How To Stop On A Skateboard? (Tricks For Beginners To Pro)

Moving forward, snaking through the pavement, park, on the handrails, stairs make you feel cool- that’s groovy!

But you don’t know how to stop on a skateboard? Damn loser you are! To keep yourself safe, secure and to avoid wrecking it’s a crying need for any skater.

To me knowing how to stop should be on the top of your priority list nonetheless.  

At the very beginning of skateboard learning, the good skaters inevitably want to learn how to stop. Stopping a skateboard is relatively easy but a very important part of learning how to skate.

Ways Of Stopping A Skateboard

Players all around the globe use top rated skateboards to perform many tricks and techniques. “Stopping the skate with perfection”- is another one for which they can be proud of.

So many tricks are there to make it perfect. Texts, training video sessions are available everywhere on the web. Pick the best one that suits you the most.

Hurry up! Let’s begin:

Toe Drag

It’s exactly like what it sounds. At the time of skating keep your back leg out and drag your toe a bit on the ground while your heel is in contact with the skateboard.

Keep in mind, the part of your foot which is going to drag on the ground is the inside of your big toe. It will fall behind where your heel is located on your skateboard. So, your foot will actually be pointed outward.

The slow and medium speedsters can follow this way of slowing down the skateboard at the time skating fast.

Check Video to learn more.

Backward Push

Keep your skateboard rolling and put your heel on the ground with a push. Make sure your shoe is not having any friction under it. Push your heel into the ground and drop your toes down and then do it again. Sounds good?

The result will be the way you want it to be: slowing down the skate until you come to a complete stop. Medium and fast skaters love this way of stopping skateboard.

Watch out this video.

Side Scrape

One of the most common ways of halting the skateboard is side scrape. It really ruins the bottom of your shoe as time goes by. 

This method is basically putting your foot down on the side of your skateboard. Continuous friction between shoe bottom and the ground surface makes your skateboard slow down the speed.

I personally don’t find this side scraping a good way of slowing down the skateboard. Go for learning other tricks in stopping your board where your shoe doesn’t face any problem. Enjoy A video.

Push Foot Reverse

Rolling the skateboard on the pavement you can push your foot against it. So, an extra amount of weight stays on the board. Do it more than once and you will find your board keeps slowing down.

Mastering this art will take a few practice sessions. Keep your focus on the speed you are carrying through. Depending on the amount of speed, you need to apply pressure on the heel of your shoe a couple of times.

Pop In Da Hand

Pop is more of a feel than anything else. Only the skaters can understand this. When you slam the tail, the board will pop into the air. You will certainly have a cool feeling.

This is really in your back foot. All you have to do is to slam your foot on the tail of your board popping it up in the air into your opposite hand. 

The further your toes are on the edge of your tail the easier it is to pop it up directly into your hand. Have your opposite hand down waiting for the board to pop up.

Jumping Off

Jump off the board if you don’t know how to break on a skateboard.

A very basic and scary outcome is jumping off the board when you want to skip your first handrails skating or set of stairs.

At the time of skateboarding, it is very common to know how to jump off the board. As a result, the skateboard stops gradually. However, besides stopping, you must learn to fall off a skateboard.

Learn more from this video tutorial.

Advanced Methods Of Stopping A Skateboard

Tail Drag/ Tail Scrape

Put your back foot on the tail of the skateboard and push the tail to the ground. Keep sliding your board while dragging your heel with the outside of your foot. 

After learning it properly you can learn a little bit of variation of this method. You can tail drag while doing a bit of turn by putting a little weight on one side of the skateboard rather than directly on the center. You can name it as “the tail drag with the turn”.

This way of stopping skateboard doesn’t look natural, though many skaters do it. The consequence of doing this is losing the tail of the board in no time.

Have a video tutorial.

Heel Scrape

Partly this technique a lot looks like tail scraping. The only dissimilarity is that the tail of the skateboard isn’t making any contact with the ground. Rather your shoe will do the job in this technique. 

But you will find the bottom of your shoe kind of wear out due to heavy friction on the surface. The result is a shorter life span of your shoe.

