I've seen a lot of posts over my couple years lurking these boards asking about FS airs and what not, and as I've said before... I think more people could be pulling them if they jus had a little direction on where to start... I know this may be better for the trick tips section... but there's plenty dancing/wiggling/cruising tricks that can have that board... this trick mainly applies to park/pool/ditches... so I'm putting it here... Here goes:
So you've been skatin your local park/bowl/miniramp/steep ditch/whatever and you think you wanna start learning FS air. They're really not as hard as one may think.
-) To get the feeling of weightlessness while holding your board... while riding on flat ground, learn to reach down.. grab the rail and just hop while holding the board. It may look/feel a little goofy... but getting comfortable doing this will help out exponentially in the long run, I promise.
-------)Note that some people feel more comfortable grabbing the rail with their leading hand (mute) and some feel better grabbing with the trailing hand (indy). I feel more comfortable doing the latter... so I'll explain how to do it that way... but the idea is the same even if you grab mute... just apply it to your style.
-) Next, practice doing Indy (or mute) 5-0s (or kickturns in the tranny if you're not comfortable going all the way up there) like this:
It wil help you get the feeling of shifting your weight in a 180degree ark while holding your board. Don't worry about getting the back wheels off the ground yet... just get comfy doing big arks.
-) Finally... you can apply the two previous techniques to create an air. Here's a quick sequence I put together a few years ago when I first started learning airs in a ditch:
If you're on a miniramp and you're way intimidated to leave the coping in the air.. thats OKAY! Practice them down in the transition. Here's how you break it down.
-------) Approach the transition... lean down and grab your rail way early like in the sequence above. The better you get at them... the later you can grab until you're practically grabbing the board RIGHT as it's leaving the coping for maximum style. But for now... just grab.... go into a slashing kickturn in the transition and hop like you learned to do on flat ground. Make sure to keep your head focused on where you want to land... if you stare straight at the ramp when you hop you'll never ark enough to keep your momentum when you land. Don't worry about pulling a FULL 180 either. Make a gradual ark and hop at the apex of it and jus turn your body enough to keep your momentum when you land.
-------) After you can do the little earlygrab indy-hops lower in the tranny.. work your way higher and higher up. Don't be discouraged if you can't make it past the coping in the beginning... it takes a while to build the confidence to allow your body to commit to it... so don't go beyond your limits... you'll only get hurt.
----------------) Before you know it... you'll be able to pull airs at your local spot and.. who knows... maybe you can pass on the stoke and teach someone else!!
SICK! Awesome tutorial man! Some of that stuff is pure "Why didn't I think of that"! I'll try some of these tips out maybe they'll improve my game. Here's hoping anyways, trying to get airs using only myself and not the shape of the bowl. Much thanks.
thats a realllllllllly good instructional video. That was perfect for learning imo. Im not a pool or a park skater but if i was, that wouldve helped me so much. You should make a whole archive of these....props for an amazing tutorial.
You should make a whole archive of these....props for an amazing tutorial.
I'd be more than happy to make some more instructional videos... I think it's a rad way to give back to the skating community!
The question is: What tricks do you guys want to learn... I'll name off a few tricks that I can do and maybe we can take a vote or something on which ones you wanna get first:
Rocknroll to fakie
Rocknroll to pivot
Pivot rocknroll pivot (rolling up fakie... pivoting 180 to rock then 180 pivot out back to regular)
Fakie Rocknroll
Fakie Shuvit Rocknroll
Fakie Lipslide (+ pivot out)
Tailstall (+ indiegrab, + nosegrab, +any grab)
Frontside 5-0
Backside 5-0
Backside 50-50
Fakie ollie Rock
Fakie ollie FS Smith Stall
FS Crail
This isn't a shameless way to brag about all the tricks I can do.. I just don't know which ones I should do first. Maybe the rocknroll and tailstall variations should be first considering they're the stepping stones to the tougher tricks... lemme know what you guys think...
yah get a vote going and start making more of these awesome videos. Ill take all the videos and combine them together in a new thread and sticky it. I think that would be a great idea!
Nice man, this oughta help alot of people that's dying to learn the FS air. You could also add, that it's often easier to air over hips, but I dunno maybe that's just me, hah.
So this FS Air doesn't include an ollie? You just kind of.....do a boneless without putting your foot down, in a way?
I've never thought about it that way....hmmm.....
Thanks a lot!
Well, yes and no. This is technically an "Early Grab FS Air".. which implies grabbing early. Ollie airs are a shitpile harder.... but if people REALLLLLLLLLLLLY want to learn them I can make a tutorial for that a little ways down the road. I don't really like doing them because I dont have them as fluid as the early grabs and they don't feel NEARLY as good. They do look a little better, but I prefer to do a good feeling trick over a difficult trick.
Basically the other version you approach the lip directly prependicular to the coping... pump REAL hard as your coming up and you time the apex of your pump with the top of the ramp and you use that lift + an ollie to float way up above the ramp. Use the ark of your ollie to reach and grab the rail right as you leave the coping and pull it up under you to peak the air... look back over your shoulder and hope to god you reenter without hanging your back trucks up on the coping (<--- hurts really FREAKING bad).
How about early grabs to fakie? Seems like it would be easier. But I could see were the motion used to come around would have your ass giving you momentum.
So you wanna FS Air huh?
Back you damn hippies, back i say! 
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