Riding / turning

When you start skateboarding, the first thing you should learn is riding, turning and keeping your balance while doing so.

(Videos by Skate4Him & JackO)

If you don't know where to put your feet on the board, read more about stances & foot positions first.

There are a few ways to ride your board. The next chapters will discuss every option.

Pushing

The most frequently used way to ride a skateboard is pushing.

Leave your front foot on the board, and use your back foot to gain speed by pushing off the ground. You can stear a bit with your front foot.

Always keep your legs sort of together. If you don't, you might end up in a split when you're riding fast.

Some people prefer to push with their front foot, and leave their back foot on the back bolts. This is called pushing mongo and it's not a good thing, because it takes more time to get your feet ready for a trick, so you lose some speed. Try to push normal, if you really can't learn it, there's no shame in pushing mongo, it's just a small disadvantage.

Turning

To change direction while riding, you can just lean to either side of the board to go in that direction. The looser your trucks are, the faster you will turn (though you'll lose some stability).

The second way to turn is a kickturn. To do a kickturn, you push a little on the tail with your back foot, and swing the board to the direction you want to go with your front foot while your front wheels are in the air.

Kickturns can also be done on ramps, but you should wait with that untill you're very comfortable on your board.

Tic-tacs

Tic-tacs are a sequence of small kickturns to alternating sides.

First you make a kickturn to the right, then to the left, then right again, etc...

This might look a bit silly, but it's actually a way to get forward at low speed. Like when your buddy is two board lengths away, you can just tic-tac over to him, instead of pushing.

And of course it's a good way to practise your board stability.

Practise!

Time to practise the things you just read. Take your time to get comfortable on the board, because it's really important.

Grab your board, cruise around for a while and practise some tic-tacs.

Please press "Like" if this helped you

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good ideas :D :D

good ideas

snap
3 years ago

i just learned to tic-tac this week after i broke off the nose off my last board, and it really does work! pretty cool

skater_die
3 years ago

Now i gotta go riding tonight!

MadCroc41
3 years ago

thanks

thioclark
3 years ago

i can never turn left just right i dont kno wat 2 do bout it the only way i kno how to turn left is if i loosen my trucks and lean...

deago488
3 years ago

Pushing normal is harder because u cant move ur front while pushing because then the board would move with ur foot.

ForeverDGK
3 years ago

YOU CAN ALSO TURN BY PUSHING YOUR BACK FOOT DOWN ON THE BACK OF THE BOARD AND THEN MOVE IT

23377
2 years ago

i like those tips ^^ thnx ;D

i like those tips

thnx ;D

dinjaDONUT
2 years ago

I like it. but:O I can't kickturn:O

I like it.

but

I can't kickturn

MaudMonster
2 years ago

Turns one way may be harder than turns the other way; I personally can turn a lot tighter comfortably heelside than toeside, since I'm used to having my weight on my heels than my toes. Shifting your weight helps, as does just getting comfortable with being in the awkward position. This problem makes for a hilarious path when I carve down a hill; my heelside cuts are straight across the road, but my toeside cuts are off at a really open angle.

Turns one way may be harder than turns the other way; I personally can turn a lot tighter comfortably heelside than toeside, since I'm used to having my weight on my heels than my toes. Shifting your weight helps, as does just getting comfortable with being in the awkward position.

This problem makes for a hilarious path when I carve down a hill; my heelside cuts are straight across the road, but my toeside cuts are off at a really open angle.

HoshinoYumemi
2 years ago