The Ollie is perhaps the fundamental skateboarding trick you can learn. In fact, the Ollie will be the basis of all the skateboard tricks for beginners you will learn in this tutorial.
The Ollie is typically a trick that has you combining popping, jumping and kicking on the board all at the same moment.
The Ollie is not just a trick, but it comes in handy when you need to leap over, onto or off the obstacles on your course.
The Ollie takes a considerable amount of time and calls for practice. Lots of practice.
How to Ollie
As a beginner, you will want to first try the Ollie from a stationary position. This in mind, if you still haven’t figured out how to balance well, it is highly advisable that you try it first on grass or on a carpet (if you are doing it indoors, clear the room to avoiding breaking stuff).
Step one:
Keep your front foot down just behind the truck bolts on the front and your back foot on the tail of your skateboard.
Step two: Snap your tail by pressing your back foot on it and at the same moment, do a jump relieving some weight on your skateboard. Ensure that your front foot drags up to the forepart of the front nose. This will pull your skateboard up with you.
Step Three: Assuming you pulled the jump off, level the skateboard when you reach the optimum height.
Step Four: Prepare for landing by compressing your knee just as the board touches down. You have done your first Ollie.
Wiki Art showing a skateboard trick
It might look hard on text, and for this reason, I have found out a brilliant video done by Braille Skateboarding that explains to you the fundamentals of the Ollie.
Don’t be tempted to do it out on the streets until you have gotten the hang of it. Once you have perfected the Ollie from a stationary position on grass or carpet, you can move to concrete and once you think you are ready to roll, you can try it on the streets. Start with small obstacles such as curbs and graduate slowly.
Shoving it
After perfecting the Ollie, you are now ripe for more advanced tricks. The next trick is doing a “Shuvit” or Shove. A shove is the younger cousin of our next rick the Pop Shove. Just like in the Ollie, you should first practice from a stationary position. You can use a guard rail to hold on to before you develop the confidence.
Step one: You will want your front foot to be directly above the front axle, with the toe pointed a bit out. Your back foot should be on the trail of the skateboard with the toe slightly overhanging the board. This will have your body weight centered on the board.
Step two: the idea is to have your feet moving in opposite directions. The sheer force of your feet will cause the skateboard to rotate 180 degrees. Using your back foot, shove the tail of the skateboard towards your heel, move your front foot in the opposite direction to help turn the board
Step three: Make a jump just as the board starts spinning. Watch how the board spins and track it with your feet such that your back foot lands on the tail of the skateboard (as it was before the spin)
Step four: Prepare for landing by tracking the board movement. Extend your feet to cover the entire board. Ensure that you don’t end up with both of your feet on the same side of the board.
Anothe skateboard trick; the Shove
The shove requires a lot of practice. To perfect it, make sure you land safely 9 out of 10 attempts. To make it easy for you, I found another video “The Best Exercise to Help You Learn to Shuvit” by Go Skate
Now pop the shove
A pop shove is a combination of the two tricks that you have already done. You should only try it after you have mastered the Ollie and perfected the Shove. There are two types of pop shoves; the front side and the back side. The back side is easier and for this reason, we will learn it first
Step one: the foot placement is similar to the Ollie. The only major difference is that the front foot will slightly hang off the board and the back foot has its heel out.
Step two: Using your back foot, press on the board to lift it up and smack your skateboard hard on the surface to create the popping sound. You will want to pop the skateboard from the centre most part of the tail or else the board will flip.
Step three: As you do step one, give your board a slight kick towards your back heel to bring it into a spin. As you have noticed, most of the action happens at the back.
Step four: After the board completes the 180 degrees turn, employ your front foot to stop it by placing it on the front part of the board. Maintain the pressure until you land the back foot.
Step five: prepare for the landing by bending your knees as the touch down happens. Again, try to land the feet on opposite sides of the board to give you balance.
Wikihow illustration of the skateboard trick; pop shove
To put everything I perspective, I recommend watching this video by Braille Skating: If you can do all of these three tricks, then you will not be called a beginner for long. For safety reasons, all beginners should be properly geared to avoid injury. The basic protective gear should be a helmet, knee and elbow pads and gloves.
Remember, practice, practice makes perfect. In you loved this article, share it with your friends! Keep the discussion going on by commenting below this post.