Hey guys!

First post outside the Introduce yourself board. So I've sort of always wanted to skateboard, and I just picked it up. What always grabbed my attention was the freestyle and flatland type tricks. Now I don't know how do anything really, but yesterday I looked up how to do a couple things and went to try them last night after work. And today I've got a couple question for you all.

I started with trying to do railstands. Now I can flip the board on it's side okay, both FS and HS, and my feet land on the trucks (well okay, maybe not *all* the time :icon_wink ), but my problem is I can't get balance. If doing HS, I tend to fall forward, and TS, I tend to fall backwards, like there was a rope tied to my back or chest pulling me in that direction. Any tips? Am I not jumping straight up enough? Or is it my feet that land on the toes or heel too much?

Second question. Am I starting with the right things? Like I started with railstands, and trying to do a rail to casper (and also just trying to get balance in casper). I don't know how to ollie or pop shuv. Should I do that first? Or maybe I'm skipping steps and I should be trying something else?

All I know is I had so much fun trying these last night :icon_bigg

Thanks for reading!

im not really a freestyler or anything but i can do railstands, you just have to work on your balance. itll be a lot easier if you keep practicing. you dont really need to know how to ollie or shuvit to do caspers or anything, but yeah it would help to learn them.

Welcome to freestyle! Another old geezer like me. I'm a noob, so I figure that qualifies me to help a beginner.

It is important that your trucks are relatively the same length as your rails (the sides of your board). This will make railstand much easier.

Start with simply setting the board in rail and standing on it to get comfortable. The first tricks I learned from there was rail to rail and railflip. A lot of it depends on what you like. My friend learned caspers right after she learned how to get into rail.

Learning how to ollie and shuvit are basics that you ought to work on. Practice and how-to videos are your best friend. Check out the how-to section in this FS forum.

Hope this helps. Stick with it and have fun.

There are no specific tricks that you need to start with. If you want to start with freestyle, go for it. I can barely even kickflip myself.
as for falling over... its probably a balance thing that will come with practice. or the truck might stick out further than the deck.
just keep practicing, be creative and have fun

Welcome to freestyle! Another old geezer like me. I'm a noob, so I figure that qualifies me to help a beginner.

Yeah! Another old timer! Hey did you start late like I'm doing.

And thanks for the replies! So yeah my trucks are not the same sive as my board, they're shorter. I guess I should change that huh? I'll practice more too. But when I place the board rail and stand on it, I can get stay balanced and kee that position for a good while. It's really when landing rail that I can't stay for more than half a second. Oh well, gotta practice more. And I guess I'll put the ollie in the to learn queue. I tired it some last night, but wasn't getting much results.

So much to do! Work sucks right now, I just feel like going out there.

The trucks should be shorter. Most people want their board to lean forward a bit when in hs rail.

The trucks should be shorter. Most people want their board to lean forward a bit when in hs rail.

Oh then I guess I don't need to change a thing.

For the railstands, you might wanna learn to walk it (like you kinda walk forward or backward in the direction you're leaning, while keeping the board under your feet still in rail) it takes a while but it's a really good skill to learn

Ohhh that's a good idea, might help my balance a whole lot!

you should probably try rolling around to get a better sense of ballence

and it couldnt hurt to atleast try ollies that is a usefull skate skill
especialy if you want to learn flatland

YAY! Another old person too! haha :) But anyways.. since your trucks are shorter than your deck, it's probably just a balance thing. It took me awhile to get them consistant because of balance and just not being comfortable with how has to push the board over into a railstand. You can try just setting the board in railstand and just standing on it to get the feel of being in that position. You can also try setting it down in railstand and just jumping up onto it to get better balance or just keep practing them normally and it'll gradually come to you and get easy and consistant.

