Skateboarding and skateboard tricks are easy with these tips. Get expert advice on skateboard decks and trucks in this video.
Find a large area
Skate on smooth surfaces
Roll while bending the knees & ankles
Stay low for safety purposes
Buy quality skateboard
Shawn has over twenty years of skateboarding knowledge. He has appeared in Slap, Thrasher and Transworld magazines and his sponsors include Venture Trucks, Ricta Wheels, Roughneck Hardware and FTC Skate shop. Originally from the northeast state of Maine, where good skate spots are hard to find, Shawn loves and appreciates the abundance of skate spots the Bay Area has to offer. Shawn enjoys sharing the art of skateboarding and believes that it is one of the few "sports" that teaches real patience and determination, allows for limitless growth, and nurtures individuality at the same time.
SHAWN CONNOLLY: So a beginner's guide to skateboarding. Some of the things that you'll need to know as a beginner and starting out riding a skateboard is to make sure that you find a spot where you have enough room to skate and you don't have to worry about cars or a lot of people coming by. The more room you have to roll around and do whatever you want to do, the better. The more space that you have, the better off you'll be. The more running-out space that you have when you miss a trick, it will be better too. And sometimes it's just good to find a place where you don't have a lot of distractions. So finding a good, safe place to skate at is the first thing. Also, you're going to want to find somewhere that's pretty smooth, not a lot of cracks. When you're first starting out and your balance isn't that good and you're trying tricks that are hard for you or skateboarding is beginning for you and it's a challenge, you don't want to be messed up by cracks in the street and rolling over uneven surfaces. You want to try to pick somewhere that feels good and you can keep your speed. The other thing that's very important for a beginner in skateboarding is making sure that when you roll, you roll bending your knees and doing all of your tricks bending your knees and ankles. Absorbing impact is one of the most important things to having somewhat of longevity in skateboarding and being able to last a long time without either wearing yourself out that day or hurting yourself in the long term. So you're going to want to remember to stay low. Also, for beginner skateboarders, keeping your head low to the ground by bending your knees and bending your back down just a little bit, so your head is closer to the ground, so it's a shorter distance for it to hit the ground, so all of these things will help you. Another important tip for beginner skateboarders is having a good setup. The better your setup, the better off you'll be. There's a lot of skateboards that are out there that you can buy that are pretty cheap, but if they're not good skateboards with precision bearings and it's actually good wheels then it's going to stop you from being able to roll fast and having any kind of pop or control of your board. So make sure that you have a good setup when you're actually trying these tricks, because some of the complete store-bought skateboards sometimes aren't that good. They're good for starting out and they're good for rolling around, but if you actually want to try to learn some difficult tricks, like some of the tricks that you see in videos, you're going to have to get a pro skateboard, and it will be a lot better and it will help you out.
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