HOW TO SKATE AN HALFPIPE - FIRST STEPS // VLOG 205

Did you ever wonder what's the first steps that you should do once you go to a halfpipe? In this video you'll see the first steps that you're gonna want to do when you first go to a ramp like this, an halfpipe. Hola YouTube, my name is Ricardo Lino and I'm a wheel addict. Today I'm going to teach you the first steps to skate a ramp like this, an halfpipe. Something that you should know, usually the biggest the halfpipe is, the easiest it is to skate. I know it's weird, right? But it's the truth. Usually the bigger the ramp is, the smoother and the longest the transition is going to be. So every movement can be done slower and if you're learning, that's what you want because you don't have that agility to do fast movements. So a ramp like this, a really tiny ramp like this, it's going to be harder because everything is going to happen faster. But that's what I got in my backyard. This is the ramp I'm going to use as an example for you to see. Once you get to a halfpipe like this, something that you should know is that a halfpipe is a ramp that you are not going to skate. You just want to roll on it. And that's one of the most common mistakes. In a halfpipe, you do not skate in between transitions, you only roll. So the first thing that you're going to want to learn is how to go up and come down backwards. For you to be able to go up and down backwards, you need to know that your feet should never be closed. You should always have some distance in between one foot and the other, at least while you're learning. While you're learning, you want to increase the wheelbase, which means that you'll put one foot in front and the other foot a little bit more like backwards, creating a space in between them. And this will make your wheelbase be a little bit longer, which will give you a little bit more balance. So you don't want to go up with both feet on the side of each other and come down because that, well, that will make you fall backwards or forwards. Usually you fall forwards once you go down. But to avoid that, you're going to increase the space in between one foot and the other to make your wheelbase bigger. Don't forget this one. Now that we're talking about falling, something that you should know is if you are going to skate a halfpipe for the first time, the protections are really, really important. So I would recommend you to use this. You should use a helmet like on a halfpipe, you should use a helmet every time that you skate. That's just a recommendation. And obviously, if you're going to be skating a ramp like this, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards will help you a lot. Especially the knee pads, because once you fall forwards, your knees will always be sliding down this ramp. So if you want to keep pretty knees, if you want to keep your knees safe, use some knee pads. Now you're going to go up forward and backwards. Once you hit the ramp forward, how do you do? How do you make it not to fall forwards or backwards? Because most of the people are always scared that their feet will go up and then they fall on their back. Well, that's not really the case. What you need to know when you skate a ramp like this is that you always need to be perpendicular, which means 90 degrees to the surface that you're rolling. So if you're rolling flat ground, usually you go like this, right? You go straight, 90 degrees to the ground. If you go up a ramp, you always need to keep those 90 degrees. If the ramp is slowly curving, you need to slowly lean back. And then once you go down, you slowly lean forward again. The easiest way for you to control these, at least in my opinion, is by using your chin. So once you go up, you lift your chin a little bit, which will bring your back up a little bit. And then once you go down, you slowly do the movement of bringing your chin down. All these movements need to be according to the transition that you're skating. If you do them too fast or if you do them too slow, that's when you're going to fall forward or backwards. So you need to remind that you always want to be 90 degrees to the transition that you're rolling, okay? Perpendicular to the transition. So I'll go up, lift my chin. I'll go down, lift my chin. But then, I told you to go... The first thing that you want to learn is go up forward, come down backwards. But wait, there's another ramp on the other side. What are you going to do? Exactly. You're going to hit the other ramp backwards. And how do you hit the other ramp backwards? Well, now you know, you want to go 90 degrees to the ramp. So once you go backwards, you want to put your chin down so that your body will keep the 90 degrees. And then once you start going down again, then you'll put your chin up. Easy, right? That's just the first thing that you need to know. But this won't make you keep the speed. For you to keep the speed from one transition to the other, you need to learn how to pump. And how do you pump? Well, the easiest way to explain to you, it's a swing. When you learn how to go in a swing, you learn that movement of going forward, going backwards, extend your legs and going forward. Basically the same. What you want to do here is, you want to try filling every single space of the transition. So if it's a curved transition, once you're going down, you're going to slowly push