At Braille Skateboarding, we are so glad you’ve started Skateboarding. If you’re looking for some beginner tricks that you can learn right away, you’ve come to the right place! We’re going to be talking about the 15 easiest skate tricks for new skateboarders, and how YOU can learn them!

Once you’ve learned some or all of these tricks, you can show your friends and get them into skateboarding too! At the end of the day, we’re here to help you learn and have fun on your skateboard. 

1. The Feet Stomp

To perform “The Feet Stomp”, start off by placing your board on the ground with the grip tape facing down. With the bottom of the board facing up, place the toes of both your feet underneath the board. Each foot should be placed near a set of bolts. Now, jump up and slightly forward. Lift your toes to flip the board over, and land on the grip tape with both feet. Congratulations, you just landed one of the simplest skate tricks out there!

2. The Cave Man

The first step to doing a “Cave Man” is to determine your stance. If you are goofy footed, you’ll grab the nose of your skateboard with your right hand. If you are regular footed, you’ll grab the nose of your skateboard with your left hand. The next step is to stand on flat ground and pick up your skateboard. Your thumb should be on the grip tape side of the board.

To begin, you can toss the board onto the ground and hop onto the board as it lands. Eventually, when you are comfortable with the “Cave Man”, you can jump onto the board, catching it with your feet in mid-air before landing back on flat ground.

To sum it up, grab the nose of your board with your lead hand. While standing on flat ground, with the board in your hand, toss the board back onto the ground and simultaneously jump onto the grip tape, then bend your knees to land and roll away. This skate trick is often one of the first new skaters learn.

3. The Vanilla Milkshake

While this isn’t one of the most popular skate tricks, you definitely will want to learn it. To perform “The Vanilla Milkshake”, start off by placing your board on the ground in primo position and stand beside or behind your board. Put your front foot directly in front of the tail of the board with your heel against the grip tape. 

With your toes facing away from the board, push your heel back into the grip tape so the board begins to rotate. Once the board has rotated backward about 90-degrees, lift your front foot and use an outward scooping motion to wrap the board around your foot. This should spin the board around your foot, ending with the board back under your feet in your regular stance.

Jump up with both feet as the board wraps around your front foot and stomp your feet down onto the grip tape once the board has come around. 

4. Manual

Think of doing a wheelie on a bicycle. Now imagine doing one on a skateboard. That, my friend, is a manual. It’s also one of Aaron’s specialty skate tricks!

To do a manual, your back foot should be placed in the middle of the tail with your front foot placed near the front bolts. Now push down on the tail of your board, and slightly bend and lift your front leg. This will cause the two front wheels of your skateboard to lift off the ground.

Without your tail touching the ground, try to balance in this position. Don’t let your toes or your tail scrape against the ground, hold this position for as long as possible. When you’re done, bring your front foot down to roll away clean. This trick is easier to do while moving, but you can really get a good workout and improve your balance from doing a manual while stationary. 

5. Shove It

To do a shove it, place your back foot in the middle of the tail with your front foot near the bolts. Slightly angle your front foot by pivoting your heel towards your back foot. With your toes barely curled over the edge of the tail, scoop your back foot behind you (without popping) to bring the board around 180-degrees.

As you scoop your back foot behind you, jump up slightly and lift both feet off the board. When the board finishes rotating, stomp down onto the bolts and ride away clean. Remember, it’s all in that back foot. Keep your front foot very close to the board and control the rotation.

This is one of the funnest skate tricks to learn. Once you do this one, you can move on to the pop shove it.

6. Boneless

The next trick is “Boneless”. To perform a “Boneless”, ride your board as you normally would. While riding, bend over and grab the middle of your board on the toe-side edge with your back hand, then plant your front foot on the ground and jump in the air while holding your board.

With practice, this can be done in one clean motion. When you are in the air, put your front foot back on the board, let go of the board with your back hand, then brace for landing. Bend your knees, and roll away clean.

7. Body Varial

Place your feet on the bolts of the skateboard. It’s important to not have your back foot on the tail, or front foot on the nose while doing a “Body Varial”. To perform this trick, simply jump in the air, turn your body around, and land in the opposite stance.

If you are riding with your right foot forward, you will Body Varial (turn your body 180-degrees with a small hop), and land with your left foot forward. You can Body Varial either frontside or backside, whichever is easiest. You should be able to do it both ways with a little bit of practice.

8. Nose Stall

For this trick, you will need a curb or stair to perform the stall on. Simply ride up to the obstacle with your front foot placed on the nose. Lift the nose of your board slightly to secure it against the curb or stair.

