Tips and tricks for skateboarding stairs

If you know how to ollie on a skateboard, you are ready to take on stairs! It can be quite intimidating to hit stair sets. Once you get the feel, you won’t want anything else. We’ll show you some essential tips to get started. With those tips you are ready for some sick tricks involving stairs!

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^{Tips for skate tricks with stairs}

_{1. Start small}

Don’t start to big! First get your technique right. You can start on the ground, mastering your ollie before trying stairs. Once you feel confident enough, find a small stair set. Pick one that’s nice and wide so you have enough space to do your thing. 2 stairs is plenty here. After that you can gradually move to bigger ones, without eating concrete in the progress ;).

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_{2. Make sure you have enough speed}

This part is essential for all tricks on stairs. You need to get enough movement to make it through your trick. It might feel out of your comfort zone to go fast on your first try, but it’s a must! If you go too slow, you might end up making a nasty fall. So make sure to speed-up!

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_{3. Bend your knees for impact}

Always make sure to bend your knees! This will make landing so much easier, and less painful. Otherwise all the impact will go to your joints, something you definitely don’t want ;). You can also much easier direct your board with your knees bended. Definitely keep this in mind.

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_{4. Commit!}

By far the best tip: commit! Always follow through with your tricks and movements. Don’t hesitate mid-air, it’s already far too late by then. The best thing you can do is complete your trick and try to land safely. With all this speed and movement you can’t suddenly stop your trick. Commit to it, and safety first!

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^{Tricks for skateboarding stairs}

Now that you have gathered the essentials, it’s time to put it to practice! We’ll show you some fun tricks to try out. Start with the basics and work your way up to pro.

_{Ollie - basic}

Ollies are great for stairs. You will get the perfect combination of speed and height. Make sure to practise your ollie before trying it on bigger stair-sets. The higher you get, the better! Not really sure on how to do an ollie? Check out this blog.  

_{Kickflip - advanced}

This trick will really spice up your stair tricks! It is a combination of flipping the board 360 degrees whilst performing a jump. Simple as that, kick it and flip it ;). It can be quite tricky to perfect, but super satisfying when you get it right! The kickflip works best on slightly bigger stairs. It will give you enough time to spin your board before landing. Tips for a kickflip can be found here.

_{Boardslide - pro}

For this you’ll need a stair-set with rails. Instead of jumping of the stairs, you’ll grind down them! This trick is the ultimate finesse of skateboarding. It can be hard to manage your balance and speed. More tips can be found here. Most importantly is to find stairs with a smooth rails. Check out the height before hitting your boardslide. That way you won’t nosedive into the concrete if you can’t make it ;).