How to do an Air on a Skateboard

Brian Tucci: Hi, my name is Brian Tucci. We are at State of Confusion Skate Park and I am showing you intermediate skateboard skills. The skill I am going to show you right now is the Air. Air is one of the more fun tricks in skateboarding, definitely your opportunity to take to the skies. When I think of transition skating especially, the air is one of the tricks that definitely come to mind. Most people who got their first exposure to skateboarding is probably somebody launching off a ramp catching air. So that's what I am going to teach you guys now, how to do an air. Now to quickly describe how I am going to do this trick, basically what you are going to need to do is approach the ramp with enough speed to launch yourself over the lip, not too fast that you will fly out and land on the flat bottom, but a good, comfortable speed, something that you know you are going to get up on top of the deck. You are going to come up the ramp with enough speed and as you come through three-quarters of the transition, you are going to start to squat down and grab your board. There is a number of different ways to grab the board, whichever way is comfortable for you is the way we will do it now. Right now I am going to grab Indy which is basically, in front of my knee, behind my foot. As I get up to the top of the lip, I am going to grab my board. As my front wheels hit the lip, it's going to bounce me off the coping and I am going to yank as hard as I can to get me into the air. I am going to make sure I don't fly onto the deck but keep my weight centered in the transition. I am going to fly over the lip, try and control my flight and make sure that my wheels are in level to the landing surface that I am about to land on and make sure the board is stuck to my feet so I can land squarely and roll away. Alright, so that's how you do Airs. The next skateboarding skill I am going to show you is the Disaster.