Skateboard Tricks Overview: From Basic Moves to Signature Tricks
In recent years, skateboarding has been drawing attention—not only because it was chosen as an Olympic sport, but also thanks to Japanese athletes making their mark on the world stage.
It’s becoming increasingly popular as an extracurricular activity for kids, and many adults have also started skateboarding recently.
In this article, we’ll introduce a wide range of skateboard tricks all at once.
We’ll cover everything from basic tricks to showcase moves like the ollie and kickflip.
Be sure to check this out before you start skateboarding, or right after you’ve just begun.
Basic Tricks (1–10)
Power slide
A powerslide is a trick where you turn the deck 90 degrees sideways relative to your direction of travel to brake.
To learn it, you need to understand how weight is distributed on the deck and how to control it.
In other words, if your weight is on the wheels, you won’t be able to turn the deck sideways, so practice lightening your weight on them.
It may also be difficult without a certain amount of speed, so keep that in mind.
Once you’ve mastered the powerslide, you can link it into tricks that spin the deck afterward or use it on ramps, making it useful in a variety of situations.
show bit
Once you’ve gotten comfortable riding a skateboard—accelerating and turning—the next trick to try is the shuvit.
This trick involves popping the deck and spinning it 180 degrees.
To do it, shift your weight onto the tail to slightly lift the front wheels, then use your back foot to pop and spin the deck.
Once it has rotated 180 degrees, catch the deck with your front foot to complete the trick.
It may look difficult at first, but since you don’t have to lift the entire board off the ground, it’s often easier to learn than an ollie.
Start by practicing the board rotation while holding onto a handrail or something stable.
tick-tock
It’s no exaggeration to say this is the first basic trick most people practice when starting skateboarding.
By putting your weight on your back foot, you lift the nose-side wheels off the ground, then swing your front foot alternately to the right and left.
Doing this lets you gradually accelerate and move forward without pushing off the ground with your foot.
The trick gets its name because the side-to-side motion of the deck resembles the hands of a clock.
Once you improve, you won’t use it much in parks, but it helps you get comfortable on a skateboard and develop a feel for shifting your weight front to back, so be sure to challenge yourself with it first.
Tail manual
A “manual” refers to what’s commonly known as a wheelie, and a tail manual specifically means riding with the front wheel lifted.
While the tail manual is a classic trick, it’s hard to balance and might not be something you can master right away.
However, it leads to combo tricks—like landing in a tail manual after an ollie—so it’s worth practicing bit by bit.
Since the foot placement that feels stable varies from person to person, start by finding the stance that makes it easiest for you to keep your balance.
Push
This is the most basic movement for accelerating on a skateboard.
Keep your front foot on the deck and push off the ground firmly with your back foot.
It’s something everyone from beginners to advanced riders does naturally, but when you first get on a skateboard, you might be surprised at how hard it is to keep your balance and do it well.
That said, with a few minutes of practice, you’ll gradually get the hang of it, so practice while getting comfortable riding the skateboard.
Ollie (1–10)
Ollie
The ollie is one of the most iconic skateboard tricks.
You jump together with the deck, and for first-timers it might seem mysterious how the board lifts off the ground.
The basic mechanics are: you pop the tail with your back foot to raise the nose, then slide your front foot up the deck to level it out in the air.
It’s not a trick you can master overnight, so many beginners get discouraged at this stage.
That’s why it’s no exaggeration to say that being able to ollie marks your graduation from beginner status.
It’s essential for clearing obstacles and getting onto boxes and rails, and it forms the foundation for showcase tricks like the kickflip—so definitely give it a try.
nollie
An ollie is a trick where you lift the nose to jump, but a nollie is the opposite: you lift the tail to jump.
That means you pop the nose with your front foot instead of your back foot, and slide the deck up with your back foot.
In general, nollies are considered harder than ollies, so it’s best to get comfortable with ollies first.
It’s recommended to try nollies after you can do a fakie ollie, which is an ollie performed while rolling backward.
Rotation System Tricks (1–10)
heel flip
As the name suggests, the heelflip is a trick that pairs with the kickflip.
While a kickflip flicks your back foot outward, a heelflip uses your front foot to flick inward toward your stomach to rotate the deck.
The deck rotates on the same principle, so the difficulty is about the same as a kickflip.
Practice the same way: first hold onto a handrail or something similar to get a feel for spinning the board, then move on to landing with one foot without the handrail to get used to it.
If you feel like you can sort of do it but you’re better at kickflips, try doing it fakie (rolling backward) or in switch stance (switching your front and back feet).
It might click better that way, so give it a try.
frontside 180
Among tricks where both your body and deck rotate 180 degrees during an ollie, the frontside 180 is the one where you rotate frontside—that is, with your back facing the direction of rotation.
It’s sometimes written as FS180.
For a frontside 180, before the ollie you crouch and close your shoulders opposite the direction of rotation, then pop your ollie while opening your shoulders and unwinding your torso.
At first you might not complete the full 180, but if you focus on keeping your weight centered over the middle of the deck and doing a clean, fairly high ollie, you’ll gradually get it.
Once you’ve learned the frontside 180, it opens the door to other tricks like the frontside flip, so aim to master it!
kickflip
Once you’ve learned to ollie, the next trick everyone longs for is the kickflip.
It’s a trick where, during the ollie, you rotate the deck one full turn along the axis parallel to the ground toward your back.
Up to popping the tail with your back foot and lifting the nose, it’s the same as an ollie, but as you slide your front foot up, you flick it toward your backside to spin the board.
What makes the kickflip difficult isn’t just spinning the deck; you also have to keep the board rotating directly under your body or you’ll botch the landing.
It’s recommended to start by holding onto a handrail or something similar, get used to landing with just one foot on the deck, and gradually build the full motion step by step.