The Real Deal With Famous Skater Ollies
Alright so I’m hanging at the skatepark Tuesday morning, coffee in hand, when Tony from the skate shop comes over. “You wanna see how the pros really practice Ollies?” he says. Obviously I’m like hell yes. Grabbed my board and followed him.
First thing? The warmup. I thought pros just jump straight into tricks. Nope. We spent a solid 20 minutes doing this stupid-looking leg swing thing against the fence. Left-right-left-right like a pendulum. Tony kept shouting “ANKLES LOOSE!” while I’m feeling like a flamingo with vertigo. Turns out loose ankles are the secret sauce for pop.
Then came the boring part. We stood on our boards not moving an inch for 15 minutes. Just practicing the foot motion – tail snap backfoot, slide frontfoot, level out. Over and over like robots. My brain wanted to do actual Ollies so bad it hurt. Tony caught me cheating: “You skip the basics, you eat concrete!”
Finally got clearance for rolling Ollies. But get this – we weren’t allowed to jump over anything. Just lines on concrete. Tony made us count each attempt out loud. One… failed slide. Two… tail didn’t pop. Three… landed sketchy. Felt like kindergarten but by the 30th try? That board suddenly glued to my feet mid-air. Muscle memory’s a witch.
The kicker? When “practice” ended, Tony pulled out a broom. We swept the entire park spotless. “Real skaters respect the concrete” he grunted. Whole crew looked like janitors. But man, seeing that clean transition? Best Ollie I’ve ever done landed right on the swept line. Felt like flying on a damn carpet.
So what’s the big secret? It ain’t glamorous:
- Stupid warmups matter more than tricks
- Drill basics till you wanna vomit
- Sweeping the park fixes commitment issues
Left with blisters and a clean park. Worth every damn second.
