What’s an Ollie?

When you ollie, you basically stand on your board (a skateboard or an Indo Board), and jump, causing the board to flip in mid air while you are also in the air. The idea is to successfully land on the deck of your board once it has landed back on the ground. This is a basic skating move you want to be comfortable with if you want to be a skater. It’s also a great move to learn while improving your balance for skating and surfing on the Indo Board.

Learning How to Ollie

Learning how to ollie on the Indo Board is really simple if you already know how to do it on a skateboard because it’s the same basic move. You can still quickly learn how to ollie on the indo even if you’ve never done it on a skateboard, though. Just follow this quick guide on “How to Ollie on the Indo Board.”

Wear Shoes

Most people find it easier to ollie while wearing shoes. This is because you actually use the grip on your shoes to manipulate the Indo Board. It’s possible to ollie without shoes on, just not nearly as easy.

Foot Placement

First you want place your feet on your board with the ball of your back foot on the very end of your board, toward the back of the board. As for your front foot, you should place it just past the center of the deck. It’s a combination of applying preasure on your front foot and using the traction of your back foot to pull the board upward that’s going to cause it to flip.

The Squat

Now that you’ve got the stance down, it’s important to get really comfortable with being in this position and understand what’s going to happen next. What you’re going to do is get in a super low squat. You want to squat all the way down and be really compressed, with your knees bent as much as possible.

The Movement

Next, you want to slightly roll the board forward, which means you’ll lean forward just a bit; at this time you want to pop up as high as you can.

What’s Going On

Here’s what should happen: You lean forward on the board, with your front foot pushing it forward a bit, and when you pop up as high as you can, the traction of your back foot grips the board and pulls the back of the board up and over, causing the board to flip in the air while you are also in the air. Of course, as you know, the point is for the board to flip in the air while you’re in the air, and have the board land flat on the roller in time for you to land flat – and balanced – on the Indo Board.

You’ll learn how to make the board flip in just a few minutes, so that part isn’t very difficult. The problem most beginners have is getting the timing down so that the board and their body land at the same time, with the board flat on the cylinder. Of course, the Indo Board brings an additional challenge, as opposed a skateboard. The Indo Board demands that when you land, you also completely balance yourself on the board, which has only one point of stabililty, not 4, like a skateboard does (the four wheels as opposed to one cylinder).

The only way to get better is to practice, so get started!

Here are few example pictures of the creator of the Indo Board, Hunter Joslin, performing an ollie.

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