TraNsWOrLd Trick Tips

The Basics

These are some basic tricks

Photos by Mike Vargo

The ollie
To do the ollie put one foot on the tail of the board and the other in the middle of the skateboard.then ALL AT THE SAME TIME push down on the tail, slide your foot forward, jump and bring your kees to your chest. It helps if you turn your front foot so that your toe slides up instead of the side of your foot

The 180
to do the 180 put your feet in the ollie postion. ollie like you normally would except start to turn your shoulders frontside or backside. keep your shoulders alligned and spin around. Land and ride away in style

The Pop-Shuvit
To do a pop shuvit put your feet in the ollie position, then pop your tail and as you do that spin your board in the direction that you want it to spin. ie frontside popshuvit you would kick you front leg infront of you and your back behind you.land and hope it looked stylish.

Dropping in

This entails starting from the top of a transition and "dropping in." Before trying the tail drop, you should be comfortable rolling all the way up and down the transition. Set your board on the coping with the nose and trucks out over the coping and the tail resting flat on top of it. Do the following all in one motion: with your back foot in position on the tail, step out over the board, set your front foot in place, and crouch over the board as it and your body simultaneously tilt downward into the transition. Be sure to lean plenty forward and "commit" because any hesitation will send the board shooting out from under you. In the same way, if you just plunge forward ahead of the board, you will find yourself racing down the transition headfirst with the board coming down behind and independently of you. This is not desireable. It is sometimes useful to learn the tail drop by grabbing the nose as you step out onto the board and guiding it downward with your body until you're actually rolling down the transition, at which point you let go of the nose and allow your front foot to set it down as you extend your legs and pump. It is crucial that you keep your body centered over the board or else it will shoot out from under you. That's why grabbing the nose is helpful, it keeps you and the board in synch.

ollie to manual

The ollie manual is a good trick to help develop your balance and ollie control. The idea is to ollie and land on your back wheels, riding a "wheelie" for a distance before setting the front wheels down. It can be done on the flat ground or over an object, but is most commonly done up onto an element, like a curb or block. It requires a fair sense of balance, and you should be comfortable ollieing. It might be good to get accustomed to manualling on flat ground before ollieing onto something, but a curb is a good element on which to learn the ollie manual. Ride at the curb at a normal ollie speed - you'll want to go fast enough to get up onto the curb and still have momentum for the manual. Pop into an ollie and get up over the curb. Instead of levelling the board in the air beneath you, keep your leading foot up and your weight centered over the back wheels. The lower you pop your ollie, still clearing the element of course, the smoother you will land on your back wheels and the easier it will be to gain balance once on those wheels. Once on them there back wheels, you'll notice your body arched forward over your board as you ride the manual. This is how you keep your weight balanced on the back wheels. It is useful to try and manual a set distance, like to a line on the sidewalk or off the curb again. This will give you something specific to strive for until you've got the ollie manual so wired that you can just ride it for days. Then you can try variations like the ollie manual to kickflip off of an element, or even the ollie flip to manual. The options are endless.

Sweeper

Roll up the transition until you hit coping. Drop your back foot on the coping while simultaneously raising your front foot with the board into a position that enables you to grab your nose. Looking over your shoulder, place the tail on the coping as you hop off your back foot to get it back onto the board as you drop back in. It should all be done in one smooth motion.

rock and roll

Before attempting this trick on a transition, you should be comfortable with kick turns and you should be able to already drop in on said transition. Approach the tranny with enough speed to get up to the coping. When you get up there, get your front truck over the coping and put pressure on your nose so you "rock" on the coping on the middle of your board. Now here's the tough part. Get your weight back onto the tail and perform a kick turn, making sure (and this is important) that your front truck is high enough to clear the coping as you swing it around. Once you've got that covered, just touch your front wheels back onto the transition and cruise on down to the flats. For some, rocks to fakie are easier to attempt first. There's no kick turn involved, but you do have be comfortable with coming back into the transition moving fakie.

Frontside air

You want to be comfortable grinding or kickturning frontside before you huck your first frontside air. As with backside airs, early grabs are not recommended. You'll naturally tend to reach AROUND your knees for your board, or BETWEEN them. Reach around them if possible, because habits can be hard to break and you don't want a stink bug habit to start in the first place. Go up the wall at a slight angle, with your shoulders facing the coping. You should have enough speed going to do an air, but don't go so fast that you lose control every time you get in the air. As you approach the lip, you should have your knees bent, be a little tucked, and have your trailing hand starting to reach towards your board. Let your weight shift to your back foot a little bit as you come off of the coping, and your board should pop right into your waiting hand. Stay tucked and look for your landing spot. Land with your knees bent. Try to get your board to trace a smooth arc from start to finish. The higher you go, the slower you will turn in the air.

