h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was younger and my bones less brittle (I’m all of 26 now which I know is still young but skateboarding, like most physically intensive sports, will do that to you) I was at lest a moderately talented skater.

I wanted to comment on the suggestion to try learning new tricks on carpet. A friend of mine who was just learning to skate once tried to learn how to ollie on carpet. The end result involved him breaking his arm and dislocating his shoulder. Not to mention the fact that he still hadn’t learned how to ollie. Being someone who skated for over six years I have heard many similar stories all resulting in serious injury or property damage. Imagine how pleased mom and dad will be when they come home to find their big screen tv smashed in because jr was trying to learn to do a kickflip in the living room.

I personally would suggest learning new tricks in the grass for beginners. The unevenness and softness of the dirt will make it less likely that the board will roll out from under you, and there are far fewer things to be destroyed by a runaway board.

However regardless of how safe you are if you want to learn how to skate, you’re going to get hurt. It is an inevitability, so you may as well start getting used to the pain now. This is not a sport for the faint of heart. In fact, the injuries incurred from skateboarding make the injuries received in most other sports look minor. Skateboarding is probably one of the most high injury sports out there so consider yourself warned. But all the pain I ever suffered (broken wrist, cracked hip, torn knee cartilage, chipped bone in my elbow, not to mention enough swollen shins, road rash, sprained ankles, and skinned knees to last twenty lifetimes) and indeed continued to endure, I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

Voon

Voon indeed. However if the skateboarder-in-training is foolish enough to attempt to learn a trick indoors, let alone in the family room where the most expensive items in the household are generally kept, then he or she deserves the punishment they have coming. On the matter of grass over carpet, I couldn't agree more. More often than not, unless you're in a mobile home (always a bad place to practise) the carpet is over a very thin pad which is in turn on top of concrete. I don't care what level of skill you posess, grass is softer than concrete.