Hey Bill... Where i started, was to try to stay on the board, and get the balance on the board. after that i trained on the ollie, because the ollie is the basic of the basic trik, you must learn it. (Im still in the basic triks, but from here is my plan.) after that you could try to do some of these triks: http://www.how2skate.com/tricktips.htm look under "Basic triks". and then slowly try some of the hard triks, but remember, you can´t become a good skater from one day to another :), and don´t give up (Y). Hope it help you a little. good luck. (Sorry for my bad english, hope you understand what i say :) )

Hi bill all you really need to do is be confident and try tricks in the grass but you need to get balance people say ollie is the basic trick balance is the key to skating if u have no balance you cant skate and i recomenned loose trucks dont put them to tight and one last thing just because u see all these people bombinh hills at 200 miles per hour dosent mean u have to start at a moderate speed and get faster if you need anything im on at 6-8:10 in the morning and anytime after 4:00 because i get outa skewl at 4:000