Sometimes we get to a sticking point where we have take things to the next level if we want to see progression. Skateboarding becomes more enjoyable when you see progress.

Pay attention and read this entire blog post to learn how to improve at skateboarding and progress further than all of your friends.

Work Your Way Up

When you’re just starting out skateboarding, learning the fundamentals is most important.

Having the fundamentals of skateboarding downpat will lead you to bigger and better tricks in the future.

If you’re a complete beginner skater, this means working on balance and control, tic tacs, pushing, turning, stopping, etc. Once you feel comfortable on your skateboard, then you can learn how to Ollie and work on landing the 7 tricks every skater should learn for the skatepark, like dropping in (quarter pipes), pumping, 180′s, shuvits, boardslides, 50-50′s, etc.

Master the fundamentals and work your way up to become a great skateboarder.

Skating gaps and stairs

When you’re ready to Olie your first gap or set of stairs, you should already be comfortable Olling up, down and over curbs.

You should also feel comfortable Olling with a bit of speed. Practice this before trying to Ollie any gaps or stairs.

There’s also three things you should be aware of:

Commit to your trick, with no hesitancy, and watch yourself soar over the stairs as you spot your landing and roll away.

Maybe try a frontside 180 next, or if you’re ready for it, kickflip those stairs!

Surround Yourself With the Best

To become the best you have to surround yourself with the best.

Paul Rodriguez is a good example of this. Before anyone heard of P-Rod it was all about Eric Koston. As P-Rod was making his “come up” it soon became known that Koston was his mentor.

Today P-Rod is one of the greatest skateboarders of all time. Why? It was because of his friendship with Koston (and the other amazing skateboarders he surrounded himself with) and everything he was able to learn from Koston, and others, that turned Paul Rodriguez III into one of the greatest.

The lesson: Surround yourself with the best people and place yourself in the right environment to grow & become the best.

If you can’t physically get close to the skateboarders you look up to yet, find them online and see what you can learn from them there. Study their material, discover their success habits, and pick up every tidbit of knowledge you can from their interviews.

It’s like they say, if you do what successful people (skateboarders) do, you stand a good chance of becoming one of them.

Stay Sharp, Stay Positive, Stay Charged

All successful skateboarder know that to be good at skateboarding, you have to be mentally sound, physically skilled and healthy.

Before showing up to skate, get rid of all negativity, drama and stress. To skate at your peak ability, you should have a clear mind and be focused only on positive thoughts, outcomes and good feelings. You should also fuel your body with healthy foods and water to achieve this peak state.

When you make a mistake or wipeout, instead of getting frustrated, learn from it and move on.

If you get tired, either mentally or physically, take a break for a while and come back later. You’ll find that when you come back it’s with new inspiration and energy that you didn’t have before. By the way, don’t try to push through being tired. If you continue to skate while you’re tired, it can lead to a greater risk of getting hurt.

Rob Dydrek has even mentioned that the majority of his skate injuries have happend when he was tired, but kept skating anyway.

Stay fresh and feel good to skate good.

 Summary

Improving at skateboarding takes time and patience, but if you’re committed, continue having fun and enjoying the process, you will soon look back and be amazed with how far you’ve come as a skateboarder.

To get better at skateboarding, make it a point to surround yourself with skaters better then you. This will put you in the right environment for growth and improvement. Pay attention to what they do and adopt their habits, like positive thinking, goal setting and visualization, as your own so that you can get similar results, if not better.

Adopt the habits and beliefs of successful skateboarders and you could become one of them. Stay hungry, stay focused

Keep your dreams alive, and keep skating!

It all depends on where you buy your skateboard from, but there are certain places, both online and offline, where you can buy high quality, low cost skateboards.

Being a new skateboarder who’s still learning how to skateboard, you probably don’t want to spend a lot of money on a skateboard right away, and that’s fine, just as long as you know where to buy good skateboards.

So, to steer you away from the garbage decks out there, I’ve put together this list of  places where you can buy good quality, cheap skateboard decks.

Places to Buy Cheap Skateboard Decks

1. Find skateboards in the classified ads

Classified ads can be a good place for finding skateboards.

You’d be surprised with what kind of deals you can find in the classified ads too.

Try Kijiji, Cragislist, or any other classified ads you know of.

The decks you’ll find here are usually lightly used, but you’ll also find a mix of beat up boards and several brand-new blank decks for sale too.

