That's an excellent point! 😃

I feel like they didn't have a choice back then

@@evanmoss6895 street skating wouldn't exist if Rodney Mullen hadn't invented the flatground Ollie in freestyle!

@@rz4525 that's what I mean, no one discovered street skating before, so it was freestyle and vert only

Aww, that’s such a good point! (And I’m really glad to hear that my videos have been helpful) Even really young kids can approach freestyle without much of a barrier like needing to be able to pop. Like you said there are lots of fun things they can learn and just have fun with (while secretly building board control haha)😃💪

Thank you so much for this comment! This was awesome to read 😃🙏 I totally get that. It’s really easy to get lost in the rush to progress, especially when watching talented skaters ride. There’s a bit of a culture of needing to progress as fast as possible in skating. But I am more than stoked to hear that my videos reminded you to skate for you! That’s seriously the most important part. Learn the tricks you want to, when you want to, if you want to 💪💪 You got it!! 🛹

All I can do is thank you Mike! For everything you do for us and the constant inspiration 🙏

Thank you! 😃

Freestyle, although still niche in skating, is bigger than its ever been 💪 so, welcome to freestyle. It’s so fun. can be as wild or mellow as you want. Glad you’re enjoying the videos too!

Thank you so much! :D At the very least, I love it too much to stop haha

Exactly! Board control, balance and tons more! 💪🙏

ahh thanks Chris! Put in the hours, and you'll definitely get there 🙌 Hope to hear good news next summer 💪

Yay for the rail stand! Yes. Rail stands are fun. I'm glad you got one! There are tons of variations too :D

Thank you! I'm so happy you enjoyed the video. Yeah, I think that skateboarding is hard, and I definitely want to advocate taking your time and enjoying the process of learning because skateboarding is so much fun. Really getting those basics and that board control will make learning other tricks easier later, including dropping in!

James, I feel your pain about learning how to drop in. I also slammed hard a couple of times before learning it. I actually learned to drop in twice. The first time I didn't really understand what I did and my success rate was around 80%, which made it scary to drop in. Later I learned a new way to drop in and then I suddenly understood why it worked from a "scientific perspective". Now my success rate is above 99% but it's still a bit scary each time I try to drop in a new / higher / steeper transition :). The "secret trick" to dropping in is to LEAN THE UPPER BODY FORWARD *BEFORE* you drop in by "putting weight" on the front foot. While you're doing this, you have 100% of your body weight on the back foot, so you're basically standing on one leg. The idea is that the "angle" of your upper body needs to match the slope of the transition which you are dropping in into. That is, once your front wheels hit the transition, your whole body need to be positioned so that it matches the slope of the transition. Otherwise you will lose your balance and fall forward or backward and "slip out". I learned this secret trick - or actually scientific insight - from a Japanese(!) Ollie tutorial. They talk about this specific thing at 0 minutes 17 seconds into the tutorial kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rL2lZNNezbLagoE.html Here's a video of how my "first type" of drop ins looked, right after learning how to do them the "unscientific way" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fq6BdLSVmLK3kYE.html Here's a video of me right after learning how to do drop ins the "scientific way" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mth2bLRyzdrUhGQ.html Here's a recent video of me dropping in kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oMiUZK6cnduYkmQ.html Still not perfect, but I'm not as scared any longer :)

@ thank you so much for your input. I will look at those videos. this is awesome info Henrik, thank you again.

@@SarahParkMatott one more thing. i don't want to ever make my age a "thing" in my skating...but i'm 56. i'll just say that once. i grew up surf-skating. and as an adult i thought "oh, you're supposed to longboard now." and it took me years to realize...i don't like longboarding. it just doesn't do it for me. i started surf-skating again but when i got my first popsicle stick i was like, "OH MAN, I AM HOME. THIS IS IT." and i'm learning through advocates like you that it can be done fun and less painfully. there is a way.

