Ramp Skating Basics

How to fall:

First, learn to slide, roll. Get small and ball up, then the falls wont hurt. Being lose is key and that takes time on your skate. Always land on muscle or pads to make falling pain free. Get good protective gear. ALWAYS have your knees bent. Then when you start to bail, squat down, slide on your butt or knee pads. When you land on your knee pads, push your hips up and lean back to ease sliding. If your face comes forward, land on knees, elbows and the palms of the wrist guards, make a triangle out of your arms and slide it out that way. If you fall backwards, choose a cheek, baseball slide it and lay backwards. DO NOT land on your tailbone or land sitting forward. That will hurt. You wont be able to sit for a month or worse, and you wont be happy. And DO NOT land directly on your hands, bend knees and roll, slide, put the elbow pad down too, whatever. The worst falls are rigid falls on one joint with direct impact. Thats how things break. It gets easy with practice..... Or roll, slide it out if its sideways. The more you fall, the better you get at it. People who avoid falling and rarely do are the ones who get hurt.

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Getting started:

If you are transitioning from rink skating to ramp skating, I would suggest first taking a month to street skate. The balance on incline is much different then skating in a flat, smooth rink. When I first started skating steeper hills, I would squat until I was sitting on my heels til I felt stable. Slowly, I would straighten myself up. I like to keep my feet staggered a bit and always keep knees bent and head forward. In the rink most stand very erect with their feet side by side, not ideal for outdoors. If you are bent low, to bail is just like a baseball slide. Practice on areas close to grass. They make stopping an easy task.

Get comfortable stopping outside too. I prefer to t-stop or spin stop. If you have stoppers, you can turn a quick 180 and stomp on the stoppers quickly too. Power slides are really fun but are harsh on your wheels. Basically for power slides, you move your foot heel to heel like you are going to just spin, but you put your weight and shoulders going uphill and your skates are downhill or the opposite direction. You are not over your wheels in this move. The inner leg is bent, outer leg is stretched out far. Then you slide it out!

Practice jumping off curbs, later on them. Just land with soft knees and allow your body to compress downwards when you land, keep feet staggered. Always keep your body loose. This takes time on skates. When you can bomb down a few hills, then you are ready for the skate park!

First practice going up and over the fun boxes. Make wide arches on the ramps to begin. Practice sliding on your kneepads leaning your body backwards like you are riding on a bull when falling going down the ramp. Slowly go up the ramps further and start making the turns tighter. Now you are ready for the halfpipe!

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Transitions:

This takes practice. There are two basic ways, spins and jumps. For spins, you want to extend upright, perpendicular to the ramp, get your weight on your back wheels, turn your head and look down. For jumps, you want to swing your arms up, extend, lift your knees up, then look straight down 180. Land and compress going down the ramp.

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How to pump:

When you pump, you squat down on the approach to the transition, extend through the transition. Then spin or jump at the top of the pump. Compress coming down. You will start to feel the rhythm the more you ride ramps. Use your knees and arms to pump. When you are going up, remain perpendicular to the surface, so at the top you will be parallel to the ground. Your head will not move as far as your feet. To pump up the ramp and go down fakie (backwards), stagger your legs apart. This takes some practice.

This is an excellent video of Zorg's son Swann pumping the ramp.

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How to drop in:

This is one of the scariest things you will do as a beginner. The key is leaning forward. I suggest starting on small ramps first to learn how to fall properly and get your balance right. The larger ramps aren't much different then the smaller ramps. Most likely you will fall backwards many times before you learn that its OK to lean forward, and you wont die or face plant and knock out all your teeth doing so lol. Put one foot on the coping if you have a grind plate to lock on or try to roll in to begin if there is no coping. If you have a stopper or don't have a grind plate, you can rest on the stopper. Have one foot in front of the other as you go down. Step in with the other foot or take a small jump. Have knees bent and loose. You want your head IN FRONT of the skates. Otherwise you will fall on your butt and that's how you can get hurt. So lean way forward. I try to think of myself as an ostrich sticking out my head. Keep loose. Breathe. Don't stand there too long dropping in otherwise you will freak yourself out. Start small, get big later. Just go to the other side for starters. If you can, steady yourself in the beginning til you feel you are in a good position as shown. Good luck!

Here is a video of RollerGirl demonstrating all of the basics: transitions, dropping in, stalls, etc.

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Truck grinds, 50/50's:

If you have wider trucks, you can do 50-50's on them! First find a box with coping. I find square coping is best. Begin first by standing next to it. Step up one foot, lift the other. Then skate up to box at a medium-slow speed. Just place your foot on top the coping with it between your wheels on your trucks. Then lift up the other foot. It bites a bit, if so lean back slightly. Then you skate up to the box, jump onto it with front entended in front of you. Then jump off. Try placing the other foot behind you or you can do it sidestance.

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Stalls, plate slides:

Start out doing backside stalls. Come up the ramp to the coping or the box, turn or jump a 180 and land on your grind plates. Extend fully. Then jump down or drop back in. Later slide it by pushing your weight into it horizontally. Frontside stalls you land or roll onto the coping or rail, extend, turn head and jump back in.

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Credits....

To all the incredible vertical skaters who have been kind enough to pass on this information.