Check out your local classified ads and see if you can cop a sweet deal on a skateboard.

2. Buy skateboards on Amazon

Amazon has a large selection of skateboards and a wide variety too.

You can expect to find brand new pro model decks, black decks, and skateboards in bulk.

Be aware though, because there is a big list of skateboards here, it also means there is a bunch of low quality boards here too. As long as you know what you’re looking for you shouldn’t have a problem finding a good skateboard quickly and easily.

Click the links below for some of the best cheap skateboards found on Amazon:

Blank Skateboard Decks

Chocolate Skateboards

Element Skateboards

Alien Workshop Skateboards

Girl Skateboards

3. Get a skateshop deck

Go down to your local skateshop and ask to see their shop decks.

If they don’t have any, they will probably show you their blank decks instead. These are just as good as the shop decks and shouldn’t cost any more.

Not only that but your griptape should be free, and if you ask them, they will most likely apply it to your skate deck for you too.

4. Buy a deck from Tactics Board Shop

You can also buy shop decks from online skateshops like Tactics Board Shop.

These decks are the same price as the “Mini Logo” blank decks, except there’s not only color to choose from, but graphics as well. Click here to see the selection of skateboards at Tactics.

Buy a single skateboard deck, with griptape applied, and it would cost you under $35. Buy a complete skateboard, choosing the least expensive skateboard parts (using Tactics skateboard builder) and it would cost you under $80.

You might wanna pick up a little something extra though, because if you spend more than $79 shipping is free!

5. Search for skateboards on eBay

On eBay you can find similar skateboards like the ones found on Amazon.

There’s single decks for sale, complete skateboards, and skateboard decks in bulk. If you want to get the best possible bang for your buck, get a couple friends together and buy a package deal, like 5 skateboards $50 bucks, or whatever.

Prices can range depending on whether or not the board has been painted. If color doesn’t matter so much to you, than you bet you’re going to find some cheap skateboards on eBay too.

Buying a cheap skateboard summary

As you can tell, you’ve got several options for finding good, cheap skateboards for sale. Whatever you do, stay away from stores that don’t specialize in skateboarding.

You can buy a brand new deck or you could get a used one. You can get a blank skateboard deck, a pro deck, or even something in between. Don’t get caught up in the little details, just make a decision and buy the skateboard you want.

Then get busy skating! It’s all good from here… have fun!

Work on the tricks you seem to be doing the best with and then sprinkle the tougher tricks in between your skate sesh. This keeps skateboarding challenging and fun.

Working on the same trick for too long can ruin your entire skate sesh, with you being either too frustrated, or tired to continue.

Keep skateboarding fun!

Have fun when learning new skateboarding tricks. That’s the secret to landing the tricks in your wildest dreams. If you can tap into the right mindset any trick is possible for you.

Here are 7 tricks every beginner skateboarder should learn for the skatepark:

1. Dropping In & Pumping

Quick tips:

Dropping in is all about COMMITMENT. If you chicken out half-way dropping in, you’re probably going to wipe out. If you bend your knees and get a low center of gravity, lean forward, and connect your front wheels, chances are you’re going to land it.

Leaning forward might seem scary but have faith in the technique. If you’re really nervous about dropping in on a quarter pipe/ miniramp maybe you need to practice dropping in on a bank first.

2. 50-50 Grind

Quick tips:

Before attempting a 50-50 grind for the first time, practice Olling sideways a bit. This what you’re going to be doing when rolling up beside a ledge/ box.

You could for the head on approach, but it’s riskier because you’re not always locked on proper. Olling sideways into a 50-50 really locks your grind in place, all the way through.

3. Pop Shuv-it

Quick tips:

This is one of the easiest tricks you can learn in skateboarding. Before learning pop-shuv-its you might want to work on your shuv-its. The only difference is there is no pop in a shuv-its …Doh!

Shuv-its are real fun, but you can’t shuv-it off a set of stairs or over a gap. You’ve gotta learn how to catch a pop shuv-it at the peak of your pop. With practice, you will.

4. Frontside Noseslide

Quick tips:

Before learning this trick you should learn how to nosestall first. I’m talking about nosestalling curbs, stairs, benches, boxes, and whatever else you can find that you can Ollie onto.

Some beginners might learn how to nosestall with Olling, and that’s perfectly fine. You can also learn how to noseslide this way too. Wait till you learn this tricks, you’ll be doing it all the time.

