My name is Justin Lauria, and today we're
going over the top 15 things that only novice skateboarders do, so that you know how to
avoid looking like a beginner when you go to the skatepark. Alright, so I know that one of the biggest
factors that holds people back from learning how to skateboard is that they are actually
just too afraid to go to the skatepark when other people are there because they think they're going to get made fun of if they look like they're new to skateboarding. Now, right off the bat, I do want to go ahead
and mention that for the most part, these fears are completely unnecessary, and most
of the higher level skaters that I know will tell you that they don't really give a second
thought to the other skaters at the park who don't look like they know what they're doing,
other than maybe wanting to offer a piece of advice here and there. It's important to keep in mind that all of
those skaters have been through the exact same process, so they're not going to judge
you in a negative way for wanting to practice and get better at a sport that they've spent
years practicing themselves. However, I know that looking a little awkward
in public is easier said than done, so hopefully knowing a few key things that you can do to
avoid looking like a beginner will give you the confidence boost that you need to finally
make it to the skatepark and stop worrying what other people are thinking about you. OK, so the first thing that people tend to associate with beginner skateboarders, is a way of holding your board called a 'mall grab.' Now, a mall grab is when you carry your board
like this, as if the hanger of the truck was a convenient handle added to the skateboard
for the sole purpose of helping you carry it, allegedly the same way that a kid at a mall
would carry his skateboard if he didn't actually skate, but he just wanted to carry his board
around with him in order to look cool. I personally don't think there's really anything
inherently wrong with using your trucks to carry your board like that, but at some point
along the way, such a huge stigma developed around it that I eventually just stopped carrying
it like that altogether so that I didn't have to listen to the younger kids tell me over
and over that I was carrying my board incorrectly. Alright, so now, the second telltale sign
of a beginner skateboarder is setting the board on the ground with your hands when you
want to start riding it. When you see someone doing this, you can just
tell that they haven't spent enough time with their skateboard in order to develop a more
casual way of getting their board to the ground. A couple of alternatives that you can use
would be to drop your board under your foot like this, or to get a running start and hop
on as you throw your board down to the ground like this. The third thing that people do that pegs them
as a beginner is to push like one. Most people will push like this when they
first start skateboarding, with their front foot already perpendicular to the board, so
that they don't have to adjust it once they get up to speed and put their back foot on. However, this does force your body into an
awkward looking position, and you will come off as looking a lot more natural if you,
instead, start with your front foot on the board facing forward, and then rotate it into
position once you're up to speed. Habit number four is another pushing technique
that is called pushing 'mongo.' Pushing mongo means that instead of setting
your front foot on the board over the front wheels and pushing off of the ground with
your back foot, you actually start by setting your back foot on the board and push off of
the ground with the foot that you normally ride with in front. When you push like this, not only are you
making it harder on yourself to get your feet set up on the board properly, but it also
makes it harder to steer, throws you off balance, and makes you come off as an amateur. So if that's how you usually push, I would
highly recommend that you go ahead and take some time out of your next few skate sessions
and practice pushing with your front foot already on the board and pushing off of the
ground with your back foot. Number five covers what you do when you need
to pick up your board, and if you bend down and pick up your board with your hands, again
you're going to look like a bit of a beginner. Instead of doing it like that, try to get
a little creative with how you pick your board up. Learning some of these shouldn't take too
long to figure out, so spend a couple of minutes working on them the next time you're bored. OK, so let's move on to habit number six,
which is always skating in the same stance. This one doesn't stick out quite as much
as some of the others, but the more advanced skaters at the park understand and appreciate
the time and effort it takes to learn tricks in multiple stances. So once you learn how to do a trick in normal
stance, take an extra five minutes or so and try to figure out how to do the trick in fakie
stance, or even better yet, in switch or nollie stance. Now, for number seven we're looking at how
you ride up and down ramps at the skatepark. The most efficient way to ride over obstacles
at the skatepark is to use a technique called pumping, which allows you to increase the
amount of speed you gain when you go downhill and decrease the amount of speed that you
lose when you go uphill. Beginner skaters who haven't mastered this
technique yet will go for more of a straight legged approach to rolling down ramps, which
not only means that they'll have to take their back foot off more in order to push,
but it actually makes it harder to balance and gives you the appearance of being unsteady on your board. Alright, so on to number eight, which is performing
all of your flatground tricks while stationary. When you're practicing to land your first
ollie or your first kickflip, for example, it can sometimes be a little easier to wrap
your head around the maneuver if you put your back wheels into a crack in the cement and
try to land the trick from there. Once you get the hang of the basic motion
though, you should move on to learning how to do your tricks while rolling. Not only is it more functional and more stylish,
but it's also easier to land flatground tricks and keep your balance throughout the maneuver
if you're moving while you do it. It's very similar to riding a bike. If you've ever tried to keep your balance
on a bicycle while you're not rolling forward, you know how much more difficult it is to
do than while you're rolling. Now let's look at number nine, which involves
what is known as tic-tacking which essentially just means that you landed your trick a little
bit off balance and you had to pick up the front of your board in order to align it with
