People that don’t skateboard may look at the modern street shape for skate decks as symmetrical, or the same. But to the skateboarder the tail, and the nose are different entities. By the shape the nose might only be slightly steeper, or rounded compared to the tail. But riding a board they become vastly different. I’m sure that I’m not the only skater who has made self-imposed rules for which tricks to do off the tail, and which they do off the nose.
Learning skateboarding tricks is literally doing the same motions over and over. One might adjust some and analyze the movements, but the whole thing is repetitive. And guess what? Once you learn something, you keep doing it over and over until it’s more consistent.
Here are the tricks I do popping off the tail: ollie, kickflip, heelflip, 180’s, tre-flip (1 out of 75 tries), impossibles, and other tricks (not many). Also most tricks I can do fakie I do off my tail. There is no law that I can’t do an ollie off the nose, I just don’t. One reason is the familiarity of the turning. Because of carving motions and science I can’t explain the trucks turn differently depending on the direction of the board. In most cases if I’m cruising from spot to spot the nose is in front as it should be.
Here are the tricks I do popping off my nose: nollies and pretty much any nollie trick I can do. Also all the switch tricks I can do, I do popping off the nose including switch ollies. Now I get to something that I may have made up myself. For every varial I do I pop off the nose. This includes my regular frontside and backside varials. If I got saucy and tried a varial heelflip I’d pop off the nose.
Numerous skaters may be conflicted with OCD. To try tricks repetitively and stick by one’s self-imposed techniques can’t be healthy. I actually prefer to grip my board with a line near the tail, and this way I’m sure if I’m riding with the nose in front. There have been times I’ve pushed for a trick, and then stopped because the board was in the wrong direction. If that is done in a session with other people the indecision is unacceptable. On a positive note since I use both the tail and the nose my board wares down evenly. If I simply popped off the tail I’d go through a lot of plies quicker. This means if I don’t break or focus my board it lasts longer popping off both ways.
Lastly, try to skate more than once a week, or you’ll write blog entries like this one. It’s better to actually skate than to think or write about skating. Pumped that I get to skate tomorrow.
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