Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

Skateboarding is a good way to get some exercise and leads to a lot of people asking for skateboarding tips for beginners. Some may see it as a bit dangerous, but their are many more advantages than disadvantages. If you are interested in skateboarding, then read on to get some skateboarding tips for beginners.

Protective Gear

Beginner Trick Skateboard

First things first, you need to wear your safety gear. Before you go ahead and try to do some stuff using a skateboard, you need to have some protective gears with you. A helmet, a couple of elbow pads and knee pads should do the job. If you do not have any, you can borrow some gear from your friends. Make sure that they fit you properly, or their effectiveness will be greatly decreased.

Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

A lot of the younger skaters don't bother to wear safety gear. They think it doesn't look cool wearing all the pads and a helmet. It doesn't look cool when you suffer from a bad injury though. Also, all the pros wear all the gear as well. So if you want to look like a pro, wear your safety gear.

Your skateboard

Now you are fully suited up, you need to get yourself comfortable with your board. Skateboards come in thousands of sizes and designs. A good idea is to try all of your friends boards, to see which kind you like best.

Once you have your new skateboard, you will want to have a private practice on it before you go out and hit the streets. You should try standing, jumping and moving your feet on the skateboard for some time before you actually make any movements. This will help you feel a bit more at home on your board.

Stance

The next important thing is your stance. There are two variations of stance, either left foot forward or right foot forward. The easiest way to determine which is the stance for you, is to try kicking a ball. If you prefer kicking with your right foot, then you should position your right foot at the back of the board and visa versa.

Movement

Now you know your stance, you are ready to start moving. Push yourself forward with your back foot. Relax your body while you move off and bend your your knees. The first movement will feel very weird and you will be fairly unsteady. You will get the hang out of it.

Try to find somewhere that has ample space and little disturbance such as people or cars. Somewhere flat and even is preferable.

Stopping

The next and perhaps the most important thing to learn is to know how to stop. There are several different ways to stop. I personally use my back foot to stop. I just put my back foot on the ground and use friction to stop me.

These are the essential skateboarding tips for beginners, the skills that they will need to master to become a good skateboarder.

Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

Don't Let the Lack of Snow Stop Your Boarding Practice

The summer months are the hardest for snowboarders to keep up their skills for the slopes. But there are a number of alternatives to help you practice and hone your boarding abilities once the snow has melted.

We don't all have the luxury of jetting off to New Zealand and Chile to indulge in the alternate snow season, some of us are stuck in the UK and stranded on dry land. So, here are four alternatives which promise to give you skills and thrills of snowboarding, without a trip to the rockies.

Beginner Trick Skateboard

Snowboard Simulator

Don't Let the Lack of Snow Stop Your Boarding Practice

Snowboard simulators are a piece of apparatus designed to allow the user to simulate the action of a snowboard, often used during dry land training.

Often found in amusement arcades or available for hire from many outdoor entertainment retailers, snowboard simulators are a fun way to get on a board and enjoy the feeling of riding the slopes without covering any ground.

The simulator tests your balance and coordination skills and challenges you to ride downhill and off piste as it tests your agility. Riders stand on the electronic snowboard and are challenged to move in unison with the board, requiring good coordination and first class core stability.

This is not the easiest piece of equipment to master and it certainly doesn't come cheap. If you were to buy a snowboard simulator it would set you back several thousand pounds and to hire the equipment you are looking at a rate ranging from £300 to £600 for just a few hours.

Freeline Skates

Freeline Skates utilise the same movements as snowboarding and can be used on normal slopes, not just ones of the dry or artificial snow variety.

The skates are dual independent skates that combine elements of skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding.

Freeline Skates offer a new experience for snowboarders, which requires them to utilise existing skills and transfer them to a new manner of riding. These provide a challenging and innovative way to carve big turns and invent new tricks, all on dry land.

Freeline Skates are ridden in a similar manner to a snowboard with riders shifting their weight from heel to toe to change direction allowing them to carve smooth 'S' turns while riding downhill.

