Ollying off of stairs is a sweet skate trick - it looks cool, and is very useful. The same principals behind ollying down stairs can work with other things too, like ledges or off tables.
Before you attack a set of stairs though, there are a few things that you need to know how to do:
- Skate - I'm not being sarcastic here - you need to really know how to skate. You need to be comfortable, and pretty good on a board. Don't rush too fast into this trick - make sure you have excellent board control and balance. Otherwise, you can eat it pretty hard on this trick, and though watching someone face plant might be fun, it's never fun to be the guy wearing pavement.
- Ollie - of course, you should already know how to ollie. Make sure you know it well though, and don't just have a weak low ollie - take the time to build up, and make sure you have a good, strong, high ollie before trying stairs.
Once you have the basics down, you need to find some stairs. Start off with some low ones - just one or two steps, or better yet start with learning
how to ollie off of curbs. Low stairs aren't very hard, and the great thing about learning to ollie stairs is that it's easy to do the slow build up learning process! Make sure the stairs have a good flat path leading up to them, and leading away from them. AND make sure that you can see around them - nothing will mess up your ollie like having someone actually trying to USE the stairs!
