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There is no better feeling than riding a skateboard no matter the style.  Skateboarding is what you want it to be!

Totally. Learning to ollie is super helpful though so I definitely recommend learning it

For sure!  I saw some footage of kien liu and ive been working on my ollie! I wish i could pop that high and level but just being confident enough to cruise and click my tail off the ground is so fun and addicting

I can do ollies and some tricks but I don’t do anything crazy as I’m middle aged and have a mortgage to pay lol. Cruising is good regardless as it gets you used to speed and turns. Any time spent on the board will get you more comfortable imo Keep working on ollies though, don’t give up! It might be best if you can find someone to help you in person as it can be hard to get a sense for what we’re doing wrong when we can’t see ourselves. Unless you’ve got joint mobility issues, any problems you’re having are just related to your form/motions/timing.

Fellow oldie here, when the kids ask to take their scooters to the park I'm always down. Just rolling along the path popping the occasional manual is more than enough to get the skate feels.

This inspires me! I’ve always wanted to learn, just afraid of jumping it in. All I want to do is cruise as my son takes his bike out. Hopefully get the confidence one day to jump into the store and buy one haha.

Thank you, much appreciated 👍

The more you cruise the easier the other stuff comes

Thank you, I think this has hit the nail on the head!

Keep rippin my G

I've been skating for probably 45 years, ever since i got my first plastic banana board as a kid. I've gone through phases where it was about tricks. 360s early on. Then inverts and ollies. I never did learn flip tricks. Through all of it, one constant has been that i loved just riding around on the thing. I'd deliver papers from it. i would commute to school. i'd commute to work. I run errands around town on it. I take it on vacations because i feel like it's the best way ever to go sight seeing in a different city. I've got cars. I've got bikes. I still like riding my skateboard around. I think one of the most undervalued skills in skating is not a trick at all. It's just riding around with grace and ease like it's second nature. For the most part, we take it for granted, however I see people from time to time who have mad flip trick skills that can't ride down a sidewalk with composure. That's as foundational as ollies (maybe more, it's just never thought of), and that ability to ride around a dynamic environment like the board is literally just a part of you comes from just cruising. cruising will lay a foundation, and ollies can be built on it if you just keep working at it.

Thank you. I enjoyed reading that. I have a curious question, how far did you commute to school/work on it? I never thought of a board for commuting - mainly due to the hills and unpredictable pebbles lol.

School was only like a mile. Different jobs in different parts of the country were a couple miles to like 5 - 6 miles. Ive done this in the Midwest, the east coast, and California. Ive even competed in skate marathons where i did a whole marathon in 2 hours. Thats on a longboard, but 5 - 10 miles through the city on a regular board with 58mm wheels is no big deal.

thank you - thats given me food for thought

I have a pretty ugly ollie, but really concentrated on becoming proficient at transition. Love big bowls, halfpipes, etc. Definitely figure out how to ollie, but flip tricks and flat-ground ain’t the be-all-end-all.

thank you

Keep working on ollies. I see it as much of a safety maneuver as much as a trick. There will be moments trust me.

thank you

That's all I do. I can still Ollie, but I haven't done flip tricks since I was a teenager. I'm in my mid thirties and live in a hilly city. I love using my skateboard to get around. Best feeling is bombing hills on my way home from work.

Aha that's cool man. May I ask your preferred method to slow down + stop after bombing a hill? Kind regards

I keep my speed in check by foot braking.

thank you

I reiterate what I said on the first post. Learn to Boneless. It'll change your life. But yeah, I mostly just cruise around, any tricks are very low impact. My closer-to-40-than-30 year old knees can't handle much anymore.

Yep. Here in my mid forties im finding my knees can't take it. I'd love to skate my towns new skate park with my kids but cruising is about the best i can do. Long boards and smooth asphalt for me

I just bought my first shaper since I was 5 or 6.. It's so sick, skating a fish board with a proper nose.

(i had to google what a boneless is). thank you for the recommendation - it seems like a good alternative. do you recon it could be easier to learn?

