Before you try any skateboarding tricks, you'll need to be comfortable on your board and have a good grasp on how to roll around on it, controlling your balance, speed and turning. You'll be doing tricks in two environments: street and vert. Street tricks take place on flat ground or with the board sliding on a bar, called grinding. Vert tricks take place on ramps or in half pipes.
The Ollie
The ollie, the first trick any skateboarder learns, involves jumping your skateboard into the air. It helps any vert trick to gain elevation and for any street trick to get off the ground or onto a bar. To ollie, put your back foot on the tail of your board your front foot in the middle. Stomp down on your back foot and jump into the air while sliding your front foot forward. The skateboard follows your feet as you jump, and you can clear gaps, get air or grind.
The Kickflip
The kickflip foot setup is the same as an ollie. Instead of sliding your dominant food forward on the board as you do in an ollie, drag it towards the side of your skateboard that your toes are pointing to. This causes the board to jump up like an ollie, then flip under your feet. A variation is the heelflip, which is a spin in the other direction.
Dropping In
Dropping in may not seem like a trick, but getting onto a ramp from the top is harder than it looks. If you don't master this, ramp tricks are off limits. To drop in, put the tail of the skateboard on the coping of the ramp so that the whole skateboard except the tail is over the edge. Place your feet on the board and shift your weight forward so the board hits the ramp. Once you get master dropping in, you can start to learn vert tricks.
Backside Boardslide
The backside boardslide is the most basic grind. Ollie onto a bar and slide the middle of your board down the bar. You can also frontside boardslide, which is a boardslide with your body facing the other way.
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