Whoa big night for me. Right after work I headed out to a nearby empty parking lot and tried some more things. I got the railstands down. Well mostly. I managed to pop the board in TS rail then back down 7 times in a row (up, down, up, down, up, down, Weeeeee!) and several times on top of that. So I can do those pretty consistently now I guess. HS is another thing. I got it down and managed to stay on my board several times, but it's not as good as the TS yet. More practice. I also ollie a few times. I'm not popping very high, but at least I did it. Next up is to do them rolling I guess. Then I decided I might as well try to kick flip a few times before I left just for the heck of it. I can kick the board okay, and it does a full rotation, but I send it flying way ahead of me. maybe cause I was doing it stationary? Oh well, I don't mind, that was a kickass evening of progress for me. I couldn't be happier as I go to sleep tonight!

Also, some old guy was mowing his lawn a few yards away and watching me, and when I got the HS stand he was cheering from afar. That was pretty funny.

So next up... errrrr, better HS rails, shuv-its, more ollies, and maybe try the rail to casper again. I think I'm getting hooked to this stuff :\
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Oh noooooo. I just realized that doing the HS railstand, I was pushing the board with my backfoot instead of my front.

Yeah! Another old timer! Hey did you start late like I'm doing.

And thanks for the replies! So yeah my trucks are not the same sive as my board, they're shorter. I guess I should change that huh? I'll practice more too. But when I place the board rail and stand on it, I can get stay balanced and kee that position for a good while. It's really when landing rail that I can't stay for more than half a second. Oh well, gotta practice more. And I guess I'll put the ollie in the to learn queue. I tired it some last night, but wasn't getting much results.

So much to do! Work sucks right now, I just feel like going out there.

Yea, I started last year (26). My daughters love watching me and its a good way to hang out with the local teens. Plus its fun.

Keep practicing and make a short video for us soon.

YAY! Another old person too! haha :)

Yea, I started last year (26).

I'm glad to see I'm not starting way too late, that I can still learn this at my old age :)

Video? Well I don't have much to show off, plus I don't have a camera.. actually my roommate has one. I just have to convince him to film me I guess.

Then I decided I might as well try to kick flip a few times before I left just for the heck of it. I can kick the board okay, and it does a full rotation, but I send it flying way ahead of me. maybe cause I was doing it stationary?

Well done on the railstands:) As for kickflips, I did that until about 2 weeks ago, moving or stationary. The thing that stopped it for me is to really concentrate on my feet. Back foot has to pop straight down, thats very important. Pretend its an ollie:) And the front foot just needs to be controlled.

Hehe thanks for the tips, I'll have to try this again sometime.

Tonight was spent on re-doing railstands, because yes, apparently my feet had forgotten how to do them. Also doing the HS rail with the right foot pushing. That didn't go so well. And also did more ollies, and tried to do them while rolling. That also did not go so well. Switching my feet around while rolling throws me all out of balance.

I'm really enjoy skating so far. It's a nice change of pace from rock climbing, and I can easily do it for an hour or two after work... just gotta find some flat ground!
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Heeehehe I had to go back out. Did more railstands, and I did my first 50-50 stand! WOOO. Managed to do it three times, but on the third, while flipping the board out with my hand, it sort of ripped out and I ripped a finger a little bit. So I guess those are over for a little while, but I'm stoked I did that.

Haha, nice man, it's fun to read your progressing stories, reminds me of myself when I first started not too long ago! And I'm glad you seem to be having so much fun with it, I hate it when people try a few things then screw up one thing like a rolling kickflip before they even know how to ollie then condemn it. Also it's funny seeing kids that are like 14 worried that they're starting skating too late in life...

But as for tips. Try jumping around in a 180 in railstand. Start in TS then just hop around to HS. That's very fun to do when you get it down. It helps me when I turn my front foot paralell with the board too before I hop. Something else you should try are railflips. Just slide your foot out a little from the wheels (this is easiest to first learn in TS) then just push down and a little forward while jumping. Check out the tricktip by aronl on youtube to kind of see it better.

Oh good! I guess I'll keep posting then, I was starting to think maybe I was boring everyone and that no one cared anyways.

And I will try these today! Thank god for the weekend, I've got my whole day to skate!
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I got the TS railflips down. Woohoo! And the 180 jump in railstand isn`t easy. Good balance exercise, and I can use that.

