Skateboarding For Beginners
By Adam Bunn, Thu Dec 8th

Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to do at leastan hour of after work each day. The road outsideis smooth and flat, very good for practicing flatland stuff. Thekid two doors down from me, Jake, joins in sometimes too, and ashe's about the same level we get on well and push each other todo better.

All this regular has started to attract theinterest of several kids that want to begin skateboarding. Jake,being a fairly typical teenager, doesn't have the time of dayfor them, but I find it quite interesting trying to teach them.

That got me thinking about the absolute basics and how to goabout learning them. The problem with these kids is they want torun before they can walk. They haven't yet got the dedication tolearn how to ride properly, because they always want to learnwhat I'm doing instead (which at the moment is a kind of 360°railstand).

Even though skateboarding

is a very individualsport, or art, if you're an absolute beginner and you've neverset foot on a skateboard before then there is probably a certainway you should go about doing things, and that is not to thinkollying is what you have to learn first. Instead, over thecoming weeks I will be writing a series of 'lessons' startingtoday with the most basic thing you can do - ride yourskateboard.

Your only aim for now is going to be getting comfortable justriding up and down your street, trying to get to a decent speedand to be able to turn your skateboard as and when you need to.Forget about ollying and all other tricks!

Continue readingSkateboarding For Beginners, Part 1

About the author:Copyright 2005 Adam Bunn. Adam is the author of Board Crazy Skateboarding.