The
Ollie
(written by ‘dead sparrow’)
First Off
An Ollie is where you push down on the tail
of your board (which is called the pop), and you jump up and level
out the board with your front foot (in order to gain maximum height).
If done properly, the Ollie looks like a skater jumps and the board
comes up with him.
How To Ollie
1. Foot Position - Start with your front foot
in the middle of your board (depending on personal preference, maybe
a little closer to your nose). Put your back foot right on the tip
of the tail.
2. Now, push down with your back foot (the pop).
This is the most important part – you MUST jump. The most important
thing with an Ollie is the jump. If you do not jump, then the board
will go nowhere and you will not Ollie.
Sometimes you may have to jump forward (with your board), but generally
you should just jump upwards when practicing flatland.
3. At first, while you are practicing the Ollie,
don’t worry to much about leveling the board out - you do not want
to over do your Ollie while you are practicing (you will make things
difficult for your self).
4. To re-cap: pop downwards and jump. Don’t worry
about leveling out because at first you just want to lift all four
of your wheels up off the floor so you can get both the timing and
the feel of the Ollie.
5. Once you have that down,
try to make your Ollies higher by dragging your front foot up the
board once you have popped. This is to give your Ollie extra height.
Dragging your foot up is kind of hard to explain, so just watch some
videos and you’ll see what I mean.
Generally, skaters turn their foot at an angle
when dragging their foot up.
6. To get even more height,
you may want to try popping harder and waiting before dragging your
front foot – don’t drag it up straight after the pop – waiting a bit
before dragging makes your ollies higher and look better.