Good luck at your upcoming freestyle "carrer"!!:)

Tried doing some kickbacks. I can't get the board to do the full rotation. I can either just do the quarter flip, and land it back on its wheels and land that, or do a full rotation, but then it's just got the wheels facing up... I can't flick it hard enough to get the full 1 and a half flip. Gonna work on it more, it's a fun trick.

Nice, that's about where I am with kickbacks, though I stopped a while ago for some reason. I really want to pick back up on them again though, but I have to wait for my new deck to get here first, which probably won't be until next week.

By the way, what kind of setup do you have? Deck, trucks, etc. Do you have a street setup or an actual freestyle one?

Yeah I bought this board a year ago on eBay. It's was a brand new complete, and all I really remember is it's a Flip board with Independent trucks. And yeah it's a street setup, cause I just wanted something to get around at the time, and I really had no idea I would get into freestyle so much. It didn't cost me much, so I don't mind wrecking it up, which is great since I'm learning anyways.
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Woohoo! I landed a couple kickbacks! Now I've come up with a little sequence I'd like to do and I'll work on landing that without falling. Should take me a couple days of practice.

I'm back! With questions!

Yes I haven't posted in a while, mostly cause I just keep practicing the same tricks to get some of them more consistent. Anyways, my street deck is slowly deteriorating, nose and tail mostly. And I'm considering buying a FS deck before the end of the summer. But most of them are quite smaller/shorter and I was wondering if that changes anything for just skating around. Because I use my board to get around sometimes, and not just do tricks.

Anyone?

It's not quite as comfortable to cruise around on a FS deck. But what you could do is buy a FS deck, use that for tricks, then just buy a new set of wheels and/or/maybe bearings and slap those on your old deck and use that for riding around.

It's not quite as comfortable to cruise around on a FS deck. But what you could do is buy a FS deck, use that for tricks, then just buy a new set of wheels and/or/maybe bearings and slap those on your old deck and use that for riding around.

well, id cruse around on a street deck and a freestyle deck it doesnt really matter, i think if you get used to a freestyle deck, then why would ridding it matter? you know? learn with one i guess

i strap my fs deck to my backpack, jump on my double truck sector 9 shortboard/longboard, and im good to go. i dont mind cruising my smallschool deck, i just worry about wearing out my fs wheels.

Good points, I guess I'll keep both boards and use them both for different things. Thanks for the insight!
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Woooo! Fingerflips!

Moving or tailstop? Well done either way:)

Tailstop. I can't do anything moving. Except roll around. I've been trying to ollie, but jumping while moving is all messing up with my balance. So I figure I'll keep trying, and overtime I'll get more comfortable on the board and it'll come sort of naturally. besides I have plenty to do stationary for now :P

woo us old heads need to stick together!!! :icon_2gun haha.

i recently started skating about 2 months ago myself and you sound like you are taking the same road i took into freestyle. railstands and such first, etc. . . my best advice here would be when you are getting annoyed or angry when you cant get something on move on to whatever else you are working on in your cycle. usually when i get aggrivated i work on footwork/balance/endovers/manuals/walk the dogs/riding switch, etc. . all that good stuff.

i own both a street and FS board. both are <3 and i didnt expect all the reactions i get from people/other skaters when they see me with a FS board. if you think you are gonna be dedicated you should definitely think about getting a nice setup. i did my homework for quite a bit before i purchased one ( annoyed the hell outta emily on youtube >_> haha. hi emily. ).

dont sweat the ollie and other stuff man. i just started doing a rolling one this week and im still not consistant with it. 5/10 i just cant seem to get the board fully up off the ground. it'll come though just like you said it all becomes natural at one point.

Haha nice, thanks for the comment! Yeah I try to keep several tricks in the pipeline so I always have something to work on. And that's good to hear about the FS board, I think I will definitely be picking one up.

And you remind me I should try doing walk the dogs...