5. Kickflip

Quick tips:

The kickflip is one of, if the the most wanted trick for beginner skateboarders. It took me a couple months to figure this trick out for myself, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t land it the first day of trying.

Watch a bunch of trick tip videos on this trick, get perspective from skaters who can do this trick really well, relax and have fun with this one! Pop a solid Ollie, and at your peak flick your ankle in the top corner of your board. All that’s left to do now is catch the flip with your back foot, bring your front foot back, absorb the landing, and roll away!

6. Rock Fakie/ Rock n’Roll

Quick tips:

The rock n’roll trick might be an easier for you, because you are riding back into the ramp the way you came up. But really they’re both simple tricks.

Get use to pumping the miniramp first, obviously, so that you get use to riding out fakie. While you’re at it, get use to riding switch too, because this will round out your entire game and turn you into a WAY better skateboarder.

7. Backside Grind

Quick tips:

There’s two ways you can do this trick. One way is to grind on top of the coping, and the other way is to grind the coping on the side. The second way is easier and safer, but you should eventually learn how to do it both ways.

As long as you have your trucks set it the right position, there should be no fear of hanging up and crashing. Dropping in on a backside 50-50 grind is easy once you know how. Get out there and learn how!

If you want my opinion, I’d say that the three easiest tricks to learn on this list would have the be the pop shuv-it, frontside noseslide, and rock to fakie. So if you only want a couple tricks to practice at once, there’s three of them, and they’re probably going to be easy for you too. Try ‘em out!

How many of these tricks you can already do?

In this article, there are five mistakes beginner skateboarders make when learning new tricks and ways to correct them. After correcting these mistakes, you will find it easier – and more fun – to land new tricks.

Here are five mistakes beginner skateboarders make and how to avoid them:

1. They aren’t prepared

If you’re trying a trick that you’ve never tried before, you can’t really expect to land that trick with no preparation. The smart way to land tricks is to prepare yourself, both mentally and physically, before attempting your trick of choice …or even before your skate session. Get ready for it. Get into state. Feel good and ready to skate.

Did you know that professional skateboarders will think of a trick they want to learn, and then practice it over and over again in their mind before actually trying the trick? It’s true. You can use this visualization technique to gain confidence and raise your belief. This way when you attempt your trick, you’re doing it with certainty and you really believe you can. And when you really believe you can, you will.

2. They don’t believe in themselves

Not believing in yourself is like giving up before you even start. Too many time I hear skaters say “I can’t do that” or “there’s no way I’ll ever be able to do that”. Well, guess what… you’re right. The only way you’ll be able to do something is if you believe you can.

That’s why it’s so important to prepare yourself first. By visualizing and gradually working yourself up to the trick, you gain the confidence you need to attempt the trick and expect to land it. It’s important when trying a trick that you give it 100%. If you hesitate when attempting your trick, that’s when you’re more likely to get hurt.

“Don’t ever hesitate, hesitation is what gets you hurt. It’s full speed ahead.” – Colin McKay

You have the be ready to land your trick. If you’re not ready, you probably won’t land your trick. If it’s a trick you’ve been having trouble with, make sure you have all your fundamental tricks down first. This will give you a much better chance for landing that trick you’ve been stuck on. Don’t rush the process. Let it happen when you’re ready for it to happen. This will make it seem like the trick was easy to land.

3. They aren’t excited or having fun

Sometimes you’re gonna get frustrated when learning tricks. You could be having an ‘off day’, or maybe you’re not in the right mindset, or maybe you should be doing something other than skateboarding that day. Anyway – once you start getting frustrated, it’s a good sign to either try an easier trick or take a break.

If you’re not having fun skateboarding, then what the heck are you doing!? Skateboarding is all about having fun. As a matter of fact, by having fun you get more creative and imaginative, and you learn more new tricks. So whatever you do, don’t let yourself get frustrated when you’re trying to land tricks. Have fun and enjoy the learning process. Control your emotions.

4. They worry too much about failing

Constantly worry over things that will most likely never happen can be hazardous to your health. If it’s a problem you have, fix it. Because worrying about it won’t do it. The remedy is to replace worry with positive thoughts. Focus more on what you want to happen, not what you don’t want to happen.

Did you know?

