Starting Point Instructional Skateboarding Video

Starting Point is a Transworld Skateboarding instructional video designed for brand new skaters, to give them a good place to start from. The video is hosted by Jeremy Wray. Jeremy Wray is a great guy, but this is a boring video with weak instructions.

Starting Point begins with a short section on how to push and stop. It's very very short. Then, assuming you have the basics down, the video launches you into tricks.

The first trick covered is the ollie. That makes sense, because the ollie is the foundation for most flatland skateboarding tricks. Unfortunately, Starting Point takes the cheap and easy route to explain how to do tricks - you see the trick performed several times from different angles, while Jeremy Wray reads his lines in a monotone from a script. That's it. The instructions are very short, and blast on to the next trick.

Each trick does start with a cool picture showing you were to put your feet on the board. That's nice, and absent from a lot of skateboarding instructional videos. But that's it. That's all you get. After that, the trick is buzzed through quickly.

Starting Point covers the following tricks:

• The Ollie
• Frontside 180 Ollie
• Backside 180 Ollie
• Pop Shove-It
• Frontside Pop Shove-It
• Kickflip
• Heelflip
• Manual
• Nose Manual
• Boardslide
• Frontside Boardslide
• Frontside 50-50
• Backside 50-50
• Noseslide
• Pumping on a Ramp
• Kickturn
• Frontside Kickturn
• Dropping In
• Axle Stall
• Fakie Rock

Plus the beginner part, where Jeremy Wray talks about pushing, stopping, and stuff like that.

I think I've already made these pretty clear. This video is way too short, and tries to cover too much too fast. Especially for being a "Starting Point", it gives you a few minuets for the beginner, and then shoots right into the Ollie. Then, before you really know what to expect, it's on to the next trick.

For each trick, there is no consideration given to what common problems skaters face when learning it, what to look out for, or intermediate steps to learning.

It's pretty clear that I didn't care for Starting Point, by Transworld Skateboarding. However, it does have some uses. If you are looking for a quick library with some simple instructions for a lot of tricks, Starting Point might be useful. That is, if you are already a pretty intermediate skateboarder. Not a beginner.

You can also get Starting Point bundled together on one DVD with with Trick Tips with Willy Santos. That adds a little bit of value.

So, my final word is that for most skaters, this is an instructional skateboarding video to avoid.