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Ever watched pro skaters and wished you knew how they were able to pull off the tricks that you see? If so, then Mastering Skateboarding is the resource for you!
Two-time world champion skateboarder Per Welinder teams up with longtime skateboard advocate Peter Whitley to bring you the techniques and tricks used by the pros. But the information doesn’t stop there. Welinder and Whitley also provide in-depth coverage of skateboarding equipment, including how to select the components that work best for you and how to build and tune a board that fits your individual riding style. Packed with 88 tricks, this full-color guide is the only resource you’ll need to pull off all the moves you’ve dreamed of doing.
Whether you ride street or vert, competitive or recreational, Mastering Skateboarding has you covered. Add this one-of-a-kind resource to your collection and you’ll soon be ready to put your new skills on display!
PART I: SKATEBOARDING ESSENTIALS
Chapter 1: Equipment and Safety
Chapter 2: Building and Maintaining a Board
Chapter 3: Balance and Control
PART II: TECHNIQUES AND TRICKS
Chapter 4: Basic Maneuvers
Chapter 5: Ollies and Shuvits
Chapter 6: Lip Tricks
Chapter 7: Grind and Slides
Chapter 8: Skills for Other Types of Skating
PART III: THE SKATEBOARDING LIFE
Chapter 9: Challenging Your Environment
Chapter 10: Skating Competitively
Google Per Welinder and your search will reveal the history of a pro skater—a legend who performed all the skateboarding stunt scenes for Michael J. Fox in the famous film Back to the Future, a two-time world champion freestyle skateboarder, and an iconic pioneer in the second generation of skateboarding. Today he is an entrepreneur who earned his MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. Welinder is the president and cofounder of Blitz Distribution, a major player in today’s skateboarding world thanks to brands like Baker Skateboards, Hook-Ups, Sk8Mafia, Fury Trucks, and JSLV clothing.
The accomplished lifelong skater brings a unique perspective to the brands he works with and believes that skateboarding serves a vital role in youth culture. Welinder has promoted the growth of skateboarding worldwide through his roles as the former chair and current board member for the International Association of Skateboard Companies.
Peter Whitley is a lifelong skateboarder, artist, and advocate for skateparks. He is the former executive director of Skaters for Public Skateparks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to skatepark awareness, advancement, and advocacy. Currently he serves as the programs director for the Tony Hawk Foundation. He is also the author of the Public Skatepark Development Guide. When not working with communities on skatepark matters, Whitley is a graphic designer and illustrator.
“Having come from a generation of skateboarding that was very experimental, I’m reassured to know that there are now high-quality instructions and tutorials for learning the tricks that we struggled with for so many years.” -- TonyHawk, Legendary Skateboarder and Entrepreneur
“All other sports have coaches and how-to books. Skating is such a different animal, but it is also a very precise and dangerous sport. Having someone give you the small insights into the techniques involved in skating is invaluable.” -- ChrisCole, Professional Skateboarder
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters.
Nose Manual
The nose manual is a staple trick for all experienced street skaters. In the nose manual, as you might expect, you do a wheelie on the front wheels instead of the back. It helps a lot to have your ordinary manuals down so that you understand the kind of body motion it takes to roll along on two wheels. The nose manual isn't much different once you get the hang of it.
The biggest challenge with nose manuals is that the weight of the board is behind your center of gravity. This makes it more difficult to use the board to “push” through little bumps and imperfections in your balance. As with ordinary manuals, the board sort of acts like a ballast or counterweight for your balance. When it's behind you, it becomes more difficult to make small, quick adjustments.
1. Start by rolling slowly on a smooth surface. Your lead foot should be squarely on the nose, and your rear foot should be near the tail or rear trucks bolts.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent, raise your elbows up and away from your sides, and press down on the nose so that the tail rises up. Try to bring the tail high enough so you feel your center of gravity over the front wheels. At first you will certainly go too far, and the board will dip all the way over. That's okay; it's how you learn where that perfect balance is.
3. When you feel as if you can bring the board up just to the tipping point, try to hold that position for longer and longer distances. Use your arms and hips to maintain your balance and pull the nose manual out to greater distances.
