How to 50-50 grind

The 50-50 is one of the easiest most basic tricks in skating. It is often one of the tricks you learn first and helps lead to other tricks quicker. If you don’t know how to Ollie, this is a great way to learn because for some reason you just focus more on getting up on the box or rail and you end up doing an Ollie without even knowing it. But it helps to have some sort of experience with the Ollie. The 50-50 is when you Ollie up something and end up grinding on both trucks. Your board is facing the same direction as the object you are grinding and is just like when you’re rolling on the ground, except you are on your trucks rather then the wheels. So let’s get into how to do it.

First you need to get something to grind on. I recommend a flat surface to start on and then to land on a box or a curb about a half a foot in height. If you plan on actually grinding and moving you’ll need the surface to be hard and grindable. If you are on a curb, make sure you have some thick wax and wax the curb a lot because if you get speed and hit the curb with no wax, you’re going to land on your face and I'm going to laugh. If you have a fun box then just get some 90 degree thick metal that won’t bend and just screw it into the edge of the fun box and just make sure the screws are stick up so you don’t hit them. I don’t recommend grinding a round rail because if you are just learning to grind, a round rail can be very unstable and you are more likely to eat crap. Ok, now that we have something to grind, let’s talk about actually doing it.

First I recommend trying to get up on the grind without actually moving. This helps just getting the feel for it so that you know what you’re up against; also you’re more likely to commit to it moving if you are comfortable with it while not moving. You should also be doing this front side, which your feet are pointing towards what you’re trying to grind because it is just a lot easier to move that way. You need to get parallel to the object you are going to grind. Set up your feet with one foot on the tail and then just one foot in the middle to the front bolt area. If you know how to Ollie, then this will be the same as doing the Ollie. Just pop the tail, slide your front foot like the Ollie and then shift your board over the edge. It helps a little if you are leaning towards to object you are grinding because then your board and feet will follow a little. So in a nutshell, all you are doing is that you Ollie, and shift your weight towards the rail and your board just follows. It’s really simple and I know it may seem kind of odd when I’m typing this, but when you try it, it comes really quick. Once you get the hang of doing this while not moving, you can move onto moving.

First things first, be prepared to fall if you don’t commit, and if you didn’t wax the curb, you are in for a world of hurt because as soon as you hit it, your board will stop and your body won’t. Ok when moving you should have some decent speed because if you go to slow you’ll hit the grind then just kind of stop moving because you don’t have enough speed, so put your foot down and push bitch, push. While moving I find it a lot easier if you come at it with a little bit of an angle, this way when you Ollie you just have to turn your body slightly like you’re going a 180 and your board will just land on it easier. While you’re moving your front truck will just go over it, if you’re going at an angle and then you just shift the tail over it and land it, so I recommend trying at an angle first. So all you do is get some speed, Ollie, then shift your board onto the grind, balancing on the grind isn’t that hard because you have a lot of area on the grind so it’s a bigger surface area you are on. So once you get to the end of your grind just lift the nose and ride off. If you aren’t at the end of the grind you can just lift the nose and turn off and off you ride into the sunset. It’s really simple and you will get it really easy if you just try. The big thing like in any skate trick is to commit to the trick. You just have to do it because if you keep jumping off your board you will get used to that rather then just doing a trick.

So there you have it, Ollie, shift your weight, stick the grind, COMMIT, balance, then ride off into the sunset as the ladies scream your name, and the homies envy you I’ll be posting some more skating hubs so look for them.