Need Skateboard Advice, Mates!

yeah....so, sorry if this is in the wrong forum but I didn't know where else to put it.

asides, skateboarding is sort of a performing art, right?

so anyway..here's my deal.

I skated as a kid. Into my teens. But that's been 20 years. So now I am taking it up again. I want to do it as a cross-training sport to improve balance and coordination. You lose your sense of balance as you age. So much so that I have seen guys accurately guess ages of people by having them raise one foot off the ground and stand on one foot. They're blocked off by a partition from the mid-thighs up, but this guy can tell an older person from their wobble.

So...I don't do the wobble. I refuse to lose my balance. As a pilot and motorcycle rider and runner, and dancer with my wife, I want to keep it and think it is a important and integral part of good fitness.

So...the skateboarding thing. Wife is outta town for a few days. tomorrow I am gonna bugger off to the local skate park. But I need some advice on technique. Are there any Skaters in Da House??? I am thinking this is a long shot, as most of our members are older and don't skate. I might be the only weirdo adult here who skateboards, right? LOL

What I want to know............I am goofy foot, which is fine,. no problem there and I am not interested in changing that. But I also have also ridden mongo. I know this is not the best method and I want to change to the normal style with pushing off with the rear foot. I find this very difficult to change to!!

Any advice for me on this? Also...how should I begin to learn to Ollie? what's a good first object to practice jumping over? I'm thinking small....like a garden hose maybe? LOL

Cheers. And thanks in advance!

Chris

 

I freestyle skate. (You know the old Rodney Mullen style). Even though I've fallen out of the habit a little bit I was also doing "The New York City Ballet Workout" after noticing the similarities. Concepts like spotting, frame, and awareness of posture are easily transferable. One important thing that I learned is about not looking directly at the board since tilting your head to look down effects your center of balance. If you can look at the board from your lower peripheral vision. Honestly I'd suggest working on the dumbass basics like kickturns etc before working on ollies and the like.

So this is the type of skating I'm into:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWYRNd9annc

If you dance than I'm sure that you can see the similarities.

C/S,
Rev J

 

You are going to take up skateboarding again at what age? 40 something? LOL

Recheck your health insurance validity first

 

If You Want To Know What Happened.....Check Out His Post In The "Last Thing You Bought" Thread....



Cheers Glen.