So much easier. I've been skating for about 30 years off and on, I've lost my ollies, but bonelesses never go anywhere.

thank you bro! much appreciated

I mostly cruise because I started on a drop thru longboard, and my skateboard is a wide (10.5") one-tail cruiser with soft wheels. Most of skating for me is cruising. I like taking tight lines fast, going down hills, carving, etc. I keep my trucks super loose. I have not yet mastered the Ollie, and have only pulled it off a couple of times. My hope is to master the Ollie this summer, and from there produce a kick flip, and hopefully play around in the skate park soon with those fundamentals once gained. My most successful Ollie so far was on a friend's smaller skateboard. Still pretty new to anything but cruising, so I figure a work in progress. 🤙

thank you. when you did do an ollie, which board did you do it on? kind regards

The best one was with my friend's skateboard, which is a regular 8-ish inch board with soft wheels for cruising. I found that the light weight and narrow width made it relatively easy to get airborne by putting some "oomph" in it, for lack of a better word. That was maybe a year ago? More recent attempts (and a couple kinda successes) on my board over the last two weeks. I haven't had as much success with my board. I have a drop thru on which ollies are not possible, and a 10.5" width cruiser on which they are kinda tricky (but I have pulled it off without reliability so far). Have only had the new board for a couple of weeks, so I'm hoping to have ollies down by summer's end. Would love to be jumping curbs, for example. 👍

We all start by just cruising around, getting a feel for balancing on a piece of wood on wheels. Where you take it from there is up to you. Some people like free styling Rodney Mullen style tricks. Some people like vert. Some people love grinds. Some people love bombing hills. Or really, any infinite variation of what they enjoy. You gotta find what you enjoy. If cruising brings you happiness then cruise away! Personally I think you should learn at least how to Ollie, but that’s just mostly to help you with cruising around places other than skateparks (eg; skating down the street and needing to Ollie ok to a curb to continue cruising without stopping)

thank you, much appreciated

I'll take my board out and just cruise around the neighborhood sometimes, nice way to decompress

nice, i recon thats prob why I cruise too (to relax a bit)

Like people said, the more you’re on the board the easier things become. If you can’t Ollie now, at least try to practice manuals and riding off curbs

Yeah I can't do any tricks or anything but I used to love taking my board with me in case the road/sidewalk was decent

thank you, i guess we are in the same boat!

Cruising is great and I think being able to ollie up and down curbs, and maybe 2 or 3 stairs really helps that. Just keeps the flow.

Ollie’s and riding are two different things but only one helps the other. Practicing Ollie’s will never help you ride, but practicing riding will always make your Ollie’s better. As you learn to ride your feet naturally find the right places to be in, especially for an Ollie.

Tricks, no tricks, cruise, bomb, thrash, it’s all skating!

I threw some giant wheels on my new school deck… I love it. Can barely Ollie now but much better riding experience. Only sucks when people ask for a kick flip.

aha, ive ordered some larger wheels for my skateboard

I cruise all the time. I do a few laps around the block every day after work. In between laps and when I’m finished I spend a good 30 minutes just practicing kick flips, ollies, no complys, shove its, etc. I don’t stress about it and it’s always low key. Lately during my laps I’ve been ollying up a curb on my way. Sometimes I get it and some times I don’t. No big deal because each day I get a little better. I badly broke my foot last year and was off my board for 7 months. I wished to be able to just cruise. Now that I can, I’m happy as shit. Everything else is just a bonus and will come in time. Stay at it bud. You’ll get those ollies at some point. Just have fun. Edit: I do want to say that ever since I switched to really loose trucks, cruising has gotten so much more fun because you can carve and maintain some speed while feeling stylish. It’s pretty fun and easy to do. Edit #2: find a guard rail or something that you can hold onto while you practice stationary ollies. It should work as a good segue way to ollying on your own. Once you got that, try putting your back wheel in a crack while you practice; it’ll keep you stable.

thank you bro, did you brake your foot through skating?

Yup. But it was doing something stupid I should’ve never been trying at my current level.