• 40% of what you worry about will never happen
• 30% of what you worry about or fear are things that happened in the past and can’t be changed
• 10% of what we worry about are considered by most to be insignificant issues
• 12% of what we worry about are issues about our health that will not happen
• This means that 92% of what we fear or worry about will never take place

That means only 8% of what we worry about could be considered legitimate concerns. And of that, there’s 4% of worries beyond our control and 4% of worries that we have some, if not all, control of the outcome. Focus on the solution, not the problem.

5. They are temporarily insane

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If what you’re doing isn’t working, it’s probably a good time to try something new. Give this new approach a few tries and see if it works any better or worse. Then throw out what doesn’t work and keep what does. This is the only way you’re going to get the results you’re looking for. Test, track, and tweak.

Have you been making any of these mistakes? If so, now know how to avoid them. With the tips you’ve found in the blog post, you can take your skateboarding to whole new level and start landing more new tricks to impress your friends with.

Image: Trevor McGoldrick

• A list of goals
• A clear picture
• A purpose

Each step plays an important role in your overall strategy. Your chances of success will be much smaller if even one of these steps is lacking.

Skateboarding doesn’t always have to be a struggle. Learning new tricks and landing old tricks consistently can be easy actually, but only if you follow this 3 step formula. Apply this advice to your skateboarding for the next 90 days straight and you are guaranteed to start seeing better results. Using this formula you  can land more new tricks, more consistently, and with better style. You will be able to put together multi-trick runs, win games of s-k-a-t-e , place well in competition, get mad respect from your friends, and have more fun than ever.

Have an organized goal list

Just by writing your goal down your 10x more likely to accomplish it. Make a list of all the tricks you want to learn and then take note of all the tricks you have to work on to get there.

For example, if landing clean 360 flips is on your list and you can’t even kickflip yet, that would be your first goal. You would probably also have varial flips, pop shuvits, and 360 shuvits on the list too. Your goal should be to landeach trick at least 8 out of 10 tries. And work on catching them at the peak of your pop for good style.

Visualize your tricks happening

All top performing athletes (e.g. Paul Rodriguez) visualize what they want. In this video series with P-Rod, he says he visualizes his tricks before attempting them. He says he sees it happening exactly the way he wants it to happen in his minds-eye first, before trying it for real.

Only when you believe you can land your tricks, will you land them. By visualizing your trick happening successfully over and over again, you begin believing that you really can land your trick. And with that confidence you’ll land it. If you’re hesitant and ditch your board trying a trick, it means you didn’t believe you could. So to commit fully to a trick and land it, you have to first believe you can.

Practice with purpose

If you want to get better at skateboarding then you have to practice with purpose. You can’t just dable in skateboarding and expect to get good overnight. You have to put the time in and practice… figure it all out. Track your results so you can see how much better you’re getting each week/ month/ year. (Filming yourself skateboarding is a good way for tracking your progress.)

If you want to skateboard for a living someday, that has to be part of your purpose. If you just skate around aimlessly all day, you’ll get better at skateboarding, but not nearly as fast if you had a purpose – specific things to do to achieve your goals.

Sum It Up

Know what you want, which tricks you need to work on. Then set those as goals and create a plan to accomplish those goals. See your tricks happening in your mind as if you were actually doing them. See it all as vividly as you can, because your mind can’t tell the difference between what it vividly imagines and what it actually sees. With this technique you can convince your mind that you can already do the trick. This will increase your confidence and help you land your trick.

Practice your tricks, but make sure you’re having fun. If you’re not having fun, then you shouldn’t be skateboarding. To keep yourself from getting frustrated, sprinkle the trick you’re working on in-between your other, easier tricks. Skateboarding shouldn’t ever feel like a chore. It’s suppose to be fun – that’s how you get better and land more tricks consistently with style.

But first… what is “chickenfoot”?

Chickenfoot is a common problem with many beginner skateboarders who attempt a trick and then not commit to it fully. This seems to happen a lot with kickflips and Olling down stairs and over gaps.

When I first started skating stairsets this was a huge problem for me to overcome. Almost every time I went for a trick down the stairs I would kick my skateboard out and away before I ever had the chance to land my trick. Doing this caused me to have some nasty heel bruises that hurt, probably way worse than if I had just committed to the trick.

One of the biggest reasons I didn’t commit to landing my trick was because I didn’t believe I could. This leads me to my first tip on breaking the chickenfoot curse while skateboarding…

#1 – Believe in yourself and your ability to land your trick.

Chances are if you don’t believe you can land a certain trick, you’re right. That’s why you shouldn’t ever say you cant do something. Believe that you can. If you’ve already done this trick once before then you know you can do it again.