If you are getting frustrated by continuing to tip forward and fall off, try experimenting with frontside 180 kickturns off the nose. (Pivot off your nose while bringing the back end around in the direction your toes are pointing.) Try to do these slower and longer so that the 180 turns are more like long arcs. You'll find that you are doing a nose manual while you turn.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Balance
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity.
At the heart of skateboarding ability is balance. Missed tricks and falls are the result of losing your balance. Being born with good balance will help you progress as a skater. However, balance can be learned and improved with practice.
Balance is maintained by adjusting your center of gravity. Center of gravity is a term used to describe the place where the bulk of a person's or object's weight is concentrated.
When an object is at rest—be it a chair, alarm clock, or Labrador retriever—its center of gravity is spread across the width of its connection to the ground. This is why you have better balance when you stand with your feet apart than with your feet together. Think about a bowling ball: Its connection to the ground is a very small point, and so it's very easy to move the ball with a light touch even though it is heavy. It takes very little force to push the ball's center of gravity beyond its base. However, if you could find an object of identical mass and weight that was square, it wouldn't move with the same amount of pressure because its base is much wider—making it far more difficult to move its center of gravity beyond its base.
If you think about this principle in relation to skateboarding, it makes perfect sense. Any time the board contacts something that offers resistance or has changes in its pitch (such as a bank or a slope), your body needs to adjust. Hitting a rock, for example, can stop the board, but your body will continue moving forward. With a wide stance you have a better chance of adjusting in time and regaining your balance.
Center of gravity is also affected by its distance to the ground. When you're standing still, your center of gravity is right around your belly button. Bending your legs lowers your center of gravity and makes you more stable, whereas standing tall raises your center of gravity and makes you less stable.
When you are standing on a skateboard the same principles apply; standing tall with your feet together makes you unstable, while bending your knees with your feet apart improves your stability. When you are stable you can maintain control.
To see the benefits of a wide, low stance for yourself, stand with your feet touching each other and your knees locked, and swivel your hips as if you were using a Hula-Hoop. If you go crazy swiveling your hips, you may feel yourself losing your balance. Now try again with your feet about a foot apart and your knees bent. It is virtually impossible to throw yourself off balance with this stance. Keeping your center of gravity low and your stance wide is fundamental to good skateboarding.
You will find myriad balancing toys, mock skateboards, and devices that promise to improve your skating. The best way to improve your skateboarding balance is simply by riding a skateboard. This will prepare you for the small things that happen while skating and strengthen the muscle groups that skating requires.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
Knee Slide
Put on your knee pads and make sure they’re comfortable but tight.
Knee Slide
Wearing a helmet is the most important thing. The second most important thing is learning how to knee-slide out of a bail. Put on your knee pads and make sure they're comfortable but tight. You should be able to knock them around with your hands and jump hard up and down without them jiggling around.
This is the basic technique for knee slides:
1. Find a smooth chunk of concrete at the skatepark (or even your garage).
2. Drop heavily to your knees. The impact should be comfortable.
3. Stand up, run a few steps, and drop to your knees again. You should slide forward a foot (30 cm) or so. Again, the impact should be comfortable. You'll notice that you also slid on the top of your feet. Unless you're wearing thin slip-ons, you shouldn't feel the slide in your feet.
4. Repeat the slide a few times. You'll feel the pads tug at the ground over imperfections and rough patches in the concrete. Lean back and distribute your weight between your knees and your shoes.
5. Now take it to the bowl. Pump back and forth until you're about halfway up the transition. When you roll up fakie and are looking down the bowl, drop off the board and land on your knees, with your feet tucked under you.
6. Lean back slightly and slide down the transition.
You should also try a few practice bails while facing the wall and sliding backward. It's more challenging but is a great thing to know.
Some people complain that after skating in knee pads for a while, they forget how to run out of unsuccessful tricks. They instinctively want to fall to their protected knees any time they are bailing. When they take off their pads, they find themselves wanting to land hard on their unprotected knees. This is a better conversation piece than an actual risk. Any skaters who have gotten hurt by thinking they were wearing pads when they weren't may want to reevaluate their skateboarding hobby.
Read more from Mastering Skateboarding by Per Welinder, Pete Whitley.
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