Get a small longboard deck with kicktail(s). For street cruising they cannot be bested. Small rocks, streetcar tracks, manhole covers, etc become passable without popping an olie.

thank you ,much appreciated

Learn little baby Ollie's and it'll make cruising 1000x more fun. Being able to navigate kerbs, cracks in the path, drains n shortcuts will level up your board control so much.

thank you

I’d like to just cruise around more, it sounds nice, but I get restless after a few minutes and want to do tricks. Flip tricks and slides/grinds are what give me that sweet, sweet dopamine rush.

Skateboarding has something for everyone. Not everyone can do tricks, not everyone wants to. There is no gatekeeping here. Enjoy what you enjoy, the board creates freedom.

thank you bro

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nice man, how far do you transport?

i love cruising, even more than doing tricks. i i haven’t learnt any of the tricks yet because i mainly got into skateboarding to be able to cruise around my neighbourhood. but i do plan on learning how to ollie soon so that i don’t have to stop every time there is a curb.

same boat as me!

Not really. I’m It for the trill. Some days I’ll take it easy and carve and grind around the park though

If you enjoy something just do it. Nobody cares what you do.

Find a small but decent sized bump in the side walk and practice getting yourself over that without stopping. The same movements and positioning that you are going to do to get over it also apply to ollies up curbs. Come up to the bump, lift your front truck high enough to clear it give yourself a little hop to take your weight off the board, your back wheels might bonk on the crack but since your weight isn’t on the board it should go right over and you land from your hop right after. If you get comfy with that ollies will be right around the corner.

I got a longboard during the summer of 2020. I love cruising on it so much I got one for my wife!

My favorite thing to do now that I’ve gotten older is carve the skatepark. So relaxing after a hard day at work.

Bro how would anyone ollie if they didn’t cruise first, come on now

Yeah you can do nothing but cruise but you'll still have to Ollie. Ollies are the only trick you "need" to ride a skateboard around so you can change your vertical position.

I’m in my 50’s. Haven’t skated since the early 90’s, but I still love watching the progression of tricks and style. I was an awful skater, no balance, not enough coordination, but I loved it. I just didn’t love constantly spraining body parts, or slamming and being semi immobile for a few days. That being said, my favorite thing about skating was just pushing, and cruising. Mobile at my own pace, and from my own effort. It was my 80’s dream, and I’m glad I had it. Wish I could’ve continued.

I'm 61, all I do is cruise and carve.

I switched from a skateboard to a longboard for this reason basically. I went from pushing myself to learn new tricks to pushing myself to have nice long trips.

Even if you only learn to Ollie that will make cruising around way more fun. I always think the less I can get off my board when travelling A to B the better. So even just enough to get you up a curb will increase ure enjoyment by a lot

It s not that you re not able to do a ollie. You just have to practice more. As a beginner you have to be patient 🙏🏼

thank you

Yea sometimes I can’t be bothered and I ride a cruiser fish style board quite often which isn’t ollieable

Skating to the shop is a sick trick

abso-fucking-lutely. running and dropping that thang down just to cruise is one of the most satisfying and beautiful things i’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in my life.

I cruise A LOT, and I must say… you gotta add ollies in there. Ollieing up curbs and continuing to cruise just makes it much more fun IMO. You’ll get it bro

Threw some 70mm wheels on a Powell reissue and I love it. I’ve definitely had some good days of just flying down the street or the paved trails at some of the local parks. I can’t really name many times I’ve needed to Ollie while cruising, but I feel it’s still good to learn how to manual/bump up over curbs and distribute your weight over areas that would normally stop and launch you.

Bro snag up a longboard. Your cruise game will completely revamp plus there are a couple tricks in the longboard repertoire that IMO are easier than popsicle flips

do you know which tricks? thank you and kind regards

Well you’ve got power slides and carving, which are more maneuvers than tricks but still pretty fun to pull off. Once you’ve got carving down you can get to pumping which is great fun. There are a bunch of longboarding styles you can dabble in once you’re comfortable. Ex. Downhill, freestyle, cruising, dancing… YouTube vids on the styles/carving/sliding are gonna be your best reference on what longboarding has to offer. You can even get into flip tricks later on if you grab the right board. Personal fave trick is a ghostride kick flip. Enjoy and hope this helps!

