Teaching myself to skateboard?

Question

everyone i know skates and i need a faster way of getting around, so i decided to teach myself to skateboard! the only problem is that i get super nervous as soon as i step on the board. any tips on how to get over this?

Answer 1

Don't give up! Watch Tony Hawk's video on how to start skateboarding. Learn your stance and roll around your driveway a lot, this helps. PUSH WITH YOU FRONT FOOT, back foot pushing is called mongo and is much less stable. When you push lean forward which will prevent you from slipping out. The kind of board is important you should use a long board if you are just skating for transportation and not doing any tricks, the are more stable, faster, can ride on tougher terrain cause of bigger and rubber wheels, and impossible to Ollie on. A regular skateboard is much shorter and has much more ability to do tricks.

Answer 2

My advice, start out in grass. Hop on and rock back and forth on the trucks, that way you can start to break them in a little, and get used to how far they go either way without worrying about falling. The better you get, the more confident you will be. After you've got that down, and aren't too worried anymore about falling, start to "penguin walk" your board, which is by putting each foot on the opposite sides of the board and leaning back and forth while walking either forwards or backwards. When you get that down, move to the sidewalk, or a driveway, or even your garage. Try for somewhere that has a railing or a wall, and you can hold on to it while you are on your board, and push yourself up and down the way until you feel comfortable with that.

Slowly you will get to be more confident, and not so nervous. The easy part is skating around, the hard part is learning tricks.

I would say it might take you a few hours for a couple days and you'll be ready to go.