0:20 Skatepark Etiquette/Choosing your line
0:53 Riding quarter pipes
1:29 Pumping
2:00 Dropping in
2:33 Fly outs
3:10 Dropping in from pegs
3:28 Stalling
@austin _sager - 360 Tailwhip
@og_nick_mantz - Backflip
The first thing you need to know is skatepark etiquette. Normally, riders will take a path across the park where they hit a few ramps and then rest for a minute on the other side. This is called a line. When you go out on the ramps you should know what line you want to take first. Crashes usually happen when someone is riding in an unpredictable way, or ignoring the lines that other people are taking. Be considerate, and observe the skatepark before you jump into the mix. After you watch for a bit, you’ll have a much better idea of what line to take, and who to keep an eye on. Like that scooter kid who just finished his 4th mountain dew.
Next, you’re going to need to learn how to ride quarter pipes. We’ll assume you’ve already been messing around on your BMX in the street, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to ride up and down a mellow quarter pipe just by turning around. You’ll quickly grow comfortable with the transition and work your way higher and higher up the quarter. As you move on to bigger quarters, you’ll want to practice hopping slightly to turn around. While turning around on an embankment requires a bunnyhop, you don’t need to do this on a quarter. Just pull your bike towards your body slightly, and you’ll feel it leave the ramp. Eventually, you’ll be able to get your front wheel over the top, and then your back wheel. Now you’re airing out.
Next, you can learn to ride more efficiently by pumping. Kind of like a swing set or a rocking horse, pumping is how you’ll gain speed on ramps by shifting your weight around instead of pedaling. As you go up or down a ramp, you want to shift your weight back in sync with the transition. You’ll know you have it figured out when you can start at the bottom of a miniramp, and work your way up higher and higher without pedaling. You’ll find that pumping is very easy to learn. It’s a lot more fun than pedaling, and it gives you way more style points.
Once you’ve gotten pretty comfortable with pumping and riding quarter pipes, you should learn to drop in from the deck. Again, starting on a small one first is probably the best way to learn. Notice the metal piping at the top. This is called coping. The trick to dropping in is to ride parallel to the coping and turn into the ramp. Because coping can sometimes be slippery, I recommend actually lifting your front wheel over it a bit. By dropping in parallel to the coping with your wheel turned, you avoid needing to nosedive into the ramp to make your transition. In fact, you’ll pretty much end up in the same position you would if you were just riding up and down the quarter.
Now, you’re going to want to get back on to the deck so you can take a break. By throwing your body forwards as you ride up the quarter, you can get your bike over the coping and on to the deck. You can put a foot out to get back on to the deck, but go a little faster and you can do a fly out. Fly outs are really fun, and they’re actually one of the best ways to learn tricks since they send you straight up and straight down. Since you’re basically going 0 mph when you land, it’s easier to pull off tricks without executing them perfectly. Learn fly outs on small quarters, and work your way up to the big ones.
If you have pegs, you may also want to learn how to stall on the coping. First, get comfortable with dropping in from your pegs. To do this, throw your body weight over the center of the ramp, and then immediately turn your front wheel to roll back in. If you don’t center your weight over the ramp first, you’re just going to end up sliding down the ramp sideways. Commit to throwing your weight over the ramp, and the rest will come naturally. Dropping in from pegs is actually easier than dropping in from the deck. Learn this, and then work on your stalls.
Start by riding up the quarter and carving towards the coping. Make sure your pegs are getting above the coping, and then push your bike off to the side. At this point, you should be using your momentum to bring your body over the center of the coping. If you can’t quite get this part, it’s easy to just turn your front wheel and drop back in. This is probably what will end up happening the first few times, but I find that the worst that will happen is that you slide down the ramp or need to drop back in. Find your balance point, and you’ll be stalling in no time.