If this is your first time trying the trick then you have to get a little more creative. You have pretend that you’ve already landed this trick before, and you have to believe that you can do it again.

Act as if you can and you’ll become much more confident in your ability to land your trick.

#2 – Visualize yourself succeeding.

A great way of believing that you have the ability to land a trick that you’ve never done before is visualizing yourself doing it. Picture yourself doing this trick as if it were actually happening. See what you would see and feel how you would feel.

This might sound like hocus-pocus to some, but trust me, I’m not the only one who uses this technique for landing tricks. Paul Rodriguez does too. And probably many other professionals skateboarders as well.

When you do this over and over again in your mind you start believing that actually can land this trick, and it doesn’t seem so scary to commit to your trick.

# 3 – Feel the fear and do it anyway.

The reason why skaters have chickenfoot is simply because they are afraid of committing and landing their trick. They think about all the bad things that could happen and that freaks them out.

To get rid of chickenfoot you have to face your fears. You have to accept that fact that skateboarding is going to hurt sometimes, but not let that stop you from trying.

The way to relieve some of this fear is by getting rid of negative thoughts and self-talk. Instead, fill your head with positive thoughts and images. Visualize yourself succeeding, believe in yourself, and commit fully.

Hesitation is what gets your hurt, so when you decide that you’re going to try the trick, don’t think, just go for it with everything you got.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Please feel free to leave a comment and share with your friends!

If you’ve just started skateboarding and you’re looking for tips on how to overcome your fear, commit to your tricks, defeat frustration, and land more cool skateboard tricks that will impress your friends, then pay attention to the following three tips.

#1 – Feel good to skate good

It’s the law of attraction that states we always get more of what we focus on. If you’re letting yourself get frustrated over a trick, more things will happen for you to react to.

Instead of focusing on the problem which is making you so upset, focus your energy on the solution and ask questions like, “HOW can I land this trick right now?”

And remember this, by always getting frustrated it becomes a habit to feel negative whenever you’re skateboarding. Don’t make this mistake. Make it a point to always feel good when skateboarding and you’ll land more tricks.

#2 – Feel the fear and do it anyway

We all have this fear doing things outside our comfort zone. The difference between professionals and unsponsored skaters is the pros do it anyway.

There is no way to fully get rid of that fear, but there is ways to relieve this fear. One way is through the practice of visualizing. By visualizing the trick happening over and over again, your brain begins to believe you’ve already done this before, and you will act more confidently.

Another good technique for overcoming your fear and committing to a trick is being on a roll …in the zone. By landing a couple easier tricks first, before you attempt the “grand finale”, you gain enough confidence to drive you through the fear and commit to your trick.

#3 – Have more fun to land more tricks 

Skateboarding is to fun are like peanut butter is to jelly. Without fun in skateboarding it would be very dry and boring. Skateboarding is a unique sport which allows you to express yourself through your skating. When you have fun, you become more creative, and you learn new tricks easier. 

Competition in skateboarding is a good thing, because it can be used as motivation to progress and get better, but you should never let competition take away your uniqueness.

Focus on being a creative skateboarder and come up with your own tricks. Responding to what the competition is doing makes you just another face in the crowd. To stand out you have to get creative and be yourself. 

Get inspired from your favorite skaters and put your own unique twist on a trick you saw and/or add some of your own style to the trick to make it your own. Come up with tricks that nobody else is doing. Skaters like this are the ones who shine through the crowd.

Even though acting on these tips will really help you improve your skills, there’s always more to learn. Learn all you can about what you’re interested in and you’ll someday become a master.

To learn more tips about improving as a skateboarder follow my tweets on twitter @howtoskateboard. If you don’t have an account, sign up! It only takes a minute to sign up and it’s free.

See you there!

P.S. If you found this article helpful leave me a comment below telling me your favorite part, or even let me know of something else you seem to be having a problem with. Also, be a pal and share this with your friends. Thanks!

When you’re just starting out your style dosesn’t seem to be as important as how many tricks you can land. It seems like some skateboarders only care about who can do what.

“Tricks get applause, style gets respect.”

It’s been said by professional skaters that style matters much more than what tricks you can do. If you can do amazing tricks but you land them looking sketchy you don’t get the full respect for the trick.

There’s 3 things you can do to improve on your style of skateboarding:

1. Master the fundamentals
2. Control your body
3. Visualize your tricks

Daewon Song has style!