Now I definately have to recommend getting a FS board. I just got mine monday and it is insanely fun to use. I like it waaaay better than any street deck I've used. It just kinda zips around and flips like nothing else. My first time doing a casper on it I went to flip out and accidentally did a casper to casper (which I've never done before) twice in a row.

woo us old heads need to stick together!!! haha.

I had no idea there were so many 'old' people starting freestyle. Glad I'm not the only one :)

I got a FS board straight off the bat (about 2 months ago) and when I try to ride my friends street deck I can barely move. It feels huge... I'm sure thats just a practice thing but still, I can't imagine doing freestyle on a street deck. At the end of the day I'm sure it doesn't matter, there's heaps of videos of people doing freestyle on all sorts of boards, just personal preference...

Now I definately have to recommend getting a FS board. I just got mine monday and it is insanely fun to use. I like it waaaay better than any street deck I've used. It just kinda zips around and flips like nothing else. My first time doing a casper on it I went to flip out and accidentally did a casper to casper (which I've never done before) twice in a row.

Well that's quite the endorsement. Where'd you get your board?

I had no idea there were so many 'old' people starting freestyle. Glad I'm not the only one :)

better late than never my friend =D i've actually seen a few 'old' people on here in the last few days gettin into the swing of things.

I got a FS board straight off the bat (about 2 months ago) and when I try to ride my friends street deck I can barely move. It feels huge... I'm sure thats just a practice thing but still, I can't imagine doing freestyle on a street deck. At the end of the day I'm sure it doesn't matter, there's heaps of videos of people doing freestyle on all sorts of boards, just personal preference...

hahaha yup. i felt the same way when i first started riding both boards. you'll definitely think your street deck is a surfboard after riding a FS for awhile. it's all mental tho dont worry. it's all the same once you ride both equally.


Now I definately have to recommend getting a FS board. I just got mine monday and it is insanely fun to use. I like it waaaay better than any street deck I've used. It just kinda zips around and flips like nothing else. My first time doing a casper on it I went to flip out and accidentally did a casper to casper (which I've never done before) twice in a row.

i have to agree 101% with this statement right here. FS board is mad nice when it comes to zipping and flipping around.

Well that's quite the endorsement. Where'd you get your board?

i know you werent asking me ;x it's rare tho someone is askin for help and theres other nice people around not flaming. i got my FS decks from chaos bro's and i shopped for the rest of my setup on decomposed. check em out you wont be sorry.

Well that's quite the endorsement. Where'd you get your board?

Small school, if you get one with a graphic though, make sure you ask for a sheet of wax paper over it so you can avoid my situation. :icon_wink:

http://www.skaterscafe.com/showthread.php?p=1027938#post1027938

Check it out.

Hehe thanks to both of you, I guess I'll have some shopping to do.
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http://www.vimeo.com/1260195

So I tried out my camera and filmed a tiny thing

Hehe thanks to both of you, I guess I'll have some shopping to do.
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http://www.vimeo.com/1260195

So I tried out my camera and filmed a tiny thing

Nice. You got that TS railflip down very nicely. Now you gotta move on to HS varials.

Thanks for the comment Neo!

So I need help again. I've been trying shove-its, and it's not working out. (I'll try to explain this right :icon_wink). I get the board to rotate 180 okay, but as it spins, it sort of shoot off in front of me. So I started to jump a tiny bit forward, and I land on the board, but my feet land on the tail, which is now in front. Like my back foot lands on the bolts and my front foot on the tip of the tail. Anyone have any advice?

I've also been trying HS railflips, and that's not working either, but I'll look at Aron's video some more before I ask for help :icon_wink

Oh and also, I can't seem to be able to do fingerflips anymore. Dang, now I'm regressing even! :icon_frow

I've also been trying HS railflips, and that's not working either, but I'll look at Aron's video some more before I ask for help

I can give a quick word. I actually find HS railflips a LOT easier than TS ones. I think that is because I'm used to my tail foot pushing down and backwards (shove-its etc.), not down and forwards. If you just imagine the way your tail foot moves when flipping TS, just think exactly the same amount of downward force and timing, but instead of pushing your foot forwards, push it backwards.

