How to Ride a Skateboard (Complete Guide)

You have to spend a lot of time with it just to learn the basics. But I’m telling you, this journey will be remembered in the future.

Let’s earn those skills more smartly with our comprehensive guide on how to ride a skateboard.

Set Your Foot positioning:

The first step in learning how to ride a skateboard is adjusting your foot position. It means which foot you put forward while riding. And the best way I recommend is to get the idea by yourself. 

Choose the foot you will put forward while sliding no matter whatever surface it is. If you step the right foot forward, that’s what we call the goofy stance, and the regular stance is when you are skating with your left foot forward.

You can choose what seems natural to you. Whether you took the right foot forward or left foot forward, it doesn’t matter. You have to earn your own comfort.

Learn How to Push in a Correct Way:

Now that you got which direction you go, right foot forward, or left foot forward, you’re gonna start learning how to push. So you get on the board, you put your front foot straight and act like you are walking. Put your back foot to the side of a skateboard and just walk. Once you are comfortable, you are ready to go in the next step.

Start Moving Your Skateboard:

So now you are comfortable with your foot positioning. It’s time to ride the board, starting with little moves. Now put your other foot on the board and turn your foot sidewise. So your actual riding position will look like a regular skateboarder. You need to practice really hard on this stage.

Master Carving and Kick Turn:

Now we are going beyond pushing and moving, actually learning about turning in the skateboard. There are two methods to do this:

Carving:

By putting more weight on the one side, then the other you can control the skateboard direction. To turn around left or right while riding makes sure your feet are over the front and back bolts. Bend your knees nicely and lean slightly towards the tow side of the board. 

Shifting your body weight while bending your knees will allow you to turn the side you want. That’s all you are ready to do some awesome S-turns. By practicing more and more, your turning will be smoother than before.

Kick turn:

Now it’s time to learn about cool! Kick turn. Kick-turn will help you to change your direction quickly. Even You can turn full 180 degrees to back down on a ramp or obstacle.

So let’s learn the fundamentals. Move your back feet to the back of the tail. Now lets practice just shifting your weight onto the backfoot letting the front of the board come off a bit then just putting it right back down. Cool! Now this time as the front of the board starts to come off the ground. Use your hips to rotate the front of the board just a bit in the direction of your toes and let the board come back down.

Again, Practice! Practice! And Practice.

Don’t Forget These Essential Points below:

Previously we have spoken about the steps of riding a skateboard. But before hopping on the skateboard for learning, you need to make sure of a few things here.

Choose a skateboard that fits you.

If you want to make your learning journey comfortable, you need a board according to your body measurement. For example, a tall guy needs a larger board than a bit shorter guy because of his foot sizes. Regular 8 inches wide size skateboard is an ideal one to start with. Skateboard experts often recommend the beginners to opt for longboards as they are precise in size and features. You can also read our article on what skateboard size to get as a beginner.

Make Sure You Have the Safety Gears.

Here is the truth: Skateboarding is fun, but it comes with some fatal injuries. You’re going to fall during skateboarding, whether you are learning to ride or doing some tricks. At the primary level, the risk is quite high to get injured—that’s why you need a few essential safety gears like knee pads, elbow pads, helmet, gloves, wrist guards, appropriate shoes, etc. We strongly recommend you not to go out without wearing these safety gears. And we all know “Precaution is better than cure” haha!

Find Out the Best Surface for the First Ride.

Riding in a safe place is very important. And when we talk about a safe place, here comes two facts: surface and noiselessness. Choose a place which has a smooth surface without cracks and debris. Again it should be lonesome and noiseless so that you can concentrate on your learning. At the beginning, it’s a very bad idea to ride in wet weather.

Some Bonus Tips:

So we have come a long way so far in this article learning about pushing, moving, turning, and then stopping. Here are some extras: When you are comfortable with the upper steps, you can start going into tricks. But first, make sure you have done Masters at all the basic stuff. If you have, then we have a detailed guide on skateboarding tricks too.

Final words:

At the beginning riding skateboard smoothly is the best joy, like first-time cycle riding. With our complete skateboard learning guide, we have tried to teach you from the basics and share all the fundamentals you need to know.

Now its time to break the shell.