You know what? I really really understand what you mean. Because I also thought (at 25--which is crazy to me now that I thought this because I know I am young) that I should try something like long boarding instead of skating. I actually tried to skate periodically from age 10 to 16. I only learned a rocketed half ollie and one street plant I think. I couldn't even learn to shove it. And I was too self conscious at that age to go to a park. So, age is definitely not everything. Everyone's skating experience is different. I'm way better at progressing as an adult than I was as a young kid/teen. I learned to shove it quickly as an adult, which I couldn't do at all within a six year span as a child. I'm so glad I came back to skating with my perspective of having quit once already and finding a new path (and now sharing that)! Thanks for the comments! They're awesome to read, and I am super stoked you got back into skateboarding! I totally agree that "this is home."

I seriously cannot recommend it enough. It 💯 has made me a better skater no matter what style I am skating 🙌 And welcome to skating!

I can’t agree more. Honestly, it’s fun to get new tricks. But the more board control I get, the more I feel I have progressed!

That's awesome! Well, freestyle is really fun when you get into it. Don't need any parks or obstacles either! I would recommend checking out Mike Osterman to get started with some beginner tricks.

Wow, thank you 😃 That'd be pretty cool

😃

ah, that's such a good idea. Game-ifying anything makes it instantly more fun for me too 😃 I wish there was more beginner friendly transition around here. It looks really fun! 🙌 Enjoy it for me haha

Welcome to the channel 😃

Thank you! I think we can all benefit from a little freestyle, even if we don't pursue it. Especially us beginners :D It made all the difference for me!

I definitely agree with all this. Part of the reason I wanted to make this channel was to help with these tricks that I struggled with and I know others do, but also to offer a different path of progression if the shove it, ollie, kick flip path isn’t working. Freestyle is the core reason I progressed quickly in “street” style tricks, and I want others to know it’s an option💪 So thank you for the comment! A line is a line 💯

Yes!! Great point 🙏

This is 100% true, and it's become a big focus for me because of that.

Well, starting with freestyle is all about that footwork! 💪 Mike Osterman has some awesome tutorials for beginners. I used them to start too. But “Open Souce Skateboards” and “freestyle trick tips” are also a great sources of tutorials. 💪💪 And thank you! 😃🙏

I totally agree. I'm not much to just "choose one." 🙌 Stoked you're having so much fun skating though!

That's an awesome question. I don't have a list. But, I do have a kind of method that I always used. I always tried to do my next trick based off of my current position. So, for example, say I do a couple walk the dogs and then a switchblade. From there, I can put my tail on the ground (or keep it there) and I am in tail stop. From here, I would ask myself what trick can I do that starts here? Yo-yo hop. Then I'd ask again. I'm still in tail stop, so I can tip over to heel side rail. And from there I can do a rail walk. And from that position I can jump back out. And I am now back on the bolts, so I could do some more footwork. I just always asked that question. What can I do from this exact position? Or what could I learn that starts from this position? And I based a lot of sessions on just that. I still do it. I think it works well because they string together nicely when the next trick starts from the ending of the previous one! :D

Thank you so much for the i depth response and glimpse into your process. I think with time it must get easier to conjure up the next trick more readily. I find myself drawing blanks a lot of the time! Just standing their in rail stands and being like, “ummmmm….” Maybe I need to make some sort of cheat sheet for myself “tricks your can do out of rail stance. Tricks you can do out of truck stands.” And so on…

@@AndSoGoes it definitely gets easier. I used to stand there for a long time too 😂 It’s all part of the process. Big supporter of lists and cheat sheets. I also tended to enjoy making my lines short. 3 to 4 tricks that I could practice in a row. And as time goes on, you think of stuff to add 😃 it almost became a routine over time

Yes and no. It just depends what tricks you want to do. A lot of freestyle tricks (footwork, finger flips etc) are friendly for street set ups. The real question is whether you need skid plates (if you want to scrape the tail a lot or do a lot of truck stand/pogo tricks) or freestyle wheels (if you want to be in rail a lot). Skid plates and freestyle wheels make those kinds of tricks much easier and help the board last longer. But, if you want to learn mostly other tricks or just want to dabble, you can absolutely just use a street setup. Mike Osterman has quite a few videos about freestyle set ups and what they're good for or hacking a street board for freestyle tricks if you're interested in learning more! :D

