Skateboard Rail Tricks

Skateboarding is a fun sport which can be even more fun if you spice it up with some tricks. If you are already familiar with simple jumps and ollies, its time to take things further with rail tricks. Once you get a grip of how to use rails, there are endless combinations of tricks you can perform.

Railstand

This is more of a balance exercise than a trick, and requires you to focus on shifting your body weight to keep your balance. You need to skate towards a rail perpendicularly and when you’re close to it, do an ollie jump and land with the portion before your front wheels directly on the rail. Use your hands and body to shift your weight so you remain balanced as long as possible, and in the end, do another ollie to jump off.

To do a railslide, you need to skate towards the rail, and when you are close to it, jump and turn 90 degrees, landing on the rail. You should land with the center of your skateboard on the rail, and due to the speed momentum, you should slide on the rail. It’s important to constantly use your hands and shift your body weight to remain balanced. At the end of the rail, do another hop and a 90 degree turn in air to return to the initial skating position.

This is a trick that requires multiple consecutive rails. It is the same as a railslide, except at the end, instead of jumping down, you jump on another rail and continue the glide. The force generated when you jump from one rail to another will keep you sliding along the next rail.

This trick is also similar to the railslide, except you don’t actually slide on your board. When you approach the rail, you jump and aim to land with your axles on the rail, getting the rail between your wheels. This is a bit more difficult because the balance is harder to achieve since you are sliding on the rail, not across it, as in the railslide. However, with a little practice, you should be able to do this quite easily, and it may be even simpler than the railslide since you do not have to do the 90 degree air turn.