Once the nose of your board locks into the curb or stair, transfer your weight onto your front foot to hold the stall, then even your weight back out or push down lightly with your other foot near the tail to come off.

9. Primo

While standing on flat ground, place your back foot on the tail of your skateboard, right in that corner pocket of the tail. Using the bottom or side of your front foot near the back trucks, push the board over into the “Primo” position.

When done properly, your front foot should be lined up with the wheels of the skateboard. Now step up with your back foot and place that foot onto the other set of wheels. You should now be standing on the skateboard in the Primo position. Bend your knees slightly to help you balance.

To get back onto your skateboard, push your heels forward against the grip tape. This will flip the board forwards and you’ll land on it with both feet. This trick requires a lot of balance, so be prepared for that.

10. Ollie

To perform an ollie, place your back foot in the middle of the tail and your front foot in the middle of the board below the front bolts. Your shoulders should be parallel with the bolts and your back should be straight. Bend your knees and pop the tail of the board down to the ground. As the tail makes contact with the ground, drag the side of your front foot up the grip tape and jump in the air.

Level the board out in the air by bringing both your knees up and pushing your front foot forward, then brace for landing. Bend your knees and roll away clean. For a more detailed tutorial on the ollie, check out this blog post.

11. Frontside 180

A Frontside 180 is performed by doing an ollie while turning your head and shoulders behind you (toward your heels). The board will rotate 180-degrees frontside, and you will roll away riding switch (riding with the opposite foot position).

The best way to ensure you get the full rotation is to wind your body up before you pop, turn as you pop your ollie, then fully commit to turning your shoulders and head around. Bend your knees once you land, and roll away switch. Once again, you can find more detailed Frontside 180 tutorials right here. 

12. Ollie North

To perform an “Ollie North”, you will need to have your regular ollies down. Pop your ollie as you normally would, only this time instead of sliding your front foot up the grip tape and leveling the board out in mid-air, you’ll be sliding your front foot up the grip tape and kicking off the board before bringing your front foot back onto the board to land.

Be fast with your kick to avoid your foot sticking to the board and pushing it away from you. Harness your inner Ninja and kung-fu kick your way to Ollie North Enlightenment.

13. Nose Grab

A “Nose Grab” is done by grabbing the nose of your board with your lead hand while you are at the peak height of your ollie. In order to do this, you’ll need to be hunched forward slightly and ready to grab the board before you ollie.

As you pop the board up, grab the nose of your board with a quick pinch, and let it go as you land back on the ground. Nose Grab off of a ramp for some extra points then roll away clean! This is one of those simple skate tricks that you can often learn very easily, and add some style points.

14. Fakie Bigspin

To set up for this trick you should be in your regular stance but rolling backward. This is called riding “Fakie”. Essentially, this trick is a Fakie backside 180 with a Shove It added in. Don’t worry, you won’t need to pop this trick to land it. Ride fakie with your feet in Shove It position, then as you turn backside, do a Shove It.

As the board starts turning for the Shove It, jump slightly, turn with and hover over the rotating board. Once the board has completed the spin, stomp on the bolts and roll away clean. Now you should be riding in your normal stance, and ready to set up for the final trick in our list…

15. Kickflip

Even if you’re new to skateboarding, you’ve probably heard of the kickflip. That’s because it’s the trick that everyone wants to do. While this isn’t one of the easiest skate tricks on this list, you can still totally learn it. Make sure you have a good amount of these tricks under your belt before your get to the kickflip. It’ll make it so much easier to learn!

The foot position for the kickflip is very important. Place your front foot on the board just below the front bolts. Angle your front foot slightly so that the heel of your front foot is pointed slightly toward your back foot. Your back foot should be placed on the tail with the ball of the foot in the middle of the tail near the edge of the board.

Once you pop the board, your front foot will drag up the grip tape similar to an ollie, but your toe will flick off diagonally at the nose of the board. Your front foot should flick up and then hover over the board as it flips.

From there, simply bend your back knee to bring your foot up and place it on the grip tape at the bolts once the board has finished flipping. Brace for the landing, bend your knees and roll away clean. For more on the Kickflip, check out our blog post. 

We hope you enjoyed our breakdown of these 15 beginner skate tricks. Get out there, have fun, and show us what you learned!

Braille wants to see new skateboarders from all over the world, so film a quick clip of you doing any one of these beginner tricks and post it on Instagram tagging @brailleskate, #brailleskate, and #brailleskateboarding.  Let us know which piece of advice helped you the most so we can highlight that and we can get more people skateboarding!