Features

Impress Your Friends

E365> Feature - Friday January 11 2008

Hey kids, wanna be just as cool as the skaters you see ripping up the parks and ramps of the pro circuit? We've got just the thing for you - a step-by-step guide to some of the coolest skating tricks out there. Take this knowledge, practice, and impress your friends with your new found skills. It's that simple!

The ollie

Any skater worth his salt can ollie. As long as you don't have this trick in your reportoire don't expect to be taken seriously. It's tricky, but not impossible. Like anything else, it's just a matter of the correct technique. Here's what you wanna do:

1. To set up, put the ball of your back foot on the tail and your front foot in the middle.
2. Now pop your backfoot so the tail hits the ground.
3. Right when the tail hits the ground, you want to slide your front foot up to the nose and jump.

The frontside 180º

Ah, the frontside 180º. What can we say about the frontside 180º? A classic in its own lifetime.

1. You will need moderate speed for this trick. Speed aids the aspect of turning 180 degrees.
2. Put your feet in ollie position. It is often helpful to wind up.
3. Pop an ollie and as your front foot slides up to your nose, turn your body to your heel(or frontside).
4. It is essential to turn your body fast.

The kickflip

The modern kickflip was invented by Rodney Mullen in 1983 and has become the defining trick of "New School" skateboarding. It's even made it into other sports, most notably surfing, wakeskating, and skimboarding. That means it's a trick you'll have to be able to pull off if it's the respect of your peers you crave.

1. Before you try this trick, make sure you are comfortable with ollies.
2. Setup like you would for an ollie, except have your front heel hang off the board. Some people like to have their front foot at a 45 angle.
3. Now start like you were gonna ollie, but when you slide your front foot up, you instead flip the board with the side of your foot, slightly in front of the front bolts .
4. Now for the landing. There is absolutely nothing to this. If you followed the steps, and are on Earth, the gravity will bring the board down. All you do is to stay over the board and you land.

Mastering these three tricks will give you a pretty solid base from which to progress. One day you might even be good enough to try this following bad boy.

The impossible

Yeah, they don't call it that for any other reason than it's really, really hard.

1. Setup your front foot a bit like a kickflip with your heel hanging off the edge.
2. This trick is almost entirely about the back foot so this part is crucial. The back foot goes on the tail with the toes about on the edge.
3. Push, don't pop, the tail and get your front foot out of the way as you kick your back lower leg outwards away from the board
4. The board should flick up and around your back foot.
5. Pull your legs up to your chest. This will allow both the board to clear your front leg as well help your backfoot scoop the board all the way around without having it turn over or something.

Ok, we'll take pity on you now and leave it at that. Time to hit your board. Armed with this valuable knowledge and a willingness to practice a lot you can master these tricks. So what are you waiting for? Go out there and skate!