Master the fundamentals – Get your Ollies high and stuck to your feet. Learn kickflips until you can do them with your eyes closed. Practice your 180′s and pop shuvits until you can do them every time. If you make the trick look awkward, you need more practice. Get really comfortable on your skateboard.

By doing this, you’re setting yourself up for success in the future. Those tricks you’ve practiced will now be part of your “bag of tricks” and you’ll be able to pull that trick out on practically any new obstacle you skate. Now you’ll have some tricks you can do consistently while also practicing and perfecting new tricks too.

Not only that, but having tricks “on lock” gives you the ability to better put together combinations of tricks. For example, my first trick combination was a kickflip backside 50-50 grind. To land that trick, both my kicflips and 50-50′s had to be down pat.

Control your body – The way your body moves is an expression of your style. Watch videos of yourself skating and notice how you swing your arms and twist your body. Then watch a video of your favorite skater and notice his or her way of skating and see how you compare.

Sometimes when trying a new trick, you land it a little unexpectedly and your body twists and turns, and your hands flail in the air… this is just your natural reaction. It happens to all of us. The more times you try that trick, the better you get at it and the more confident you become.

Once you become familiar with a trick you can roll away with confidence. New tricks on the other hand, you’re not 100% sure you’re going to land it, and that’s why it sometimes looks really sketchy when you do land it – it’s like you didn’t even mean to do the trick on purpose.

Your goal should be to roll away from all your trick just as you are when you land the trick. If you need a good example of this, watch footage of Mark Appleyard, Paul Rodriguez or Shane O’Neill. They all land theirs tricks above the bolts and roll away with confidence. They usually roll away smooth in the direction they landed their trick.

Visualize your trick – In your minds eye see how you want your tricks to look like. Don’t just see yourself doing the trick, but also see yourself rolling away from the trick. It helps to close your eyes and really imagine you were actually doing the trick exactly how you wanted to.

Like I said before, when your not confident in your ability to land your trick chances are it’s going to look sketchy. By visualizing the trick happening just a you want it to over and over again, you become more confident in landing the trick for real.

Visualize the trick happening exactly the way you want it to a couple times before you actually do the trick. See what you would see. hear what you would hear, and feel how good you will feel once you land it. Doing this will help you to land your tricks more consistently and confidently.

Before we wrap this up, there’s something that needs to be said. There’s no reason to be like Paul Rodriguez because there’s already one of him. Be yourself. To have anywhere near the success he’s had, you have to take bits and pieces of style from your favorite skateboarders, add it to your own unique personality, and develop your own style. This is how you stand out, get noticed by potential sponsors, and begin a career.

To summarize this blog on how to improve your style…

• Work on landing your tricks consistently
• Control your body
• Command your tricks with confidence
• Roll away like you meant to
• Visualize your tricks beforehand, and…
• Work on making all your tricks look effortless and fun.

If you found this article helpful, please share this website with your friends. Having someone to bounce ideas off is just what you need to reach the next level of your skateboarding. Create or join a team and together you can learn how to skateboard at the peak of your abilities and get the respect you deserve.

For the love of skateboarding, have fun!

When I first started going to skateparks it was an intense experience…

First of all, we didn’t have a skatepark in my town yet, so we would have to get driven to the skatepark. One time me and my friend convinced his dad to drive us to the skatepark in the city, which is the skatepark you see in the picture.When we went though, it was packed with skaters and bikers.

It’s so fun going to a new skatepark and having new obstacles to skate. The thing was, me and my friend were both beginner skaters who could only do a couple tricks. And because we didn’t want to look stupid trying to skate the entire park, we skated the flat rail and that was it.

We drove 45 minutes into the city to skate a flat rail …do you see how ridiculous that is? It shouldn’t have been like that.

If you’re afraid of embarrassing yourself by falling off your skateboard or intimated of the other skaters better than you, use these tips to forget about what others think about you and land the tricks you want because you choose to.