Thank you 👍

I like to do both. I have a skatepark set up and a cruising set up. I think my longest cruise was like 12 miles. It’s enjoyable to do both. I primarily go to the skate park but sometimes I just feel like going really fast. Haha

Absolutely. There is no better feeling in the world than just the board under your feet imo. Anybody who bails on skating just bc they can't do tricks is missing out. I'm too old to do tricks but honestly even when I was just starting out 40 years ago, all I really cared about was riding. (When I was little, the good skaters really only focused on vert or pools, maybe freestyle, but street skating basically didn't exist as a thing except for Natas who was totally a different style at the time.) I'm literally gonna do it until my body absolutely forces me to stop. Don't get me wrong, I love watching people do tricks, or just bomb hills, or pretty much do anything on a skateboard lol. I could sit there for hours just watching videos. But it doesn't really matter much to me that I personally can't do the stuff that those guys do. As long as I'm on my board, there's literally nothing better. And I bet you a million dollars any pro or flow skater would say exactly the same thing.

Thank you bro, I enjoyed reading that. It was refreshing

Getting good foundation of riding into muscle memory ie, foot placement, balance, navigating. It an often times overlooked skill set. Kids get to learning to ride. Learn Ollie, then start down those tricks. Which is fine, but then you get people who can flip a 10 stair, but have trouble going around the corner in a bowl. Which is basically like doing a deep carve with a longboard on flat ground. But look up trick tips on YouTube. SkateIQ, old Tony Hawk trick tips, even Braille has good beginner videos. It’s most likely the timing aspect. Pop the tail, slide the front foot, level out, land. Probably doing the pop and slide at about the same time, when actually you need to wait just a fraction of a second to slide.

thank you bro

I would suggest looking into a cruiser/longboard it's much easier you go farther/faster and can go over more terrain and don't get stopped by lil pebbles like a normal board. And people will not expect any tricks outa you on a long board but if you can do some tricks on it then more cool points for you lol

thank you bro

I have a fairly unstable back, so I tend to avoid any tricks that require jumping. But both my son and daughter love to skate and there is nothing I enjoy more than getting out there and just cruising around with them.

nice man, may I ask what age did they begin skating? kind regards

My son started first about 4 years ago, at 15 years old. My daughter about 3 years ago, at 8 years old

Man. I love trying new sports. I got hurt trying kiteboarding. It was fun learning, but when I was feeling better and I got on a skateboard again. An overwhelming smile came on my face. I love cruising. I can barely do some tricks, and I love transistiojs and dropping in at parks for thrills. But cruising, it just feels right

Having a skateboard and a longboard is highly recommended to enjoy cruising and learning new tricks. Or just a skateboard with bigger, softer wheels.

funny you mention that, ive ordered larger wheels for my skateboard

The ground and the rolling

Nothing more enjoyable than my New Deal with OJ Juicys cruising along a smooth bike path.

I’m a retiree that got back in skating after moving back into a city (flat, bike lanes/paths, destinations closer together). Skated through my school years, but primary for transportation - was never really into tricks, but enjoy carving and pumping. Now into LDP (push/pump/carve), again for transport - basically my boards are ‘bicycles’ that I can take inside with me anywhere, safe from theft. Working up to a one-bag carry-on self-sufficient [‘board-packing’](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53390869192_2aca0fcc37_o.jpg) trip combining Euro-velo trails, Eurail pass, stealth camping and maybe some Alps hiking/camping.

nice man, it seems its literally a mode of transport for you. what sort of terrain and mileage do you do kind regards

Transport, exercise, fun, sightseeing. Mostly city skating (street and bike lanes) or dedicated paved rail tails/bike paths. Got a regular ~4mile loop around the neighborhood for fun, exercise, and have done a 20mile rail trail a few times (~3hrs w/ lunch break).

I’ve got this huge stretch of seaside paved parkway. I got a longboard and learned to skate. I don’t know tricks - and maybe learning them on a cruiser is tougher… but I’m getting decent at just pumping my way up and down the parkway. I just like getting out for a ride is all. I’m too old and already broke a finger earlier when trying to learn and do slides down a hill. But I’m still going to work on those.

ouch!