Hookups' Ultimate Skateboarding Guide. (Part 1)

Hookups · Nov 2, 2009

Hello, Welcome to my Skateboarding Guide Part I. before I quit a year and a half ago, i had skated for 4 years of my life. so hopefully this Guide helps you to learn, get out, and skate!

Contents.

1. What you need.
2. Stances.
3. 'Types' of skating.

(All images provided below are from Google Images&#8482

Content One, "What you need"

1. Deck Well first, obviously you need a skateboard. it is called a 'Deck' once you buy it alone. They can range anywhere from 30$ to 70$ or higher, depending on the deck. Some popular Brands that are very good are Enjoi, DGK, Plan B, Almost, Alien Workshop, Element and more.

2. Trucks Now, you need Trucks. you may be thinking, "Holy Shit! you put Trucks on a skateboard?!" no not that kind of truck. These trucks are the metal Mechanisms you find on the bottom of the board. They connect to the board and extend out and look sort of like a pair of a thong. (;D) so they can hold the Wheels, which we will be talking about next. The cost of these you ask? well, they can go from 20$ all the way to 40-50$. Some popular Brands are Krux, Venture, Thunder, Independent and more.

3. Wheels Now, besides the Deck, the most important part of the Skateboard is the Wheels. How would you be able to ride your board without any Wheels? Anyways, the Wheels connect to the two end parts of the Trucks you use Metal 'Screws' called Bearings to lock the wheels in. If you do not understand look at the Truck image above. Now, The price of the babies can be from 20$ to about 40$. Some popular Brands include Spitfire, Zero, Darkstar, Ricta and more.

Now, i won't go on to every single part of the board, because there is to much to list. but i will take all of those parts of the board and tell you about some of them in this final 'Writing'.

Grip Tape- You need this to basically to any trick at all, ride the board etc. it is a rough 'sheet' that is on top of the board, that has lots of grip. (Hence the name Grip Tape) and it is usually black in color. it has this, so you can basically do what i stated above...Skate. It only costs about 5-15$. Some popular Grip Brands are Jessup, MOB, Black Magic and more.

Hardware- Have you ever seen the Bolts at the top of the Skateboard? this is the Hardware. the main purpose of these is to hold the Grip Tape down, and keep the Skateboard stable. If you leave your Skateboard outside and it rains long enough, you're screwed. Your Hardware will rust and you'll have to buy some new Ware. Good part is.. it only costs about 2$-10$. Some popular Brands are PIG, Shortys, Lucky, Zero, and more.

Bearings- Bearings like i have stated above, do one main purpose. And that is to lock the wheels into place so they do not fall off. well, these babies can cost from 20$ to a whopping 100$+. now if these bad boys Rust.... yeah. some popular Brands are Bones, Lucky, Zero and more.

Stickers- Nothing really to say about em', you know what Stickers are. do not try to grind too much though, if you care about them as they will scratch off. they only cost about 1$-5$. and popular Brands are all.

Content 2, "Stances"

REGULAR- This is the stance that a lot of skaters have. In this stance you will keep your left foot on the board, and use your right foot to 'Kick' or 'Push'.

GOOFY- This is the stance that is starting to uprise, alot of skaters today are Goofy stanced, such as myself. In this stance you will keep your right foot on the board and use your left foot to 'Kick' or 'Push'.

There is also another stance called "MONGO." This is the stance where you keep your back foot on the board, and you use your front to push. This stance gives you a lot of Speed and Control, because your front foot is stronger than your back. Sadly i could find no picture for this.

Content 3, "Types of Skating"

There are 3 Main Types of Skating, they are....

STREET. Street Skating is Definitely the most common type of Skateboarding there is. When someone says 'Skateboarding' im sure you think of Rails, Flip tricks, Stairs etc. Well, that's what Street Skating is. It's also the most dangerous due to the hard Pavement, and the heights people preform tricks. Some of the most popular Street Skaters are, Chris Cole, Andrew Reynolds, Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez and more.

VERT. Well, Vert is the 2nd most common type of skating, and it's not even really that common anymore. Everyone really is only into street skating these days. 'Vert' skating is one word, RAMPS. Anything Ramps, Grab Tricks, Helmets Kneepads, Halfpipes, Bowls etc. is VERT. Vert skating used to be popular back in the Late 90's. Some of the good ol' Pipe lovers are Tony Hawk, Rune Glifberg, Bucky Lasek and more.

FREESTYLE/FLATLAND. Freestyle/Flatland is probably the most creative and entertaining type of skating. But, it is so uncommon that i can name only one Skater who does it, and i think he is a god. But since it is so unique and different that's why people love it. in Flatland, you basically do Flips with your hands, wheelie(Manual) for a long time, old-school tricks. And my friends, the god of that is Rodney Mullen himself.

Well, after Many hours, I have finally completed my Guide on Skateboarding! and this is only part 1 ^_^. I hope you really enjoyed this guide and I hope it helped you out a lot! 

Part 2 is coming real soon guys, I promise! 

Thank you.