The first time I rode a skateboard, my new friend David gave me his board (Tony Hawk pro model hawk skull) and showed me the basics. I was very clumbsy and akward at first, but after the end of the first day I got the hang of it. The next morning I was begging my parents to get me a skateboard. They dismissed the idea as one of many of my phases, and said that I would play with it for a week and never touch it again. That day my friends and I ended up in front of my house because we had a circle on our street with a concrete ring in the middle. We skated there until dark that day, and my mom saw everyone out there had their own board but me. This prompted her to get me a board the following month for my birthday.

I got a killer set-up for my first board (with the help of my friend David, whom my mom consulted for guidance). I got a Steve Caballero deck with tracker trucks and T-bone wheels. Also, I got rail guards, nose guard, and tail guard (out of use today). It was a top of line board. Some would say that it was too much for a beginner, but I loved it none the less. Another big thing to do back then was as soon as you got a board you had to load it up with stickers. I never saw the purpose in this, but it was the cool thing to do so I obliged, however I never covered my graphic on my board. I considered that blasphemy. I skated everywhere I went after that day.

As I emerged myself in the skate scene, I soon found myself collecting and studying anything that had to do with the culture. By the time I was nine, my walls in my room were covered top to bottom with my skateboarding heroes. To name a few, Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi (only non-bones member), Tommy Guerrero, and pretty much anyone in the bones brigade was on my walls and thrasher magazines were strewn around my room. I never had a board that wasn't a powell-peralta and I had every piece of memorabilia from their company that I could get my hands on. I had all the skate videos I could get too. That was a relatively new genre in the 80's. Even if some of them were cheesy, I loved them all.

I skated hard-core everyday until one-by-one, my friends moved away. With each friend that moved the skate scene started to die as well. By 1992, all my friends had moved away and I slowly started to slow down with my skating. Soon after skating was considered “not cool” and I stopped. That was the big regret in my life. I let a society tell me what I should be doing. What a crock.

Fast forward to 2008, I have realized that I left something behind that I love. I recently purchased a new board and I'm getting back out there. Although in my part of the world, Louisiana, a near-thirty year old skater is an oddity. I don't care though. I'm rediscovering my passion for skateboarding and all the joys that come along with it. However, the scene is much different from when I left, but in many ways it's still the same. No matter what happens to skateboarding in the future, never forget the past, especially the skateboarding craze of the 80's.

1. Stand on the board with your popping foot on the very back of the kicktail in the popping position.

2. Move the front foot to a spot a few inches behind the bolts (its up to you to get your own perfect position) at a 45 degree angle on the board facing away.

3. Begin the pop and as you do slide your foot like a normal ollie, heres the fast part, you have to flick your front foot downwards in the concave of the kicktale (dip at the start of it) the board should spin around.

4. as it comes around watch for the griptape and stamp down.

(Most people have difficulties because they flip the board and it flies away from them to prevent this, with your flicking foot make sure you push downwards rather than forwards)

Have fun and i wish you good luck :)

Now I'm good and I snap down most of the way.Well to ollie, you place one foot right before the bolts with your heel off the board and your foot straight. Your other foot is on your tail/ nose in the same position, your heel halfway off the board. Then you snap down, jump with BOTH feet, and slide your foot that is right before the bolts and land.Well hopefully you got some air and landed, if not, keep trying, you will get it in time. Also please comment I like reading them. And please click the “I like it” button. Thanks =D

     Today, skateboards are well made and serve an smooth ride. There are plenty of new and amazing tricks thanks to the ollie  invented in the 1980's. I have a feeling, skateboarding will be around for a long time!

This rise and attraction to skateboarding has given skaters newer exposure, allowing governments and communities to furbish skate parks for their riding pleasure. Aside, there are still those glorious "skate spots" that remain inactive due to security or law enforcement.

To "old school" skaters, this acceleration of their lifestyle has deemed worthy of the "sell-out" branding. Reason being that skateboarding was once an outlet where each skater did it for the sake of self. There was no need for competition, just expression. It gave them a voice different to the "nerds", "jocks", and even grownups. Nowadays, skateboarding has climbed the ladder to "sport" naming. Moreso, an "extreme sport" alongside snowboarding, wakeboarding, bmx, and motor cross. Though it is still a "self" sport, it tags along a notoriety that gets the so-called antithesis involved.

Companies like Volcom™, Etnies™, and És™, have also branched out making their soft goods and even hard goods available at popular stores such as PACSUN™ (Pacific Coast Sunwear), Journeys™, and even bigger stores like JC Pennys™.

So what is next with skateboarding? Will it continue to gain the popularity it has accrued over the years? Will it deminish and become another fad for kids to reminisce upon? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, happy skating.

In skateboarding there is 2 styles one is street witch is when you skateboard on the street by ollieing stair sets going up or down or grinding on rails and side walks also you can just ollie stuff like skateboards or hockey sticks. The other style is vert witch is when you skateboard on ramps like 1/2 pipes or 1/4 pipes. If you like both and you do vert and street it is called urban.

The first trick you are going to want to learn is a kickturn. To do this you put slight pressure on the tail of the board and rotate the board 180 degrees with your front foot. Make sure you move your body with the board or you will end up spinning and falling. Once you have this you should go up a slight hill and do a kickturn and go back down. Once you can do this you can try spinning more and more.

