Aquila Children's Magazine magnificentMegaMag-92pages | Page 35

Before attempting any tricks just get as comfortable as possible riding your board everywhere! Here are some classic skateboarding tricks. Skaters need to think about the forces in play and, like all good mathematicians and scientists, they have to keep practising until the move becomes as natural as walking – remember, you couldn’t do that either when you first tried! ● Ollie – make the board fly – stand with your front foot over the front bolts and your back foot at the centre of the tail. Crouch. Take the weight off your front foot and slam your back foot down hard on the tail. Hop off your back foot, slide your front foot forward and ride the board as it flies up in the air. A good skateboard jump will carry you up with twice the force of your own weight. Aim high. ● Frontside 180 – When you’ve mastered the ollie (that alone can take a lot of patience), you can turn it into a frontside 180. 180 swing your arm behind you, twisting your upper body. As you hop your back foot up, slide your front foot to the nose and swing your arm around, guide the board 180 degrees from your start position, Once you have nailed the ollie and the frontside 180, why not attempt the frontside 360 or a kickflip? so you end up facing the opposite direction. Getting better – jump higher and swing your shoulders around further. what? 180 degrees – half a circle – a semicircle. While you crouch,