they say i say 2

Riley Patton

P.7

“They say” “he/she says” “I say”

My article involved a lot about learning different tricks and how to perform them properly. One of the most basic tricks in skateboarding is called an “ollie”. An Ollie is when the skater accelerates himself upward by explosively straightening his legs and raising his arms. During the jump, his rear foot exerts a much greater force on the tail of the board than his front foot does on the nose. As the tail strikes the ground, the ground exerts a large upward force on the tail. The result of this upward force is that the board bounces up. With the board now completely in the air, the skater slides his front foot forward, using the friction between his foot and the rough surface of the board to drag the board upward even higher. This part is where there’s some controversy. Not everyone believes this actually helps it just makes the trick look a little cooler. The board is now level at its maximum height. With both feet touching the board, the skater and board begin to fall. When it’s at that middle stage a lot f non skaters believe that there’s something attaching the board and the skater’s feet, when in reality they just time it perfectly.

The author in this article states “the ollie has become a skateboarding fundamental, the basis for many other more complicated tricks. In its simplest form, the Ollie is a jumping technique that allows skaters to hop over obstacles and onto curbs, etc.” he then goes to talk about all the other tricks that you can go into when learning an Ollie. He believes this is the most valuable training block in becoming a good freestyle skater. The author talks about how before you should even try the Ollie you need to be able to ride your board pretty comfortably. He also says that before you try and Ollie while moving you should try and do it still on the ground.

I believe that regardless if the Ollie is a simple basic block in learning a lot of other more difficult tricks it’s still very hard to get down and get that perfect timing down. But like the author states before you do the famous Ollie you need to be very comfortable riding your board. I’ve only been riding for about a week and struggle to get the back of the board to get up in the air and get that “pop” he talks about. I watch a lot of vlogs on YouTube about people doing tricks and just giving pointers in skating and they almost all say the same thing about learning to ride and then going onto tricks and furthering your abilities as a skater. I’m getting pretty comfortable though and hope to be able to Ollie within the next week or so.