Skateboarding with Christian and the Boys

A few of the boys just hanging out at the Skateboard Park.

Can't keep this man down !

Ace:  Having fun in the Summer Sun !

Only been skating for a couple weeks !

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 4 In A Row Game 

Skateboard Safely

Skateboarding is a fun, active, physically demanding and mentally challenging sport. But it can be as dangerous as any other physical activity if you do not take the time to learn proper skills, techniques and safety measures. While skateboarding may look chaotic and reckless, it is essentially a low impact and relatively safe sport compared to most other popular sports. Of course, riders should ride within their own capabilities. It is important to develop your skills. Begin with basics and learn how to feel comfortable while riding, turning and stopping on your skateboard. Remember, everyone has his or her own individual learning curve. With the right gear and a strong will to learn, skateboarding can be a great activity that builds character, integrity, determination and creativity. Have fun and skate safe.

Skateboarding Jargon

Ollie, With both your feet on the board, lift up the heel of your back foot so your weight is on the ball of your foot and your toes. That part of your foot should be centered at the tip of the tail. Your front foot should be about 2/3 of the way up the board, angled slightly forward. Your toes should be near the toe edge of the board and, depending on shoe size, your heel may be hanging off of the heel edge. Smack the tail to the ground with your back foot and jump off of that back foot--getting the timing down is probably the hardest part. As you jump, your front foot slides up to your nose, pulling the board into the air. At the peak of your ollie, level out your board, then wait for the landing. Always land with your knees bent. When ollieing a gap, try not to think about clearing it; instead, think about popping a nice big ollie. The hardest part about ollieing most gaps is getting in the committed mindset. When you're in the air, spot your landing and keep those shoes on that grip tape until you roll away.

Fakie
Riding backwards. We should note here that when riding fakie, your weight is balanced as in your normal stance, whereas switch-stance requires you to adjust your balance to suit a slightly different style of trick. I'd also like to point out that the distinction between switch-stance and normal is fast disappearing as people now immediately learn to ride both ways. Hopefully, in a few years, goofy-foot and regular foot will no longer exist.

Kickflip
Set up your feet in the ollie position. Your front foot, though, should be adjusted back towards the heel edge a bit and your toes (or rather the front of your shoe) should be just behind the centermost mounting bolts of the front truck. Do an ollie, but rather than only sliding your front foot upward and forward, you must also slide your foot (again, probably your shoe) to the heel side enough to start your board in a spin. This action requires you to actually kick your front foot off of your board; the last point of contact between the front of your shoe and the board should be in that little concaved dip just before the nose. The spinning board then hovers for a second between your sprawling legs. When you see the grip again, stop the rotation with your back foot, then put that front foot back on, right on top of them bolts, and land.

Frontside
You ought to be comfortable with the 50-50 and the manual before taking on the 5-0. Approach the object as if you were going to do a 50-50. Pop an ollie and get your back truck on the ledge (again, like you were going to do a 50-50). Instead of putting your front truck down, you want to try to stay in the manual position. This requires more forward momentum and backward lean than a manual, depending of course on the butter factor of the obstacle in question. Just hold on to that grind as long as you can or until the end of the object and come off as if you were coming out of a manual on a curb. A good way to lock into 5-0 grinds is to angle the board out like a smith grind, only pointing up instead of down. This will let you apply more pressure towards the obstacle to keep that back truck in position, and don't be afraid to let your tail drag along the surface.

When performed this way, frontside 180s and shuvits out flow almost naturally.

50-50:
  You should be comfortable with ollieing up curbs backside before having a go at the 50-50. Once you're able to control your board that way, the backside 50-50 is a cinch. And since your heels are over the ledge rather than your toes (as is the case with frontside 50-50s) you can center your weight easier and ride these things for days. Learning 50-50s on newly painted curbs is choice. Cruise up to the curb with a mellow angle, as if you were going to ollie onto the sidewalk backside. Pop your ollie and stick your back truck on the curb (try to lock your toe edge wheel up against the curb. Next, place the front truck down and get some weight on those heels so you can ride it out to the end of the paint, and turn off. Piece o' cake.
 
Lipslide
A slide where your tail is over the deck (imaginary or real, and two-sided curbs are temporarily being excluded from examples). You can get into this by either b/s or f/s 180 Ollie (approx. measurements for street tricks, real for ramp/pool), or fakieing into it, whether fakie Ollie or just lifting your back end (tail end) up over the coping/lip/ledge. (other possibilities: fakie lipslide may be called a switch boardslide) Also: disaster slide.

Noseslide
You're going to want to gather some decent speed for this one. It's not the kinda trick you can just get onto and hang out until you come off. You've got to earn it. Your front foot should be close enough to your nose that you can stick it on the ledge, but far enough back to let you pop a good ollie. Come at the ledge parellel. As you pop, you should shift your momentum so you're ollieng towards the ledge to get your nose locked in. It's almost like you're nose sliding the side of the ledge. Once you're on there, keep your front foot pushing that nose down and forward. If you stay balanced on the ledge, the dismount isn't too tricky. You kinda nollie out, and use your back foot to control the tail so you land riding straight. Make sure the ledge has a good coating of wax, especially on top where your wheels are sliding.

Tailslide
The frontside tailslide is a trick that, although difficult, can be learned in stages and worked up to. It is useful to be comfortable with the frontside 180 ollie, though you won't need to turn around all the way. Practice landing in the tailslide position by riding at the curb slowly and ollieing frontside. Get just your tail over the curb and put your weight on that tail as you plant it on that curb, leaving your trucks and wheels hanging off the edge. Once you're comfortable landing in that position, try it with a little more speed and roll at the curb almost parallel to it. The faster you go and the more parallel you are to the curb, the longer you'll slide. Once you do get the hang of sliding, get a feel for how long you can push it before the tail slows down and locks in place. You'll want to begin shifting your weight back over the board as it slows down so that you can come off the curb with at least some speed, before it stops completely. Once you have the frontside ollie tailslide wired on curbs, take it to a ledge or something a little taller. Also, try swinging your torso frontside as you ollie into the tailside position, and instead of shifting your weight back over the nose to come off the object, push the tail ahead of you to finish the frontside 180 motion initiated at the start of the trick.