How to Ride a Skateboard for Beginners

1, buy a skateboard that is right for you. Also buy pads and a helmet, as you will likely be doing some falling in your first few weeks trying to learn to ride the skateboard.

2, begin practicing. Start by standing on the board with one foot forward and your other foot hanging off of the side of the board. This will be the stance that you have while propelling yourself. Begin to lightly kick back at the ground with the back foot, keeping the front foot on the board. Likely, this will be hard at first, but you will need to maintain your balance.

3,Once you have yourself rolling forward, pick up the back foot, and place it on the board; rotate your front forward to the side so that you are standing sideways on it. Slowly roll along. This is the basic technique: propel yourself with one foot, then pick it up and turn your feet so that your body faces to the side as you ride.

4,Practice this a lot, and begin to work up your speed. Then, practice your turning. While riding the board, lean your body forward or back, tilting the board and turning yourself in the direction of your lean. This is a very slow turn.

5,Practice actually turning the board quickly: lift up your front foot so that the front of the board lifts off of the ground slightly, and swivel your back foot, on the back of the board, to rotate it. Pressing straight down with the back foot is also a way to quickly stop.

6,Practice all of this, working up your balancing, propelling, turning and stopping, and over the course of a few weeks, you will begin to get the sport down.

7,Learning how to ride a skateboard for beginners is not terribly hard, but it requires work. Keep at it, and practice as much and as long as you can. Before you know it, you will be riding your board with ease.