How To Skateboard at Home

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It’s a wonderful thought to imagine your home being filled with skatepark ramps and skateboard obstacles. Maybe a snake run that leads right into the bedroom of a halfpipe for a living room.

For a lot of us at GOSKATE, that’s definitely our dream home.

All jokes aside, beginner skaters and experienced skaters alike can greatly benefit from skateboarding at home. In fact, inside one’s garage is where many pro skaters landed their first ollie or dropped in for the first time on a DIY ramp.

So if you want to learn how to skateboard at home or maybe start learning new tricks while still being able to skate indoors or not at a skatepark, keep reading.

In this article, we’ll be going over:

  • How to Skateboard at Home
  • How to Bring the Skate Park to your Home
  • Tips to Skateboarding at Home

With over 3,000 of the highest trained skateboarding instructors providing lessons around the globe, we’ve compiled the most detailed guide on how to skateboard at home, so next time you hit your local skatepark, you’ve got the basics mastered and even something to impress your friends.

How to Skateboard at Home

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What does it mean to Skateboard at Home? Well, that’s a good question.

For each skater it’s going to mean something different but all skaters can skate at home in some fashion to benefit their skating.

If you’re a beginner skateboarder with your first skateboard, learning to skateboard at home is going to be essential to one day having fun at the skatepark.

If you’re an experienced skateboarder hoping to learn new skateboard tricks, skateboarding at home is going to help with that. It’s really all about understanding these factors:

Designate a Skateboard Space: Listen, you can’t just go riding your skateboard through the house. Your parents are not going to like that very much and you could seriously injure yourself and those around you. But if you have a backyard, a driveway, or garage with an open cemented area, you can really accomplish a lot in mastering the foundations of skateboarding and learning new skate tricks.

Ask your parents permission to designate an area for you to learn how to skateboard in. And if you don’t, we have some tips for you below.

Have a Practice Plan: Skateboarding is creative in nature but that doesn’t mean looking at things a little more analytically won’t help. Many pro skaters develop a routine or practice a certain group of tricks. Have plans, set goals, and watch yourself reach them. Maybe make it a point to land 10 Kickflips before you go sit down for dinner, or maybe get in a 20-min skate session each day. Having a plan ensures you’re not only having fun while skating but becoming a better skater.

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Engage in Skating while Not Actually Skating: Congratulations! Reading this article means you’re doing exactly what it’s suggesting, reading, watching, and learning about skateboarding even when you’re not on your board.

There’s plenty of ways you can stage engaged in skating while not actually being on your skateboard. Here are just a few:

  • Hang out at Your Local Skate shop: Hanging out at the skate shop is a great way to soak up the knowledge from experienced skaters. It’s also a great place to get your hand on skateboarding videos and skateboarding magazines.
  • Watch YouTube Skate Tutorials: We cannot stress enough the importance of watching skateboarding videos on YouTube, especially tutorials. Thousands of skaters out there, including our own channel, are dedicated to helping you learn new tricks.
  • Watch Skateboarding Videos: What we mean by skateboarding videos here are full length videos from companies or full length videos from local skate shops or skate screws. Pop in a VHS and soak in everything it means to be a pro skater.
  • Customize Your Grip Tape: Self expression and creativity are at the heart of what it means to be a skater. Take out some paint pens and customize your grip tape while you wait for tomorrow’s skate session.

Play Skate Video Games: We recommend Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It’s a great way to learn the catalog of skateboarding tricks.

How to Bring the Skate Park to Your Home

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Every skater dreams of having their own backyard skate park and some pros will actually accomplish this. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring a piece of the skate park to your home. Companies like Keen Ramps sell everything from a basic launch ramp to fully assembled mini ramps.

Most skaters will start out with a flat bar rail or a launch ramp but the possibilities are endless. You can also watch a ton of How To videos on people building their own ramps.

Remember, skateboarding is all about taking matters into your own hands and making your dreams a reality. Build it, skate it. Skate and create. Have fun but always remember to be safe and build and skate under proper supervision.

Tips to Skateboarding at Home

Practice Flatground: Flatground is a great opportunity to proactive a large array of skating styles. And just like everything in skating, it starts with front foot and back foot placement and getting to know your skateboard deck.

Flatground makes up the basis of all skateboarding, even ramps and halfpipes. Luckily, you don’t need much to practice. Just a few square feet of concrete will do the trick.

Keep the Fire Fueled: Many Pro skaters will tell you, they fell in love with the first kickflip they saw and knew they had to land one at all costs. Maybe you feel exactly the same way about landing a kickflip, or maybe you want to ollie on curbs, learn flip tricks, shuvits, or practice freestyle but you find you can’t literally be skateboarding all the time.

Many skaters can’t wait to skate and it’s a feeling we all share. This is a sure sign you’re a skateboarder.

Take the time to study proper foot placement: Know your right foot, fakie stance, left foot and even the difference between your front wheels and back wheels. Know the difference between a penny board or a longboard so you’re learning tricks that fit your skate goals.

Carpet Skateboard: We’re going to let you in on an age old secret. Skateboarders have been using carpet skateboards for decades to practice flatground with zero concrete. The name is as it implies – a carpet skateboard.

With a fresh skateboard deck and just griptape on top, you can practice flatground and proper foot placement on a carpet deck. Just make sure all breakables and things you might fall on are more than an arms length or two away.

Zane Foley

Zane Foley has been writing professionally since 2014, since obtaining his BA in Philosophy from the California State University, Fullerton. Zane is an avid skateboarder and Los Angeles native. Follow him on Instagram for links to his other published works. @zaneyorkfly