The skates are independent, but unlike skates and blades they are not strapped to the rider's feet, this offers an added bonus to riders by allowing them to achieve high levels of traction on the flats and uphill providing a wide range of locations that are suitable for the skates.

Freeline Skates cost £85 a pair and spare wheels are priced at £25.

Mountain Boards

Mountain Boards are often described as offroad skateboards. They carve like snowboards and can be ridden on grass, dirt and tarmac.

While mountain boards can be pushed up a hill they are intended for downhill use mostly. Mountain Boards are viewed as an alternative to snowboarding, the dry land alternative to surfing and wakeboarding, and the off road alternative to skateboarding.

From carving to freestyle to boardercross, this exciting piece of equipment really does offer a dry land riding experience. It replaces snow with dirt and builds on the premise of skateboarding with its four wheels and snowboarding with its foot bindings and riding stance.

All terrain boards (ATB) costs more than a skateboard but are far less expensive than a high quality bike. Most mountain boards are £200 or less. After-market parts are on the cheap-side too. Mountain boards are fairly simple with few maintenance needs - http://www.atbshop.co.uk.

Xscape

With some of the country's biggest real snow slopes, boarders may want to take a trip to one of the three UK based Xscape centres. Xscape Milton Keynes, Braehead and Castleford offer the ideal place to brush up your boarding skills out of season.

It may seem a little far fetched, but these slopes come complete with real, fresh snow. It's the nearest thing you'll get to the white stuff indoors, short of shipping back a mountain on your next boarding holiday.

The centres offer lessons, a beginners' area and dedicated Freestyle nights for you to hit some rails, jibb the slide box and get some air off the jumps and pipes.

Freestyle sessions are every Thursday and Friday from 7pm to11pm. A two hour Freestlye session will set you back £25 if you're an adult and £20 for children, add £10 for an extra two hours.

Off peak rates apply on weekdays from 9am - 5pm, excluding school and bank holidays. Peak rates apply at all other times. Prices start at just £13 per hour off peak and £21 on peak.

Don't Let the Lack of Snow Stop Your Boarding Practice

Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

Skateboarding is a good way to get some exercise and leads to a lot of people asking for skateboarding tips for beginners. Some may see it as a bit dangerous, but their are many more advantages than disadvantages. If you are interested in skateboarding, then read on to get some skateboarding tips for beginners.

Protective Gear

Beginner Trick Skateboard

First things first, you need to wear your safety gear. Before you go ahead and try to do some stuff using a skateboard, you need to have some protective gears with you. A helmet, a couple of elbow pads and knee pads should do the job. If you do not have any, you can borrow some gear from your friends. Make sure that they fit you properly, or their effectiveness will be greatly decreased.

Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

A lot of the younger skaters don't bother to wear safety gear. They think it doesn't look cool wearing all the pads and a helmet. It doesn't look cool when you suffer from a bad injury though. Also, all the pros wear all the gear as well. So if you want to look like a pro, wear your safety gear.

Your skateboard

Now you are fully suited up, you need to get yourself comfortable with your board. Skateboards come in thousands of sizes and designs. A good idea is to try all of your friends boards, to see which kind you like best.

Once you have your new skateboard, you will want to have a private practice on it before you go out and hit the streets. You should try standing, jumping and moving your feet on the skateboard for some time before you actually make any movements. This will help you feel a bit more at home on your board.

Stance

The next important thing is your stance. There are two variations of stance, either left foot forward or right foot forward. The easiest way to determine which is the stance for you, is to try kicking a ball. If you prefer kicking with your right foot, then you should position your right foot at the back of the board and visa versa.

Movement

Now you know your stance, you are ready to start moving. Push yourself forward with your back foot. Relax your body while you move off and bend your your knees. The first movement will feel very weird and you will be fairly unsteady. You will get the hang out of it.

Try to find somewhere that has ample space and little disturbance such as people or cars. Somewhere flat and even is preferable.

Stopping

The next and perhaps the most important thing to learn is to know how to stop. There are several different ways to stop. I personally use my back foot to stop. I just put my back foot on the ground and use friction to stop me.

