7 Fingerboard Tricks for Beginners (In the Right Order)
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7 Fingerboard Tricks Every Beginner Should Learn First (In Order)
There is a right order and a wrong order for learning fingerboard tricks. The wrong order is whatever looks coolest on TikTok. The right order is the one that builds each skill on the one before it — so every new trick you learn actually improves the ones you already have.
I've been watching people learn these for years. The riders who progress fastest are almost always the ones who respect the sequence. Patience is not a weakness in fingerboarding. It's the fastest route to where you're trying to go.
Here are the 7 fingerboard tricks for beginners every new rider should learn, in the order they should be learned.
1. The Ollie
Every single thing in fingerboarding starts here. If you don't have the ollie, you don't have anything else.
The ollie is a two-part motion: a pop with your back finger on the tail, followed by a forward glide with your front finger to level the board in the air. It sounds simple. It takes longer than you expect. That's okay.
Tip: Don't measure your progress by height. Measure it by consistency and control. A clean, flat, controlled low ollie beats a wild high one every time. Once you're landing 8 out of 10 consistently, move on.
2. The Manual
The manual is balance on two wheels — rolling on the back trucks with the nose in the air. It teaches you fine pressure control, which will make every other trick cleaner.
Start on a flat surface. Pop the nose up slightly and try to hold it. Two seconds. Then three. Then longer. You'll wobble, you'll touch down, you'll start again. That's the process.
Tip: The manual isn't about muscle. It's about micro-adjustments. Tiny forward and backward pressure. Practice it separately from any other trick until you can hold it for a full five seconds without touching down.
3. The Nose Manual
Same concept as the manual, but on the front trucks. Balance with the tail in the air.
It feels more awkward at first because your dominant back finger is less involved. The front finger does most of the balancing work. This is actually a great thing — it forces you to develop control in both fingers independently.
Tip: If you've nailed the back manual, the nose manual will come faster than you expect. The principles are identical, just mirrored. Alternate between them in practice sessions to build symmetrical control.
4. The Kickflip
Now the fun starts. The kickflip is an ollie with a flip rotation added by flicking your middle finger off the heelside edge of the tail as you pop.
The prerequisite here is real: you need a solid ollie before this works. The pop has to be there for the flip to happen. Without height, there's no time for the rotation.
Tip: Don't chase height on kickflips. Chase the flat landing. A low, clean, caught kickflip is far more valuable than a high, uncaught one. Focus on the catch — your front finger trapping the board after one full rotation.
5. The Heelflip
The heelflip is the kickflip's opposite: the board spins in the other direction, and the flick comes off the toeside edge of the tail rather than the heelside.
Once you have the kickflip, the heelflip is not as far away as it seems. The mechanics are a mirror image. The main adjustment is where your middle finger exits the board.
Tip: Many riders find one of these easier than the other. That's normal. Don't skip the harder one — it will come, and having both will make you a significantly more well-rounded rider, especially when you start chaining tricks together.
6. The 50-50 Grind
Your first grind. Both trucks lock onto an obstacle — the edge of a ramp, a rail, a ledge — and you slide. The entry is a small ollie, the lock is both trucks on the obstacle, and the exit is a slight pop out.
This is where obstacles become part of your skating. Grinds change the whole feel of what you're doing. Suddenly the table, the desk, the stack of books — everything becomes part of your fingerboard park.
Tip: Start with a low, flat obstacle. A ruler, the edge of a book. The lower it is, the easier the entry. Focus on locking both trucks evenly — an uneven lock will throw you into a nosegrind or tailgrind before you're ready for either.
7. The Boardslide
The boardslide is a grind where the deck slides along the obstacle — perpendicular to your direction of travel. The trucks are off the obstacle. The deck is on it.
This requires more confidence with ollies and more comfort around obstacles. You need to rotate 90 degrees in the air before landing on the obstacle.
Tip: The entry is almost more important than the slide itself. You need a clean ollie to get perpendicular. Practice the ollie entry separately — approach the obstacle, pop, rotate, but don't commit to the slide yet. Once the entry is comfortable, the slide will follow naturally.
The Bigger Lesson
This list isn't just seven tricks. It's a system. Each trick builds something you'll use in the next one. The ollie gives you the pop. The manuals give you balance. The kickflip and heelflip give you rotation. The grinds and slides give you obstacle interaction.
There will be days when nothing lands right. There will be tricks you master in an afternoon and tricks that take weeks. That is fingerboarding. The riders who stick with the process — doing the drills, respecting the progression, not skipping ahead — are the ones who look back six months from now and barely recognise their own level.
You're building something real. Take it step by step.
When you're ready to upgrade your setup or want a board built specifically for where you're at in your progression, browse the full shop or get in touch — I'll help you find the right fit.
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