Don’t get upset after hearing this. Do you want more control over your board? Let’s combine tail scraping and heel scraping altogether. So, both of your shoes and your board last a bit longer.

Pro players use to follow a few variations of Powerslide to stop the skateboard:

Frontside Powerslide

The frontside powerslide is a four-wheel slide usually performed to stop the skateboard. Slanting the body backward while rotating the skateboard 90 degrees and sliding with wheels a skater helps himself to stop a skateboard.

I’m not saying the frontside powerslide is super hard. But you definitely have to have some skateboard experience to do this trick. I really like it because it looks cool and most of all it doesn’t affect your shoes or your skateboard either. 

Your wheels will gradually get smaller by skating a lot.

Backside Powerslide

Another version of powerslide. It is quite difficult to perform with perfection. While sliding your body goes backward as required by you.

It’s kind of somewhat scary at the very beginning. But as time flies by, it will be a piece of cake for you. Remember how you do the frontside powerslide. Eventually, you will understand the perfect way of doing it with accuracy.

Powerslide Against The Wall

As a skater, you know how to do powerslide. But how to stop on a skateboard with a powerslide against the wall? 

I will let you know if you are not aware of it.

A quite difficult one and to me this is challenging as well. If you do it a bit faster, there is an ample chance of getting yourself seriously hurt.

According to this method, you need to powerslide against the wall in front of you. Lean backward when you get stopped against the wall.

Hey buddy, keep in mind it’s not for the beginners. Because, if you fail to act properly you will ruin yourself. Learn with care before doing the action.

Bluntslide

A combination of power slide and heel scrape is bluntslide. This is actually for the experienced junkies. You need to be able to do both of these tricks first to learn this one.

While skating with speed, put your foot at the very end of the board and try to push the tail. Keep sliding the board 90 degrees while dragging your heel with the outside of your foot.

Most of the time you might step off your board at the end of bluntslide. It does not matter because the point of this trick is getting you to stop the board while moving fast.

Hand Powerslide

The main idea of this kind of slide is to scrub off some speed while you’re doing this method. It’s all about a job of both hands to land.

You need to keep yourself as low as possible and lean forward a bit. Make sure you don’t get overextended or keep your board from getting too far away from you.

However, a vital issue is to always let your feet on the board without making any drop. Likewise, you keep your weight on your board while you are doing this technique.

Remember, the duration of the hand slide on the surface should not be too long. Or else, the road rash on your hands will gonna suffer you to a great extent.

It’s simple but risky as well at times.

How To Stop On A Skateboard Going Downhill?

If you are a beginner going downhill is not your cup of tea. At first, practice riding on a flat track. Then move on to the top of the hill to ride down. Yet, the experienced players love this kind of outing. The following breaking methods are prevalent among the skateboarders while going fast in downhill:

• Drop your back foot off the board and slide it alongside the board. The friction on the ground aids in slowing down the speed gradually and makes a perfect pause.
• Applying all your weight on the front foot may help you to slow down the speed.
• Powerslide is another technique by which you can steadily stop the skateboard.

Jump off! A naïve and safest way to escape while you are helpless. No shame on it. Remember one thing, a good quality helmet is a must in this step of riding skateboard besides other protection. As a whole, be safe and enjoy your downhill ride.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my skateboard stop or slow down fast?

Your skateboard may stop or slow down fast if you are using bad bearings, or running with down size wheels. It also may happen that you have not tightened your wheels as needed. Or, check out whether you lost a washer or not. All you need to check all the parts of the skateboard on a regular basis and do action as early as possible.

At what age should you stop skateboarding?

For skateboarding, you need to be fit first. If you are getting old, not enjoying skating anymore or if you’re often getting injured, you might not take the risk of skating anymore. Normally, age of 50+ could be a better idea to stop skateboarding at. 

A Good-Bye Note

Don’t rush on learning how to stop on a skateboard because every learning should come with dedication, care, and practice. Take your time in learning every detail and make sure you won’t get involved in any physical damage.

Flying high? But you need to be grounded anytime. So, for any emergency issue or avoiding any possible accident learn to stop your board perfectly.

Be safe and keep your skateboard in good condition in all respects. I am counting on your skating spree.