How to Do an Ollie and a Kick-flip on a Skateboard

When beginning to learn how to do tricks on a skateboard, mastering the Ollie (jump) is essential.  Almost all tricks begin with an Ollie of some sort, so you must learn to Ollie before learning any tricks.  To begin an Ollie, put your back foot on the tail of the board near the end and your front foot about half way up the board.  This stance should feel natural, like you are simply riding your board.  Learning to Ollie can be aggravating at first because as easy as it is, it will take close to a thousand tries to get it.

There are three parts to doing an Ollie; the pop, the kick, and the landing.  The pop is the easy part, just push down with your back foot on the tail and raise the front of the board.  Then comes the kick; when the front of the board comes up, scrape your front foot up the board from back to front quickly.  This is the hardest part to get because you have got to do it just right, not to soft or to hard. These two parts get you off of the ground, but that is only half the battle.  After the pop and the kick is the landing.  Once you get off of the ground, the only thing you should worry about is how you and the board are going to hit the ground.  Try to put your feet on the board right where they were before you started the Ollie.  All together, your feet should make a sort of wave motion during the jump.

After practicing the Ollie until you can do it pretty well, it is time move on to tricks evolved from the Ollie.  Doing these tricks only changes your foot placement and the direction in which you kick.  A relatively easy trick to learn is the Kick-Flip.

To do a kick-flip start out with your feet close to the same position as the Ollie, but scoot your back foot forward a little until the tip of your toes are off of the side if the board.  This evens out the board so that is only flips, and does not turn.  The second change happens when you kick.  Point you front foot at the bottom left screw on the board (right if your a lefty rider). Instead of kicking strait forward, kick out to the right side of the board (left of your a lefty rider).  The board should flip completely over and you will land the same as you started (after many many tries).  Landing is the hardest part of this trick.  Watch the board and try your best to land in the same position as you started.  To get this trick down, it will take a lot of tries and failures, but eventually it will be easy and you will be able to go on to do harder and cooler tricks.