fall on a Skateboard – This one might seem strange to include on this list, however, in skateboarding you fall more than you land. Remember Tony Hawk’s 900? The Birdman had been trying that trick for literal weeks and several dozen that night before he landed the infamous trick. While we know him as a master of skateboarding, he is also a master at knowing how to fall. While protective gear is a great first step (read about this below!) knowing how to fall takes us back to our center of gravity:
If you ever feel like you’re going to fall, maybe you have speed wobbles going down a hill or just rolled away from your first drop in and feel yourself slipping, crouch down as low as you can to lower your center of gravity. This way if you fall you have dramatically reduced the impact onto the ground. Additionally, building on this concept, consider laying yourself out horizontally and sliding as you fall. Many skaters become masters of sliding on their shoulders or their buttocks to avoid landing on their wrists or ankles. It might sound crazy but we promise you anyone can become a master of falls and most certainly will over time.
How to “Find Time” to Skate – While finding the time to skate might be more applicable to our adults learning how to skate for the first time, it can also be ogre parents who are finding time for their child. We get it, everyone has their own work schedule but there are certains times better for beginner skaters to skate the skatepark and some misconceptions about the time needed to advance as a skater.
Skateboarding is just like any craft, the more you do it the better you’re going to get at it. However, cruising around the block even just for ten-fifteen minutes a day can do a lot for your skating. We recommend having your skateboard on you as much as possible. Why walk when you can skate? You’re a skater now… Skate to school, skate to the grocery store, skate to grab a coffee.
Looking to skate a skatepark at the optimal time for a beginner or first timer? Skate as early as you can (even 7:am) on weekdays. Many skateparks before noon will be specifically for child hours. Avoid 4-5 pm when the older skaters get off work and charge the park before the sun sets.
Skate in the Best Location – This might seem like common sense but many parents make the mistake of taking their kid to the skatepark before they are ready. A skatepark can intimidate first timers or discourage them; even worse a collision or the inability to stop correctly can lead to injury. Master your driveway or empty parking lot first in a safe space where you only have to focus on mastering the fundamentals. Read more about “Where to Skateboard for the First Time” below!