the way that your momentum was going. Now, on this point, I do want to make an important
distinction. I'm not saying that advanced skaters don't
have this happen to them while they're working on a trick. It happens to skaters at every level all the
time. The difference, however, between a beginner
skater and an advanced skater is that a beginner skater will consider a trick landed in this
way a make, and an advanced skater will consider it a do-over. If you're filming the trick and planning on
posting it somewhere online, you will be amazed at how big of a difference these few extra
attempts can make at giving you the appearance of style and control. Alright, so for number ten, I want to talk
about what the bottom of your board looks like. One part of becoming an advanced skateboarder
is practicing tricks from multiple disciplines of skating, and if you're carrying around
a board that looks like you just walked out of the skate shop all the time, there's a
good chance that you're missing out on some of them. One of my favorite ways to give your board
a little character is to do boardslides on ledges and rails. For a tutorial on the easiest version of that
trick, the backside boardslide, you can click the link up here or in the description section
below. Now, let's take things over to the mini ramp
for a bit and talk about number eleven, which is starting your runs in the mini ramp from
the bottom. When you start learning how to skate a mini
ramp, one of the hardest things to overcome is learning how to drop in for the first time,
but once you do it for the first few times, it'll start to become completely second nature
to you, and you won't have to feel afraid of the maneuver any more. So, a good way to help you wrap your head
around what it's going to feel like to drop in is to ease your way into it by practicing
fakie tail stalls, starting low in the ramp and then working your way to doing them
up on top of the coping. It might not make total sense why this would
be easier at first, but essentially what it boils down to is when you do a fakie tail
stall, you're doing a reverse drop in followed by a drop in, so you already know what the
reverse of the motion you're trying to do feels like, and then on top of that, you're
keeping your body weight on the inside of the ramp so you don't have to worry about
committing to leaning forward. So that makes it a lot easier to wrap your
head around what it's going to feel like when you're coming back in. Number twelve is another mini ramp habit,
and it occurs when you do tricks that are supposed to involve rocking your board over
the coping like this, but by just barely setting your trucks over the edge instead. For tricks like the rock to fakie and the
rock n' roll, take the time to develop the motion enough to be able to set the middle
part of the board on the coping, and rock your board forward so that your wheels touch
down on the deck. It might be a little harder to do your tricks
this way at first, but the extra style points that you get from it are more than worth the
added effort. Alright, so let's move on to number thirteen
which involves doing runs in the mini ramp that only consist of the same one or two tricks
over and over again until you're blue in the face. Now, it's perfectly OK to do this when you're
just getting the hang of pumping back and forth on a half pipe, but if you really want
to add some style to your runs, make sure to keep learning new tricks so that you don't
have to repeat yourself as often. If you'd be interested in a big list of easy
to learn mini ramp tricks, you can check out my video on that topic, which I'll put a link
to right at the end of this one. Now, let's talk about number fourteen, which
is not knowing how to fall gracefully. One of the most useful things you'll learn
as you improve at skateboarding is learning how to fall down without getting hurt. If you're a beginner, you may want to spend
some time practicing what it feels like to fall from a little bit of a height so that
when it happens during a skate session, which it will, you'll have already developed the
muscle memory necessary to fall in a way that keeps you from hitting your head or breaking
any bones. Alright, so finally, bad habit number fifteen
is using the terms 'frontside' and 'backside' incorrectly. Unfortunately for the sport of skateboarding,
the use of these terms has evolved to have so many nuances and exceptions that learning
how to use them correctly in every case becomes fairly difficult to do. If you're doing a trick that involves approaching
an obstacle where it's on one particular side of you, you use one definition. But, if you're approaching the obstacle straight
on or if you're doing a trick that doesn't involve an obstacle, you use another definition,
except for in the case when you're riding in fakie stance, in which case, everything
is completely backwards. So, it does take a few minutes to explain,
but it is information worth knowing, and once again, you can click the link that I'll put
at the end of the video for the full breakdown. Alright, so after hearing everything on the
list, I'm sure you can probably tell that most of this stuff will just come to you naturally
as long as you're spending some time skating on a fairly regular basis. So, if nothing else, I hope this video at least
gave you some motivation to go out and do some skating, when you do get new clips, make
sure to tag them on Instagram with the hashtag #nsiskateboarding so I can easily find them
and share them with the rest of the community, and lastly, never stop improving.
There’s nothing wrong with looking like a beginner... that’s the point of being a beginner.
Someone who cares about people who mall grab, tic tac and push mongo - Don’t be this guy
No one used to care about this stuff. When did skateboarders decide that people should be mocked for holding their board the “wrong” way, or pushing with the “wrong” foot?
yes i agree you should not be judged by the way you push or hold your board but some people still may judge you (verrryyy bad people) so maybe someone will watch this vid and gain curage to go and skate if they were laughed at before (yes some can just ignore the haters but some cant and get discuraged)
Nobody gives a fuck, let them do what they want
One thing to avoid to not look like a beginner on a skateboard: ride and practice.
Nobody gives a fuck if you mallgrab, and those who do have spent more time watching videos like this than skating. The proper response to any one saying "you look like a beginner if..." is "fuck off".
Edit: just watched the rest of the video. For pete's sake, as a beginner, don't waste your time learning how to put down and pick up your board in a "cool" way....learn to ollie, flip or whatever, and do you.