against the transition. Once you're going up, you push slowly against the transition. This movement needs to be according to the transition. If it's a fast transition, which is not the case in a half pipe, if it's like from flat to flat, there's only one place where the transition change, right? And then you need to do all your push in that transition change. In a ramp like this, in a half pipe or in a quarter pipe, it's a slow transition. So you need to do that movement progressively while you're going up. And then again, progressively while you're going down. This pump is what's going to make you keep the speed. Now you know how to go forward, push, and then you go down, push again. And then you go up backwards, push, and then you go down and push it. And this will make you keep that momentum of the half pipe. That's what's going to make you roll. That's the main thing that you want to learn in a half pipe. To not skate in between transitions you want to roll. Now that you know how to roll a half pipe, you might want to start turning. And how do you turn? Well, turning is simple, but it can be super complicated. Because a lot of times people want to keep their wheels in the ramp, which would be cool. But if you keep your wheels in the ramp, usually you would need a little bit more space, at least while you're learning. So because sometimes you don't have that space, I would say the easiest way is by turning 180 degrees. But then most of the people, when they try to do a 180, they try to jump too high. And then the further you are from the ramp, the less control you are going to have. So you want to do that 180 as close as possible to the ramp. What you want to do here is you want to hit the ramp in the highest point that your speed will allow you to. So basically you'll roll, and once you feel that there's no more speed to go higher, that's when you do the 180. Momentum is going to be really, really important here, because if you wait too long, you're going to start rolling backwards. You do not want to start rolling backwards while you're doing the 180. So you need to reach the highest point in the ramp, and then you'll do the lowest 180 that you can do. Basically, again, you have one foot in front, you're going to turn and you're going to land with that foot in front. Don't forget that we're learning. Land with time. The more you skate, the less space you are going to have in between the front foot and the back foot. But we're just learning now. So keep those feet apart. Go up, turn the 180 degrees, land in the same position. Don't forget that 180 needs to be as low as possible. And these will be the first two steps that I can, that I would recommend you to do on a halfpipe. If you know how to go up forward, know how to go up backwards, and if you know how to turn 180, this will make you roll for as long as you want. And now you can start by changing the lines. You can start by going up forward, up backwards, and then the next time you turn. The cool thing about skating a halfpipe is that because there's one transition on one side and one transition on the other side, and you keep skating one transition to the other, you end up training a lot more. Basically, if you're learning something and if you can do it, once you go up on one side, you always have the opportunity to, once you go here, come on. The cool thing about skating a halfpipe, it's because there's one transition here and the other one right next to it. You end up having a lot more tries once you're learning something. Basically, you go up on this side and then you go up on that side and then if you did it wrong on this one, five seconds later, you'll be there again and you'll be trying it again. So that's actually a cool thing. After a while, at least in my opinion, it gets a little bit boring because it's always the same. But to learn, it's actually amazing. Obviously, if you're at the pro level, it never gets boring because you have a million tricks to do. Anyway, if you're thinking, what skates am I going to use to skate a halfpipe? Well, you can use everything. You can use inline skates. These are aggressive inline skates with big wheels, with 72 wheels. You can use roller skates. There's all these new roller skates for ramps coming out and some brands already have their skates out. But if you don't have any of these two, you can use whatever skates you have to just skate. As long as you have fun, that's what it matters. And that's what I always say in this channel. So we should never forget why we started skating. I guess that's it. If you did enjoy this video, make sure that you subscribe to the channel. There's a subscribe button that should be, I think, here. If that subscribe button is red, once you click on it, it's going to become white. Then on the side of that, there's a little bell. If you click on that bell, you'll get notifications every time I upload. If you like this video, give me some thumbs up. If there's anything else that you want to learn, you want me to teach you, I'm here. That's why I started this channel. I want you to start learning new things on skates. And that's it. Hope to see you guys on the next one. And let me know how's your off-pipe skills after this video. I hope this helps you somehow. And if there's anything else that I can help you with, let me know in the comments below. Cheers, guys. See you soon.