Yess! I love to land my ollies in nose stop. Slam the front foot down and I am ready to go into truck stand 💪💪 love mixing and matching

@@SarahParkMatott Now that sounds awesome. I wish I could Skate with you sometime I bet it would be a lot of fun

@@DBRYview I know! A lot of people like to skate alone. But, I like to skate with people 😃 maybe because I never do haha

@@SarahParkMatott likewise

Haha I don't disagree. I would still recommend young people start with tricks that help with board control (and some other tricks like shoves) if they are willing to. If you have patience, there is no need to fall a lot even as a kid lol 😂

@@SarahParkMatott + nipo nipo great advice both. and the "Sarah" method of learning the parts of the tricks first and separately may help reduce falls. THAT is the key!!

Riding is really easy and it shouldn't take more than a few days to ride smoothly and comfortably...but board control and confidence on board really is the key to all those tricks that you listed!

Ah, a truckstand? or 5050. It has two names 😃

When you can already do the basics of like flatground (shove its etc)? Well, most people get into freestyle with footwork. Here are some good tricks to start with! Monster walk tail stop shuffle Primo/rail stand Switch blade Walk the dog Rail walks Endovers Yo-yo hop Mike Osterman and Tony Gale have a ton of tutorials. I have a few of them too 🙂

@@SarahParkMatott ty!

haha we all have different paths to progress. Having a clear goal to achieve is really cool. I tend to suggest using freestyle as a tool to get board control quickly even if you don't want to pursue freestyle entirely, which I would argue could help you drop in, but! I'm glad you think it looks fun! It is. It's kind of like a hidden gem in the skate community :D

Also! Good luck working up to that drop it! It's wild when you finally get it 💪

yeah, I always go with the basics. For any skater, I always recommend footwork (switchblade, endovers, monsterwalk, walk the dog--this one takes a long time to learn for many) and the yoyo hop which can be learned before finger flips. Then for the skaters who want to dive deeper into freestyle....toeside and heelside railstands, truckstand, and rail to casper as well. Those tend to be the beginning for most freestylers to get introduced to the major trick categories. Mike Osterman and Tony Gale (Freestyle Trick Tips) have a lot of good stuff for beginners with these too

@@SarahParkMatott thx! You da bomb 👍 ima try that out

I totally get that, and freestyle boards are pretty expensive too. You definitely don’t need a freestyle set up. I do freestyle on my street set up all the time. But, there are certain tricks that are way easier on a freestyle set up like tricks in rail/primo. If you’re into those, sometimes just getting freestyle wheels is enough to work on it (if your trucks are the same width as your deck). If you want to drag the tail a lot, skid plates are your best friend. But, there are a ton of tricks that you can work on that don’t require a freestyle friendly set up. A lot of footwork, fingerflips and individual tricks like the Old School kickflip don’t need a freestyle set up. 😃

@@SarahParkMatott Thanks, I guess I'll just go and try em out. 😊

Haha I actually have. 😄 I was getting ready to learn lon boarding before I took up freestyle! Longboarding was indeed fun because I enjoy the dance-y aspects of it. But, skateboarding is definitely "home" to me :D

That's an interesting thought. The best way I've heard it explained is that in street skateboarding, you have obstacles. Ledges, rails, ramps etc. But in actual freestyle skateboarding, the board itself is the obstacle. It's entirely flatground based. So, the board is tailored to that. If you seriously want to learn freestyle, absolutely nothing about the popsicle shape is advantageous to a freestyler. The concave, kick steepness, kick roundness etc. are all disadvantages when learning intermediate to higher level tricks. There are a few amazing freestylers who use street popsicles, but most freestylers still prefer freestyle decks. Decks that are designed for the tricks they do. It'd be like asking a skater to skate in running shoes. Sure, they can do it, but it's not advantageous. They'd prefer to skate in skate shoes. 😃 This is a topic I find really interesting anyway...so, I'm kinda glad I got to think about it this morning thanks to your comment :D

That's the "please be a kind human" rule 😂

@@SarahParkMatott mhm