How To Ollie

The ollie is one of the easiest fingerboarding tricks to learn, and it is also the foundation for almost every trick you will learn. The ollie is the very first fingerboarding trick you should master if you want to be able to perform even the simplest of tricks. Keep reading to learn how to ollie a fingerboard.

Step 1: Finger placement

Put your back finger (usually your middle finger) on the edge of the tail of the board and your front finger (usually your pointer finger) somewhere in the center of the board. Every person has their front finger somewhere a little bit different, but try positioning your finger directly in the middle, and adjust your placement slightly to find what is most comfortable for you.

Step 2: Popping the board

You will eventually want to roll the board forward to ollie, but at the start you can practice the trick without any forward movement. To pop the board upward, pop the tail of the board down with your back finger. This will cause the board to pop up into the air.

Step 3: Keeping your fingers on the board

Because there are no rotations or spins involved in this trick, you want to keep your fingers on the board at all times. Let the board move upward on its own after your initial pop down on the tail, and guide the board while keeping it controlled with both of your fingers. The board will be almost 90 degrees or pointing upward, but you want to guide the board in the air to land on all four wheels

Step 4: Landing the trick

Keep the board controlled, and land the trick on all four wheels. You don’t need to catch the board since your fingers will remain on the board the whole time.

Final thoughts

The ollie is the foundation of learning more advanced tricks. Start with a simple ollie, and then you can make it more challenging. Try rolling the board forward while you ollie. Put a book or other raised surface to ollie onto the raised area. Ollie over an obstacle. You can even get a ramp to practice your ollie on a curved surface. Learning to ollie can be fun, because while you may need to spend a lot of time to master more advanced tricks, you can always ollie to and from any surface and over any obstacle.