8 Tips For Beginners Skating at the Skatepark

1. Go to the skatepark in the morning - As you can tell in the picture the park was empty when I showed up, because I went early morning. That’s the best time to find the skatepark empty if you’re nervous skating with a bunch of skateboarders on the park.
2. Make new friends – Make friends with the best guys on the skatepark. Knowing the local skaters is a sure way of feeling comfortable when showing up to the skatepark. Show respect and usually you’ll get respect back. Skateboarding with skaters better than you are is also a really good way to become a better skateboarder.
3. Warmup before going ham – This is especially true if it takes you 30 minutes or more to drive to the skatepark. Jumping on your skateboard and trying your best tricks right away can lead to some ugly wipeouts. Stretch your legs out if you have to. Do whatever you have to the loosen up and feel relaxed.
4. Respect the skatepark – It doesn’t matter where you’re skating at, respect the park. You can’t expect to get very inspired when there’s trash all over the skatepark. The same goes for graffiti. Ugly graffiti or writing stupid things on the skatepark does good for no one. On the other hand, when there are graffiti masterpieces or properly painted obstacles happening, it’s inspiring …and being inspired to skate is what we want.
5. Trust your gut - Listen to what your intuition tells you. If you have a bad feeling about a certain tricks don’t do it. Skateboarding IS about stepping outside your comfort zone and avoiding unnecessary wipeouts. Sometimes wiping out is part of the learning experience. That’s just the way it goes, but you can avoid a lot of nasty wipeouts just by trusting your gut.
6. Keep your head up – When there’s a skatepark full of skaters and bikers make sure you know what’s happening around you. Be sharp. Watch out for yourself by keeping your head up. Wait your turn to skate an obstacle. This is common sense but it’s worth saying because I’ve seen too many kids crashing into guys only because they weren’t looking where they were going.
7. Focus on having fun – Skateboarding has everything to do with having fun. If you’re not having fun you shouldn’t be skating. You can’t expect to learn very much when you’re not having fun. Focus on having fun and doing fun tricks. Sure – try new tricks, but don’t let yourself get stressed out when learning them.
8. Flow with the go – There’s usually a certain flow to the skatepark. You have to be aware of that flow and go with it. That means you can’t be stopping in the middle of the skatepark. If you want to sit down for a minute get off the skatepark. Standing or sitting on a skate obstacle just puts you in the way of other skateboarders. If you don’t land your trick, flip your board over and keep going. Flow with the go.

Well, that’s it. These are tips that will make your experience at the skatepark a lot more fun if you use them.

When you go to the skatepark you should be able to skate everything you want. Practice your tricks at home so when you get to the skatepark you have some tricks you can throw down. Don’t be afraid of trying new tricks at the park though. If you wipeout – so what – get up, learn from your mistake and make it right. Don’t feel embarrassed if you wipeout. Every true skateboarder has wiped out more time than they can count. It’s all part of the process.

If you have any questions or comments leave it in the comments below.

Until next time, keep skating, and have fun!

It took a long time for me to find these out but once I did and started using them skateboarding became so much more fun. Landing new tricks is what makes skateboarding fun and it suddenly became easier to do that.

You want to learn how to land that nagging trick without all the frustration?

It starts with the first of five tricks…

1) Get inspired and in state

If you’re feel un-inspired your skating is going to be half-assed. Get into state before going out to skate. Watch your favorite skate videos on Youtube and get inspired. You’re going to be more creative and land bigger and better tricks when you do.

2) Focus on fundamentals

Before attempting to kickflip an 8 stair you want to make sure you have kickflips on lock. Any great skateboarder has the fundamentals down (Ollies, Kickflips, Heelflips, 180′s, etc). It is the key to landing more technical tricks. Fundamentals are also what makes you consistent with your tricks; and consistency makes you a great skateboarder.

3) Ask better questions

Any question you bring to your mind you will find an answer to. If you ask WHY you can’t land a trick, you will get an answer. The thing with that question is it gives you an answer that doesn’t help you. Try asking yourself HOW you land the trick instead. This will unlock so many more tricks for you.

4) Build some momentum

Land tricks you know you can land before attempting ones that you have a slim chance of landing. In other words, it helps to have some momentum before trying tricks that are slightly outside your comfort zone.

5) Keep your end goal in mind

Sometimes I get so excited about a new trick that I only visualize myself doing the trick and not landing it and rolling away. The problem with doing that is you never get past doing the trick. The obvious end goal would be to roll away from your trick feeling better than before. Keep the end goal in mind.

Because I’m a giver here’s an extra tip…

6) Act as if

Act as if you had already landed the trick. Feel the feelings of already having landed your trick. Feel how good you would feel if you landed your trick and feel like that right now!

Share this blog post with your friends if you think it will help. Remember you are only as good as the skateboarders you skate with. By sharing this with your friends you all get better at skateboarding. Everyone wins.

Peace out!