I’m a beginner skater who bought a complete during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns. As expected, I wasn’t looking towards freestyle at the start. But like countless beginners, I struggled with ollies so I started looking into skating tricks that didn’t require this skill.
Over the years, I have picked up on a few things that I will now share with you.
Firstly, here are tips that are useful for any type of beginner skater:
- Scout your local area for places to skate during both the day and night. This includes the obvious skateparks but can also be car parks, the typical parks, the front of libraries, basketball courts and other unexpected spots. All you really need is some flatground and maybe a nearby toilet or water fountain.
- Have a skate tool on you. Nuts can come loose. The last thing you need is one of your wheels or trucks falling off. Also, you can loosen your trucks to learn how to carve or tighten your trucks when learning rail tricks.
- Keep a water bottle and sunscreen handy for the warmer months.
- Wear loose clothes for easier movement. Outside of shoes, I buy a size larger, getting jeans from thrift shops and buying band shirts at gigs or through Bandcamp. I have clothes I will and won’t wear for skating. You can expect me to wear my Moi Dix Mois shirt while out skating but not my Sex Messiah shirt; one is too big and loose for me but the other is form-fitting.
- Set learning goals. Skating is a matter of learning a skill and building upon it.
- Get back up. Skating is essentially failing/falling until you succeed. This can be incredibly off-putting for people but that is how you get better at skating.
And now some tips for the beginner freestyler:
- If possible, learn from a skate instructor. It is worth pointing out that skate instructors can be fantastic in teaching basics. Most, however, aren’t guaranteed to know any freestyle tricks but those who do know some can be of great help in making progress. Sometimes park/street skaters have a few surprises up their sleeve and it’s how Gou Miyagi of all people ended up influencing how I approach freestyle.
- Skate with others. If your skate instructor can’t help you with freestyle tricks, your skate friends might be able to help you. It is much harder to find other freestylers to skate with and learn from though. Not only are they less likely to skate at a skatepark, they are also a rarity. If you do find other freestylers in your area, make the effort to keep in contact with them because they can give you advice on how to do tricks.
- Do what you can to practice daily even if it’s just for five minutes. Sometimes there will be days where you can’t skate for one reason or another but that is how life goes at times.
- Make use of music. I listen to metal and goth while attempting tricks. It makes for a more enjoyable experience while skating alone.
- Film yourself. This typically serves two purposes. The first is that it allows you to post videos of yourself successfully doing a trick. The second is that you can watch it to analyse mistakes or share it and get feedback from other skaters in person or online. As local freestylers can be hard to come by, being able to go online to get advice is useful.
- Research tricks. The difficulty lies in sifting through everything online. There are the typical places (YouTube, Instagram and Reddit) where people post freely about freestyle and you can use these for inspiration. For something more official, Waltz Skateboarding’s site and their YouTube channel are going to be the best places to go to as of writing this.
With the mention of Waltz Skateboarding, learning about freestyle skateboard setups can be a lot to take in at the start. If you are like me and started out with a street setup, it may be easier to do a hybrid setup that mixes street and freestyle or slowly transition to a purely freestyle setup. If you’re immediately jumping into freestyle, it will be easier to learn using a freestyle deck. At the end of the day, it’s about figuring out what works for you.
- Pay attention to concrete. Rougher concrete is great for practising tricks as you’re less likely to fall and injure yourself but it is rougher on your skateboard. The smoother the concrete, the less stable it will be, but if you’re already skilled at the tricks you’re attempting, it won’t be an issue. Smoother concrete also makes certain tricks easier to perform.
All of this may be a lot to take in, but that’s both the blessing and curse of skating. It’s a long journey to become an incredibly skilled skater, so you have plenty of time to figure it out. At the end of the day, as long as you’re taking the time to make even a tiny bit of progress, you’re on the right track.
Editor’s note: you will also find Stuart Maca’Ghobhainn’s article published in his free zine, which is stocked at the Sticky Institute and appearing at various skateparks around Melbourne, Australia.