Grinds and Slides

There are instructions on how to do grinds and slides here... obviously

Boardslide

To do the boardslide you ride at a comfortable pace along the side of the rail. if your back is facing it it is backside and if your front is facing it it is frontside. next if the rail is low enough you dont have to ollie just lift up your front and swing it over the rail and get on but if you have to ollie just ollie half 180 or 90

and keep your balance

Frontside 50 50 on transition

For some, the frontside 50-50 is easier than backside, but for most it's more intimidating having your back face down the transition. Once you get over this fear, though, a whole new world of frontside coping tricks is opened up to you. Doesn't that sound appealing? Now that you're anxious to expand your ramp skating, let's get started. Just as with the backside 50-50, learning the stall first will help. Cruise straight up the transition, but as you get right near the coping you want to turn to get your toe edge wheel of the back truck over the coping rather than the heel edge wheel. With the frontside stall, it's important to get that toe edge wheel as far over the coping as possible to allow yourself some stability while your up on the lip. Just like with the backside stall, get on your back truck first then set down the front truck, placing your weight predominantly on the toe side of the board. To drop back in, just do a little kick turn into the tranny. Remember, don't let your toe edge wheels hang up. Now, to grind rather than stall you're going to need more speed and remember to approach the coping at an angle so your momentum will take you along the coping instead of just straight up and out.

Bluntslide

Approach the obstacle frontside, with a moderate amount of speed (how much depends on how slippery the obstacle is). Ollie, and smack your back wheels on top of the obstacle, and your tail against the side. Your body should turn with the board, but you should still be looking forward. To slide, you want to push with your back foot, and keep your front leg bent.

To come off the end, you can simply turn off and land. Coming off in the middle, though is a bit different. You have to ollie out, and bring the board off and around with your front foot (ollie out off the end for bonus style points). Land with all 4 wheels at once, don't shred, and roll away stylin'.

Backside feeble

First learn backside 50-50s and 5-0s. Ride at the object with a good amount of speed. Ollie on to the object like you're doing a backside 50-50, but right before both trucks make contact, push the front one over the bar by straightening your front leg. Lean back with all your weight on the back truck (the weight placement is very similar to a 5-0, but with your foot pointing the nose down) and hold that position while powering through the grind. At the end, let your nose come up so your board is parallel with the ground right as you come off. Ride away with both feet over the truck bolts, clean as a whistle. Feeble grinds can be taken to all kinds of obstacles, and is a popular handrail trick. Once you learn how to lock in to them, they're easier to control than boardslides. Now get to feeblin!

Frontside nosebluntslide

You're going to want to gather some decent speed for this one. It's not the kinda trick you can just get onto and hang out until you come off. You've got to earn it. Your front foot should be close enough to your nose that you can stick it on the ledge, but far enough back to let you pop a good ollie. Come at the ledge parellel. As you pop, you should shift your momentum so you're ollieng towards the ledge to get your nose locked in. It's almost like you're nose sliding the side of the ledge. Once you're on there, keep your front foot pushing that nose down and forward. If you stay balanced on the ledge, the dismount isn't too tricky. You kinda nollie out, and use your back foot to control the tail so you land riding straight. Make sure the ledge has a good coating of wax, especially on top where your wheels are sliding.

Frontside tailslide

The frontside tailslide is a trick that, although difficult, can be learned in stages and worked up to. It is useful to be comfortable with the frontside 180 ollie, though you won't need to turn around all the way. Practice landing in the tailslide position by riding at the curb slowly and ollieing frontside. Get just your tail over the curb and put your weight on that tail as you plant it on that curb, leaving your trucks and wheels hanging off the edge. Once you're comfortable landing in that position, try it with a little more speed and roll at the curb almost parallel to it. The faster you go and the more parallel you are to the curb, the longer you'll slide. Once you do get the hang of sliding, get a feel for how long you can push it before the tail slows down and locks in place. You'll want to begin shifting your weight back over the board as it slows down so that you can come off the curb with at least some speed, before it stops completely. Once you have the frontside ollie tailslide wired on curbs, take it to a ledge or something a little taller. Also, try swinging your torso frontside as you ollie into the tailside position, and instead of shifting your weight back over the nose to come off the object, push the tail ahead of you to finish the frontside 180 motion initiated at the start of the trick.

Frontside lipslide

In order to execute the very popular and attractive lipslide, learn boardslides and frontside 180s first. Approach the obstacle as you would for a 50-50. Pop your ollie and start turning yourself (and your board) frontside, making sure your back truck is high enough to go over the obstacle. Once you are hovering above the object, perpendicular to it, land in the boardslide position. From here on out, it's just like the ol' boardslide; just cruise along that rail or ledge as long as you can and come off like you would a boardslide. No, wait, scratch that. If you're bustin' this lipslide on a ledge, then your back wheels should be sliding along on top of the ledge. When it comes time to come off the ledge, put pressure on your tail so that all your weight is on your back two wheels. Then turn your board forward and roll off of the end of the ledge. There, that's better.

Backside 5-0

Approach the obstacle with a good amount of speed, because all the friction is on your back truck, whereas in a 50-50, your weight is distributed between both trucks. So, go a bit faster that you would for a 50-50, because you need to push through, and balance through it. Ollie next to the obstacle, and try to keep your nose a bit higher than your tail. When you are over the obstacle, put your back truck down, and balance. Now you should be balancing, like a manual, but with a bit of resistance, depending on how waxy the obstacle is. Just relax, and enjoy the ride. Ideally, your tail should not be touching, but chances are it will at first. If you had enough speed, you should just cruise off the end. If you're coming out early, you need to ollie and turn a bit. It's weird at first, but you will get the hang of it.