My favorite thing about skateboarding
is that it's constantly evolving.
It's all inclusive.
And it is a community of individuals
that all have their own pursuits but come together
in a sense of camaraderie that I've never found anywhere else.
When you go to a skate park and you
see a kid trying to drop in for the first time
or trying a trick, people rally around that.
And that doesn't happen anywhere else.
It just doesn't.
And the kid is doing it for himself.
But at the same time, everyone wants them to do it so badly,
because they know that feeling.
They know that feeling of what it's
like to accomplish something that you were scared of.
And nowadays, it covers all walks of life, all genders.
And I love that that's where we've come.
And some kid can be become a superstar because they
have the sickest hard flip.
Because it can truly teach kids a sense of self-confidence
that they never found anywhere else.
That's what it did for me.
And you are only judged on how you skate.
And it's not a matter of you have to be super good.
You just have to be willing to try.
I skate with my right foot forward.
That means I'm goofy footed.
And if you skate with your left foot forward,
that means you're regular footed.
The best way to know if you're goofy footed or regular footed
is if someone were to push you from behind, which foot
would you brace yourself with?
If it's your right foot, then I would say you're goofy footed.
If it's your left foot, you're regular footed.
And don't worry about the name goofy.
It doesn't mean you're goofy.
It's just something that surfers said a long time ago
and it stuck.
I'm goofy.
Be proud.
I recommend pads to anyone that's starting to skate.
Helmet first and foremost, because that's
going to be the most traumatic injury you
get if you hit your head.
But I recommend at least knee pads
and if not elbow pads when you're
starting out, because you just don't
know what's going to happen.
One minute you're on your board, next minute you're
literally flying backwards or hitting your side
or hitting your knees and your knees and elbows get it first.
So that's my recommendation starting out.
The more confident you get, maybe you
lose some of the pads.
But if you're going to be skating the big ramps,
the only way you're going to survive a fall is with pads on.
So the first way to get moving on your skateboard is to push.
And generally, you want to push with your back foot.
The reason you push with your back foot
is because you can have your front foot in the position
that it will remain once your back foot goes on the board.
So you would start with your front foot
at a slight angle just over the truck bolts.
That means that your foot is at an angle
enough that it can turn the board if necessary,
but also it's pointing enough forward that it
will keep your momentum going.
And you would take your other foot,
push alongside the board on the tow side,
give it one good stride.
If you want to go faster another stride, and then
place your back foot upon the tail.
Once you put your back foot on the tail,
you're going to adjust your front foot
to the proper position.
And it's a pretty simple motion.
It's the way you get speed.
You can improve it.
You can push endlessly and go as fast as you want.
At some point, you might go a little too fast
to actually get a stride for your foot.
And in that case, you're good.
The other thing about pushing is you don't always
have to do it from a standstill.
You can actually take your board and hold it and run with it
and then set it down so that when you set it
down your front foot goes down and then you can give it a push
or just put your back foot on.
But that's a little more advanced.
And probably if you're getting to that stage,
you don't need my help.
So there are a number of ways to come to a stop on a skateboard.
I think one of the easiest ways to learn
as a beginner is just to take your foot off and just drag it.
Slowly put more and more pressure on it
until you come to a stop.
It's basically right on the toe side of your board parallel
to the board itself.
And it's just a matter of evening out your weight
so that you don't put all your weight
on the foot that's on the ground,
because that will make your body stop.
Your board will still be in motion.
The other way to stop is by dragging your heel
on your tail.
And the reason we do that is because we
don't want to stop on our tail itself,
because it wears down the tail, and you
get what's called razor tail.
And your tail will actually start to chip
away because you've been scraping it.
And it's also not as efficient as your foot,
because your sole is made of rubber,
and that will stop you quickly.
In order to do the stop maneuver,
you take your back foot and turn it 90 degrees so
that your heel is actually hanging off
the back of the board.
And then you kick it up so that your heel is the first thing
to hit the ground, and that will start slowing you down.
And the trick is to remain in the center of your heel
and the board or else the board will
start turning very quickly.
I don't think it's a very easy skill to pick up,
but it's crucial when you're starting to street skate
and you find yourself in different terrain
and you want to slow down very quickly.
Turning is the act of leaning in one direction or the other.
And that will make your board go with you,
and you can go into a circular arc or you can slalom.
And basically, it's just a matter
of leaning over one side of your board,
and that brings it turning that direction.
And the key to doing it correctly
is to keep your weight centered over
where you're leaning so that once the board starts turning,
you are turning with it and you are in the center.
And you can actually lean back and forth.
Lean to your toes is going back side.
Leaning to your heels is going front side.
And if you do one to the other, that will actually
generate speed as well.
That's a slalom.
The most common mistake when turning is to turn too sharply.
You turn so hard that you're actually
touching your wheel on your board,
and we call that wheel bite, and that will
stop your board very quickly.
My brother taught me to turn because I
was going straight down the alleyway asking him,
how do I turn?
How do I turn?
And he yelled back, lean.
That was my MasterClass from my brother.
Lean.
So that's what I'm passing on to you.
Just lean.
So tic-tacs are another way to get
moving, and that way you don't have to get off your board.
You don't have to actually push.
You'll find them very useful in skate park settings
where you basically turn one way just a little bit,
lifting up like a quarter of a kick turn.
You lift up a little bit and tac.
And then as you're leaning forward to do it again,
that will just start to get you in motion by default,
because you are leaning forward over your front foot.
That motion generates you moving forward.
The only trick to tic-tacs is don't
go too far with the turns, because that'll
make you slide out.
I think the tic-tac could be a building block for learning
how to turn your board by doing kick turns,
because they are just little quarter or half kick
turns that get you in motion.
But if you can get comfortable with that
and get confident with that, then you
can take that to ramps.
You can take that to other terrain.
And you know how to guide your skateboard with your body
even when you're turning and you're only on two wheels.
The bottom line is the more you skate, the more confident
you get and the better you're going to be.
And that could be in any context.
You could skate to school.
You could just skate in your driveway
when you have a free 10 minutes.
The more time you spend on your skateboard,
the more comfortable you're going to be
and the more confident you're going to be.
And it just starts to evolve.
You don't have to be practicing the hard tricks all the time.
You just have to be comfortable on your board
and be confident with cruising.
And all of these things will just sort of fall into place.