Learning a new sport can be very hard, and it’s even harder when you don’t have any guidance. 

To start: you should be an experienced rider if you are trying to learn jump tricks in a park.

If you can’t ride comfortably, don’t start learning this stuff. I would recommend learning how to ride better, and trying out side jumps, butters and flatground 180s.

Before you head into the park for the first time, learn some park etiquette. This will save you a lot of trouble and pain, and keep you and everyone in the park

 

So with that out of the way, it’s time to learn three easy jump tricks.

#1 straight air

I know it may sound obvious, but learning to be able to jump is an essential stepping stone to learning every other thing on this list.

Tips for learning:

Keep you shoulders aligned with your board – if your shoulders aren’t aligned you’ll turn in the air. If you stick your hands out, you can make sure that you are keeping your shoulders straight.

Make sure that you’re actually jumping – a lot of beginners I see learning how to jump don’t pop at all when they hit a jump. This gives them less airtime and less control. To fix this, try jumping up without your board at home. Focus on jumping straight up with your shoulders aligned. This one has more extension to it that I can’t cover, so watch this tutorial for more information.

Try to jump straight up – this relates to both tips above, and it probably won’t happen if you have your shoulders in line.

Bend your knees – gives more control, and easier landing. In the air it is good to bend your knees and pack up into a little ball. This also makes grabs much easier.

I know this is a lot of writing, but this one is the most basic and has a lot of things that are super important. The next ones won’t have this much detail.

#2 grabs

Once you have learned the straight air, you can try adding a grab in. You can add grabs to any trick, and they are super fun. There are many grabs, but these are the ones I see the most are melon grabs, indie grabs, and stale fishes.

Pull your legs really high up – This makes it easier to grab your board. The only time that you won’t do this is if you are doing a nose or tail grab. For these, you only pull one leg up; you pull up your front leg for nose grabs and push your back foot away.

Hold the grab – If you are doing a grab, you have to hold the grab. The whole point of a grab is to get that satisfying hold of your board. If the jump you’re hitting is too small to do a grab on, then don’t do a grab. You can go faster, or pop harder, or just hit a bigger jump. Just remember that your preference can and most likely will be different than other peoples when it comes to grabs.

Credits

#3 front side 180

This one is a big step from the first two because you are landing switch and spinning. Lots of people under-rotate 180s when they are first learning them, so I’ll write some tips for that.

Professional Tips!

Make sure that you are winding up your shoulders – keep them levelled, and turn to face back, but keep your eyes ahead. Swing your body around.

Ride off your heel edge – before you jump do a heel side turn so that when you take off, you are on your heel edge. To do this carve when your winding up

Don’t scrape – its common for beginners to try to spin early by scraping. It looks like your trying to brake during takeoff. Don’t do this. If you are doing this, try to start your heel edge turn later,  go faster or wind up harder.

Practice riding switch – it’s good to be comfortable riding regular and switch in general, but it is especially helpful when learning 180s because you are riding away switch. You can ride switch down easy runs to get comfortable. Try to replicate riding regular. You won’t be able to ride as well as you can regular, but the more you practice, the easier it’ll be.

Eyes on the road – make sure you look forward as much as you can. Keep your head facing forward.

Credits

I hope this you learned something, and are ready to head up the mountain and shred some gnar.