The basic point of skateboarding is to be able to ride on anything, from flat ground to steep slopes and curved surfaces and walls. You can also do wheelies, called manuals by balancing on 2 wheels or less. Barry can balance on his head but thats not skating, thats kungfu.

Taking it up another dimension, you can also jump and do flip tricks. The basic trick of jumping with your skateboard is called an ollie. ollie-ing with a rotation and landing going backwards is a basic rotation called a 180. Ollie-ing with a rotation of only the board and not your body is a basic pop-shuv-it. Ollie-ing with a flip of the board is a basic flip trick called a kickflip. The variations of tricks is infinite and you will never learn all of them.

Besides rolling and jumping, you can also grind and slide with any part of your skateboard. A basic grind called a 50-50 involves grinding on an edge with both your trucks. Trucks? like Optimus Prime? No, skateboard trucks are the metal holders that attach the wheels to the board. A basic slide called a boardslide involves sliding on a rail with the middle of your board. I think in Lord Of The Rings theres this scene with a huge castle under siege and Legolas boardslides on a shield down some stairs to say hello. Yea its like that.

So those are the 3 basics: rolling-on-wheels, jumping, and not-rolling-on-wheels!

Be aware that when you are not-rolling-on-wheels, your grinds and slides may scruff or chip the edges of whatever you jumped on, and if its not in a skatepark, it is often considered vandalism. You might get into trouble for this and don’t be suprised to find the police opening fire in your direction. In this event, whip out your bow and arrow and provide cover fire so your friends can escape, then pull out your cellphone and start dialing for Gandalf to save your ass. I learned this ingenious tactic from Legolas himself.

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