I can give a quick word. I actually find HS railflips a LOT easier than TS ones. I think that is because I'm used to my tail foot pushing down and backwards (shove-its etc.), not down and forwards. If you just imagine the way your tail foot moves when flipping TS, just think exactly the same amount of downward force and timing, but instead of pushing your foot forwards, push it backwards.

Yeah, I've been trying to do that, but all that happens is the board starts turning and stays on the ground with the trucks all up in the air. I think I may not be pushing down hard enough... or.. backwards... well I don't even know anymore :icon_wink

Ya, I could do TS perfectly but was conflounded by HS for the longest time. Then one day it just sort of came. I just kept trying different stuff, trying to envision doing it exactly the same as TS only backwards and it finally happened. Then I tried HS varial, and that worked out much better lol. If you put a bit of pressure down then pull your leg kinda backwards and towards you, the board just flips right around.

As for Shove-its, it sounds like you're just jumping too far forward? What I do is I imagine pushing the tail forard rather than backward and focus on spinning the board on axis around my front foot. Oh and I keep my front foot kind of at a 45 degree angle in the middle of the board with my toes touching the TS edge.

Hum. Imagine I push the tail forward rather than backwards. I think I know what you mean. I'll have to try this out. Thanks Neo!

Hum. Imagine I push the tail forward rather than backwards. I think I know what you mean. I'll have to try this out. Thanks Neo!

I hope so, lol. After reading your words it seems like I've worded it a little weird lol. So ya, I throw the tail towards the nose, rather than backwards behind me.

Hum, so I didn't get to skate at all for the past two weeks. Got some bad news, my father's got cancer :icon_snif. I finally got a chance to last night, and there's some things I had to re-learn. But that didn't take too long. Anyways, I tried shuv-its again, and it's better, but I'm still not landing them. Close though. Question, is it better to do those moving or not when learning? Or does it not make a difference? Also tried HS railflips again. Ah-HA! The board flips! But I can't say I've gotten the same results twice. Like once it'll rotate 90 degrees and do a full flip, the other time rotates 180 but does a half-flip, etc. Is there a trick to gauging how hard to push for the board to do something very specific? I didn't land any of those, but at least I send the thing flipping now :icon_clap

Anyways, skating after so long did a lot of good. Felt very therapeutic.

Thats so sad man, I don't know what to say other than stay positive..... Skating always fells good to me, its a way of making stress go away you know? Anyway with railflips its just about foot placement and really how you push it down/sideways... Keep trying you'll get there :)

Alright I'll keep doing them then. I figured it might be one of those things that you just learn with time. Plus I guess it depends on the shape of the board... And you're right about skate, it helped relieve the pressure. Wish I could get my dad to come skate with me for a bit :icon_wink

Hum, so I didn't get to skate at all for the past two weeks. Got some bad news, my father's got cancer :icon_snif. I finally got a chance to last night, and there's some things I had to re-learn. But that didn't take too long. Anyways, I tried shuv-its again, and it's better, but I'm still not landing them. Close though. Question, is it better to do those moving or not when learning? Or does it not make a difference? Also tried HS railflips again. Ah-HA! The board flips! But I can't say I've gotten the same results twice. Like once it'll rotate 90 degrees and do a full flip, the other time rotates 180 but does a half-flip, etc. Is there a trick to gauging how hard to push for the board to do something very specific? I didn't land any of those, but at least I send the thing flipping now :icon_clap

Anyways, skating after so long did a lot of good. Felt very therapeutic.

Sorry to hear that man. Don't really know what else to say, I'm bad with that sort of stuff, even though that is the sort of stuff that I should know about.

As for shuv-its, I learned them stationary first then learned them moving but that's just me. It would probably be best to learn them rolling though. And as for the railflips, ya you just keep doing it and it builds up your muscle memory so that eventually you just kind of get it. Right now I'm working on 360 quad railflips, and I'm getting so close. And ya I think most people are the same way, whenever I need to get my mind off things, meditate, or just make myself happy, I can just go skate and it makes a huge difference.

