Progress on ollies

Today I was supposed to go to the skatepark with a friend, unfortunately it was raining this morning so I didn’t.

But this afternoon, as the rain had stopped, I decided to go the parking near my house and practice my ollies. I had setup my board for pool/snakerun ridding so it was quite high for ollies (at least for a noob like me). Anyway it went well, I have managed to get a few low speed ollies, I guess watching Aaron Kyro videos helped me.

surf rodz TKP and Losenka wheels
Surf Rodz TKP trucks

This is  the setup I used :

  • Diy deck 8.25″
  • Surf Rodz TKP
  • Losenka wheels (I dont usually use them on pool skating, too soft.)
  • Bones Red
  • Khiro hard risers

I know I might sound cheap, using Losenka wheels but even though they are cheap, they are soft enough to use on rough asphalt (78a), really grippy and fast.

Cruiser wheels like that may no be the best wheels for street skating but where I live the asphalt is really rough.

I can’t ollie while ridding, why ?

As you may know, my main problem at the moment is getting my ollie to work while I’m actually moving. I have been able to pop decent height ollies, but only stationary. Every time I try to ollie while moving, even at really low speed, I seem to only be able to do “popless” ollies where the tail doesn’t even hit the ground but the rear wheels still lift just a little. Or I do pop the tail, but my front foot doesn’t slide and I do a rocket ollie and usually fall.

Why is it happening ? I guess there are several reasons :

  • Fear, I’m scared to fall and so I don’t commit completely
  • Foot position, my front foot is more near the front of the deck when I’m ridding than stationary, for balance purpose.
  • Poor technique, I have noticed on some videos that I dont slide the side of my shoe but more the bottom.

How I can solve it ?

Grow some balls and commit ? Yeah, but I need to be sure I’m doing it the right way to feel confident. But I definitely need to practice my ollie more.

So maybe I should practice ollies stationary until I’m sure I have a good technique and then try it rolling ?

If you have or had the same struggle, feel free to comment so I know I’m not alone.