Participant performs a Kickflip during Red Bull Dala The City in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 29, 2018
© Craig Kolesky/Red Bull Content Pool
Skateboarding

5 intermediate skateboard tricks to try out

Don’t mistake it for a boneless, it is called 'Fastplant'.
By The Holy Stoked Collective/ The Outdoor Journal
6 min readPublished on
Skateboarding is one of those things that grows with you. Even professional skateboarders find new tricks and competitions to challenge them and continuously make them even better at the sport. Once you've got the basics down, it's time to move on to some more challenging moves. Keep reading to discover some intermediate skateboard tricks and how to do them.

1. Ollie

The Ollie is one of skateboarding's fundamental tricks, so if you haven't learned it yet, you need to. Seriously, almost every other trick draws off of the skills you master with this one move. Even though it looks like just a simple jump, there's a bit more to it than that. To land an ollie, you need to:
  1. Position your front foot between the bolts of your front truck and the middle of the board, with the ball of your back foot resting in the middle of the tail.
  2. Press the tail down quickly toward the ground with your back foot to make a popping motion.
  3. Jump upward as soon as the tail meets the ground while simultaneously sliding your foot toward the nose of the board. All of these movements need to be done in a fluid, simultaneous motion to land this trick. Also, make sure your front foot keeps good placement on the grip tape to ensure it doesn't slide off. If you need help figuring out when the tail meets the ground, just listen up — it has an unmistakable sound.
  4. Prepare for the landing while both of your trucks are in the air. You want to land with your body in the center of the board and both feet over your trucks. This is pretty important because it not only helps you keep you from wiping out, but it also makes sure you don't land too hard and cause you to crack or even break your board.
  5. Cushion your landing and maintain your center of gravity by bending your knees when you're coming down.

37 min

The Original Skateboarder

Photographers and skaters who lived through the birth of skateboarding share the stories from the 1970s boom.

English +4

2. Fastplant

Fastplants are making a massive comeback as more and more street skaters are incorporating this trick into their videos. The trick involves planting your back foot down, grabbing your board with the back of your hand, and launching with your back foot to catch the board in the air before making a good landing to roll away. It sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty simple.
To land a fastplant, you first need to learn how to ollie and how to make indy grabs (grabbing the side of the board with your back hand). Once you get those tricks down, try to make a really high ollie and indy grab while letting your back foot come off the board and land on the ground. Make a jump with your back foot and finish your landing as you would a normal ollie. Here's a closer look at the steps and some pointers:
  1. Keep your feet in the same position as you would for doing a really high ollie. Let your back foot be on the edge of the tail so that it can easily come off the board after the pop.
  2. Keep your knees bent before the pop and your hand ready to grab the board.
  3. After you pop, drag your front foot all the way to the front of the board and try to stretch your leg as far as possible so that the board can straighten out fully in the air.
  4. You don't have the time to hop around or stretch out completely, that's why it's called a fastplant. If you are too slow, you are more than likely not going to make it, so make sure your back foot comes off the ground as soon as you have the board in your hand. Remember, the front foot is always in contact with the board.
This trick can be done on quarter pipes or up ledges. While doing it on ledges, you have to plant your foot on the ledge. Once you have the board at the back of your hand, just leap with your back foot and complete the landing.
Knees up and back hand ready

Knees up and back hand ready

© The Holy Stoked Collective

3. Kickflip

The kickflip is another essential move in every serious skateboarder's arsenal. To do a kickflip, you should:
  1. Position your back foot on the tail of your board, like you would for an ollie. Place your front foot a little behind the bolts of your front truck with your toes pointed toward the nose.
  2. Pop your tail and drag your foot toward the nose. Your foot should slide at an angle off the nose of the board. Moving your foot across the corner of the nose is important because it's what makes your board flip. It kind of looks like a karate kick, which is how this trick earned its name.
  3. Try to land with your feet over the trucks once the board is done rotating and then ride away.

4. Heelflip

Once you've mastered the kickflip, you're ready to learn its counterpart: The heelflip. This trick, like almost every other trick in skateboarding, builds off of the ollie. But it's also a pretty important building block on its own, too. To land a heelflip, you need to:
  1. Place your feet on the board almost exactly like you would for a kickflip, with your back foot on the tail and your front foot near or behind your front truck, with your front toes hanging off the side of your board just a bit.
  2. Pop your tail and slide your front foot toward the nose. Kick your front foot out, allowing your heel to catch on the edge of your board, making it flip.
  3. Catch the board with your feet once it's done rotating by landing on the bolts of your trucks and then ride away.

5. Varial Kickflip

Before tackling the varial kickflip, you have to have your ollie, kickflip, and pop shove-it locked down. Once you've mastered those, this trick is super impressive, and really not all that complicated. To do this trick, you:
  1. Place your back foot on the tail with your toes peeking over the board, and your front foot positioned on top of your front bolts at a 45-degree angle.
  2. Bend your knees so you can spring up and get some height for the flip.
  3. Pop your board up with your back foot, shoving the board a bit so that it starts to rotate.
  4. Make the board flip by quickly tapping it with your front foot.
  5. Catch the board with your front feet after it finishes spinning. Bend your knees as you land both of your feet on the bolts.
  6. Keep your balance and ride away.
Listen, you can't keep doing pop shove-its forever. If you're looking to improve your skills and impress your friends at the bowl, you need to find some fresh challenges. Start off small, practice until you nail it, and then find a fresh new trick to up the ante.

Part of this story

The Original Skateboarder

Photographers and skaters who lived through the birth of skateboarding share the stories from the 1970s boom.

37 min
Watch Film