Tony Hawk Trick Tips Volume 3 - the Secrets of Skateboarding Review

In the first Tony Hawk Trick Tips video, Tony Hawk explained the basics of skateboarding. In the second, he walked the viewer through some more intermediate skate tricks. In this video, Tony Hawk goes back several decades and teaches how to do some old school street skateboarding tricks, along with some more vert tricks. Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 continues in the comfortable, approachable skateboarding instruction that the first two videos have, and covers a lot of material that makes it easy to recommend for intermediate skateboarders.

Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 - the Secrets of Skateboarding is really two videos put together. The first half is all about old school street skateboarding, and for this part Tony Hawk teams up with Mike Vallely. The second section is all about vert skateboarding, and for this part Tony Hawk works with Bucky Lasek.

Old School Street Tricks

The street section alone is worth getting this video. Tony Hawk and Mike Vallely work very well together, and they cover a huge pile of old school street tricks that most skaters today only see in video games. But all of these tricks have worth - many of them look cool, they are unique, and some of them aren't really that hard. You don't need to master everything from Volume 2 to attack these old school street tricks. In fact, for some of them you don't even have to know how to Ollie!

Here are the tricks covered in the Old School Street section:

• Ollie Grabs
• Half-Cab
• Ollie North
• Late Shove-it
• Ollie Finger Flip
• Impossible
• Boneless
• No-Comply
• Pressure Flips
• Street Plants
• Acid Drops / Bomb Drops

Through all of these tricks, Tony Hawk and Mike Vallely explain and demonstrate how to do the trick, then Tony Hawk goes into a planned explanation voice over while you watch the trick in slow motion, and then he and Mike Vallely talk about common problems that skaters have. For learning old school street tricks, this video is the best way I've seen.

Plus, the last section on Acid Drops and Bomb Drops is every important. These are skills that most skaters just learn through trial and error, and messing up can get you injured pretty easily!

Vert Skating

The vert section of Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 isn't quite as good as the street part, but it's still well done. It starts with Bam Margera giving some advice about dropping in. His advice is really good - LEAN IN! He kind of goes off about how people never do this when they first start to learn to drop in, and that's true. I had that problem myself!

Through the rest of the vert section, Bucky Lasek helps Tony Hawk explain the tricks. Bucky Lasek isn't quite as good of a teacher as Mike Vallely, but Tony Hawk really knows this stuff himself, so you end up getting all of the info you need. The nice part about the street section was that for several of the tricks, Mike Vallely was better than Tony Hawk, and so you felt like you learned along with Tony. Not so much in the vert part.

However, if you want to learn to vert skate, then combine this video with Volume 2 (it's called Essentials of Street, but it has some good vert teaching). This should be plenty to work on. In this vert section, Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 covers:

• Dropping In
• Frontside Airs
• Backside Airs
• Air to Fakie
• Fakie Ollie
• Half-Cab on Vert
• Rock to Fakie / Rock 'n' Roll
• Inverts
• Tailslides

One extra part is a vert game of SKATE between Tony Hawk and Bucky Lasek. This part is pretty big, and very cool to watch! Tony wins, but it looks like he might have used what he knew about Bucky against him. Tony Hawk also uses this part to explain what the game of SKATE is, and suggests that the viewer play SKATE with his or her friends. It's a great way to push yourself and your friends to be better skaters.

There's also an extra part, apparently sponsored by Hotdog on a Stick, where Tony and Mike have lunch.

There's also a little part where Mike Vallely skates around a parking lot, doing stalls on curbs and a No-Comply off of a concrete pillar. It's fun. For other extras, just like in the last two videos, there are pop ups. But not as many, and this time they are little characters of Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely and Bucky Lasek all dressed in black trench coats and hats. They pop up only a few times, and most of the time they don't even say anything. One time one did say something, it was while Bam Margera was on the screen, and it said that he wore the same clothes he had on in the picture for 14 days straight while filming...

Complaints

This video is tough to come up with complaints against. It's pretty solid, with good instruction. The vert instructions could have been more filled in. I felt that the section on airs was pretty quick, and in the part on dropping in they didn't say what to do after you drop in successfully (as in, what do you do once you get to the other side of the ramp).

One other quick thing - Bucky Lasek flips off Tony Hawk briefly in the game of SKATE. It's easy to miss, but I know some of you parents out there would want to know that. Here's the good part though - this is the ONLY questionable part in the whole video. That's pretty amazing for anything related to skateboarding!

Final Word

For the old school street tricks section alone, which it pretty huge, I would highly recommend this video. These are great tricks that shouldn't be forgotten, and that you can learn without too much experience.

The attitude and style of Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 is very easy going and fun, just like the first two videos, and I still think that most parents would be happy with their kids watching this. And for older skaters in their teens or above, I think the easy going attitude of Tony Hawk and his team is easy to watch and learn from. There's not too much attitude to get through, and you never feel talked down to. Tony Hawk's Trick Tips Volume 3 is a great choice for learning old school and vert skateboarding tricks. I highly recommend it.