These are the essential skateboarding tips for beginners, the skills that they will need to master to become a good skateboarder.

Skateboarding Tips For Beginners - All the Steps You Need to Take to Start Boarding

The Joy of Skim Boarding

Skim boarding or skimming is the latest board sport and it has become immensely popular. Skimming is done with the help of a skimboard which is like a surfboard but smaller. The skim board is used to glide or skim across the surface of the water. Surfing requires you to paddle out into the water for quite a distance before you can ride a wave in.

Skimboarding on the other hand starts on the beach. You drop the board on the thing wash of previous waves. Once the board is on this shallow water you need to run and jump on to the board. The skimmers then use their momentum to ride the skimboard out to breaking waves. Once they have reached the waves the skimboard can be used to ride them in a manner similar to the surfboard. The lifeguards on the beaches of Laguna were looking for an easier way to move around on the beach and so the sport of skimboarding was born. In this article we will find out a little more about this exciting new sport and about cover some information about skimboards.

Beginner Trick Skateboard

Skimboarding is done on a skimboard in shallow water. It originated on the beach but the sport can also be enjoyed at rivers and tide flats. Riding a wave is considered to be a more advanced form of skimboarding than flatland skimboarding. Flatland skimboarding takes place mostly in shallow water and skimmers perform a variety of stunts that are derived from skateboarding. It is not uncommon to see skimmers who are practicing flatland skim boarding perform ollies and shove-its. As a beginner you will need to master the basic techniques first and then you can try riding waves, grinding rails or other complicated skateboarding tricks. Sand skimboarding is considered to be a beginners sport because it is relatively easy. Easy or not skimboarding is a lot of fun no matter what level you are at.

The Joy of Skim Boarding

To enjoy the sport of skimboarding you are goin to need a skim board. Normally a skimboard is mid-chest high. The thickness of a skimboard can vary anywhere between 3/8 inch to 1 inch. Skimboards also have a nose lift or a rocker. There are three different types of rockers. The first is the constant rocker. In this type of rocker the board has a constant curve from nose to tail. A board that has this kind of rocker will have better control on bigger waves. This is why it is favored by more advanced skimboarders. The second type of rocker is called a hybrid rocker. A board with this type of rocker has a partial curve. Three fourth of the board will have a curve and the remaining part of the board will remain flat. This flat part is usually the tail of the skimboard. Hybrid rockers are the most commonly used type of rockers. The last type of rocker is the traditional rocker which only has a slight curve for the nose.

The Joy of Skim Boarding

Ripstick Caster Board - A New Twist In Boarding

The Ripstick Caster Board has been likened to surfing and snowboarding on two wheels!

Designed with two foot plates joined by a lateral pivot mechanism which allows them to twist independently, the Ripstick has 2 caster wheels, not unlike supermarket trolley wheels, allowing them to rotate in any direction.

Beginner Trick Skateboard

These foot plates and wheels allow the Ripstick to provide a side sliding and turning motion just like carving on a snowboard.

Ripstick Caster Board - A New Twist In Boarding

The Ripstick can also be propelled by the side to side movement of the legs, meaning the rider does not need to take their foot off of the board to push it along, and it can be easily propelled along - even up hills.

The Ripstick can be used to do many of the normal skate boarding tricks but is uniquely capable of its own stunts due to its increased mobility.

The Ripstick boards typically come in 4 colours (Black, Blue, Green and Red) and are provided with a carry case, carry strap and toolkit.

A 4 wheel version is available for younger riders or those who find the 2 wheel ripstick difficult to balance. The 4 wheel version also includes LCD lights in the wheels for a really impressive ride!

Ripstick boards are very safe, as the intrinsic dynamics of the rotating casters don't have the skateboard's tendency to flick out from underneath the rider and the board tilts to the ground when it stops.

Of course with any boarding there is an element of skill involved and beginners are advised to wear appropriate clothing, helmet and pads as appropriate.

If you are looking for a new challenge or fancy a change from the traditional skateboard, take a look at the Ripstick and start surfing the street!

Ripstick Caster Board - A New Twist In Boarding