Back to Basics with Skateboarding

Most of you guys who read these articles have been skating for a while. Maybe you can ollie, kickflip, or more. That's great! But I wanted to take a minute and encourage you, no matter how good you are, to go back and take a look at the basics again.

Here's my reason: Everything you try and do in skateboarding is built on the foundation of what you've learned before. When you learn to Tre-Flip, you are building that on what you already know about how to Kickflip. And what you know about how to Kickflip is built on what you know about how to Ollie. And your Ollie goes all the way back to what you know about The Basics.

I talk to so many skaters who don't take much time with the basics. I totaly understand! Learning how to balance, or how to kickturn - these aren't as much fun as learning how to Ollie! But you HAVE to make sure the foundation of your skateboarding is good and strong, or the tricks you stack on top will be wobbly and unreliable.

I have a big step by step article called Just Starting Out Skateboarding, and we have a video called How to Skateboard: the Basics. Take a look at these - it won't take long, and it'll help. Spend a day going over the basic stuff. In fact, if you relax and get into it, you'll probably have fun. And next time you run into a trick that you just can't land, take a minute and go back a step, and practice. Sometimes the best way to go forwards is to go back!