Thanks for the tips and feedback Neo!

So I ordered a small school board just now. I cannot wait to receive that thing. Things should go better than with my crappy street deck.

So I went skating tonight for a good 2h30. And man was nothing going my way. Took everything to land a kickback. I tried shuv-its again, and no luck (Came real close a couple times though, I'm getting there). Tried endovers. Oh hell that wasn't pretty. Anyways, I was all ready to pack it home when I decided to try pogos. And SUCCESS!! I can't get into them form 50-50 yet though, gotta learn to deal with my weight. I can get out of them though (flip the board back with my hand). Anyways, I'm glad cause otherwise my night would have sucked...

Question time!

1) After doing those pogos, the inside of my right hand hurt a lot. Thing is I had it placed square on the tip of the board, which, now that I think of it, was a very bad idea. How am I supposed to place my hands to hold the board? more on the sides? I think I read somewhere that holding the trucks was not a good thing for some reason... c/d?

2)Walk the dog!!! I did it! Well, kinda, yeah I did 3 in a row. It just sort of clicked last night. No more falling on my ass on that one! Thing is tough, my foot that stays in the center doesn't stay in the center. It has a tendency to move to the left and after 2 or 3, it hard to keep my weight centered and the foot slips off the boards. Any ideas what might cause that?

3) Shuv its. UGH. I get the board spinning fine, it does the full 180, I stay over it and I pretty much got the foot motion down. BUT. My body rotates 90 degrees, like I'm pointing towards the nose of the board. And if I jump in such a way that I don't rotate like that, then the board doesn't spin right. Any tips, or just more practice?
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Woooo first rail to rail!!!

Well, are you goofy or regular, what foot is on the truck?, LOL you can railflip but not shuv-it? ;) Skating takes loads of practice, you'll get here don't worry :)

I'm regular, and when doing pogos my front foot was on the truck. And yeah it's a lot of practice I know, but sometimes it just helps to know if you're placing your feet/hands in the wrong places :P

Also, yes, I can railflip TS, getting there on HS, and I can't shuv-it. :icon_weir

Old School Kickflip GET!

Shuv-it GET!

Kept working on walk the dogs. I'm loving this.

Old School Kickflip GET!

Shuv-it GET!

Kept working on walk the dogs. I'm loving this.

Nice work man!

And seriously, any newbies READ THIS THREAD! Has a whole plethora of helpful tips and such.

My thread should get stickied :icon_peac

Nah just joking, but seriously I realized maybe I posted too many questions too soon. And maybe I'll let go of the updates too, I think Neo is the only one reading them :icon_wink

My thread should get stickied :icon_peac

Nah just joking, but seriously I realized maybe I posted too many questions too soon. And maybe I'll let go of the updates too, I think Neo is the only one reading them :icon_wink

Is what I do.

Though I think now your at the point where you should let go of updates and start the vids! Or something like that...

Hum yeah I should gun for that. Though I'm not consistent enough to link many tricks together. I`ll try and work on something. Thanks for the idea!

Nooooooooooo My smallschool board just arrived (that's not the bad news), and it won't be available at the post office until noon tomorrow (cause I missed the delivery today), and I'm out of town for the weekend.

My life sucks right not. Like... a lot. :icon_cry2

For railstands, try doing them on carpet first.That way, if u fall, it doesn't hurt as much. Also, are your wheel and trucks matching? That might be a small problem if they are not matching. Try holding a table or a ledge while doing them. Bend your legs and don't jump much doing them, just lift and flex your legs. For HS rails, try getting them from tailstop first. They are fun and easy that way. 180 jumps from a rail are fun. Try landing your board with a body varial from those, too. Hope this helped.
:)

i like how you say "railstand" not "primo"

becuase alot of new freestylers say primo and its kinda of anoyoing. but i guess its not there fault, they werent really taught that stuff