The next trick to learn is the manual. To do this you go up like a kickturn but you just ride straight. Your board goes up on 2 wheels and you keep riding. You are going to want to put your back feet behind the back bolts and your front feet halfway on the front bolts. Try and do this longer and longer until you can do this for a good distance.

Popping the Board

The ollie is your bread and butter of skateboarding. Once you get the ollie down a whole new world of tricks opens. To ollie you slam your back foot on the tail of board. the problem most people have with the ollie is that they cant get the board off the ground.  Practice with just putting your back foot on the board. then just slam down as hard as you can. Once you can do that then get on the board. put all your weight on your back foot and slam! The board will go up and face diagonaly up. This is when you slide your front foot up the board and put all your weight on that foot. Make sure you suck up ur knees as high as they can go for maximum air. Once your legs and the board are even you even out your weight and come down and bend your knees to absorb the landing.

The next trick is the shuv-it. In this trick you dont pop the board in the air. You use your back foot ONLY to spin the board. While spinning the board scrape the tail against the ground and just let your front foot hang there when the board spins 180 degrees you "catch" it. just press your feet down at the right time. The pop shuv-it is the same thing as the shuvit but you do it all in the air. The tail wont scrape on the ground in this one.

The Kickflip

The most frustrating trick in skateboarding. This trick can take more than a year to learn. But if you know the right way it will be WAY easier. So you just do an ollie but slide your foot off the side of the board. DO NOT KICK THE BOARD STRAIGHT DOWN. You just want to flick it. You can flick it from all they way up the nose if you want. Remember not to stomp the board. Once you can get the board to rotate all the way around its time for the hard part. To land it you have to make sure you know its gonna flip all the around. The biggest problem people have, including me, is when you just land it with once foot. I tried one thing and landed the kickflip first try after trying for a year. BRING UP YOUR KNEES! if bring up your knes really high you will land it.

How to Skate a Halfpipe

OK so now your ready to skate a minipipe or halfpipe. Dropping in looks so easy but its not. I learned that the hard way. The most important thing ever is to LEAN FORWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A LOT!!! I have been to the skatepark and i have seen many people drop in for the first time. I always tell them to lean forward but its never enough. You will always fall backwards. you have to be completely sideways because when your on a halfpipe your going straight down. If you do that then your set.

Ok now that you can drop in its time to learn the rock to fakie and tailstall. The rock to fakie and the tailstall combination is your bread and butter of the halfpipe. The rock to fakie is when you bring your front to wheels above the rail of the halfpipe then go back down fakie(backwards). Make sure you can skate backwards. Once your wheels are above make sure they dont get caught on the rail. Thats one way you get a bad butt hurtin while skating. Once you do the rock to fakie you are in perfect position for a tailstall. This is just when you lock your tail on the rail(you will be going backwards when you do this). Once you get locked in its just a drop in.

Skating Old School

Some of these tricks are pretty easy and they all look really cool. The boneles is where you grab the board and push off the ground with your back foot. If your back foot is your left foot then you grab with your left hand and vice versa. So lets just say your backfoot is your left foot. Your grab with your left hand on the outside of the board (where your toes are) right behind the front wheel. Take your left foot and jump off the ground. Bring everything up in the air then land it. Once you can do this then learn to do a boneless 180 wich is the same thing with a spin. You can do this over cones or whatever and it will look really cool. 

• First you will want to learn how to Ollie and you must be able to do Ollies easily.
• To successfully heel flip start rolling down any pavement you can find, act like you are going to Ollie but when you foot reaches the nose of the board flick you heel into the far corner of the board.
• Be sure to get your heel right where the nose starts or you will not get a decent flip. Now is the tricky part, catching the board.
• Once you have gotten comfortable with the flipping part of this trick, work on landing centered on the board and rolling away smooth.

Troubleshooting

Be sure to stay balanced like a normal Ollie that is the biggest mistake I see people make doing this trick. Also you may want to try this trick in the grass first I found that way a lot easier.

Congratulations!

You have just learned one of skateboarding more basic flip tricks and you can build off it to learn many more heel flip tricks, suck as varial heel flips and 180 heel flips.

What is a skateboard? Is it just a glorified plank with roller skate wheels on it? Or is it a highly engineered device through which kids have reclaimed the urban landscape, bringing creativity and style back to the sterile asphalt spaces of sprawl? The basic elements of the skateboard seem pretty straightforward. A board has three parts: the board or deck, the wheels, and the trucks, which connect the wheels to the board, and allow the board to turn. The concave design strengthens the board and gives the rider more control of the board. You stand on the board, and their are no straps or stirrups to hold your feet to the board.

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a snow-covered hill on a board attached to your feet by boots that have been set into a mounted binding. It is similar to skiing. The sport was developed in the United States in the 1960s and is now a Winter Olympic Sport. The first snowboard was actually a skateboard with no wheels. There are many different types of snowboards now, with the freeride, freestyle, and freecarve/race being the most popular.

With both sports, you should take precautions to prevent injuries. Always observe your surroundings. Look for that pothole in the concrete or the drop off on the slopes. Always wear proper safety equipment, such as padding or helmets. It is always important to have a friend with you to call for help, just in case. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

So which is better, skateboarding or snowboarding? Both can be as cheap or expensive as you want to go. Both can be very dangerous. Both can be fun, exciting, and thrill seeking sports. It is all a matter of preference which one you try.