So basically some years ago back in secondary school I used to fingerboard with Tech Decks along with a few friends at the time. At the beginning we were all just randomly flipping the deck and catching it, announcing that we'd just done the 'worlds first 1260 flip' or something.

Being around 13-14 at the time I decided to look online and was quite amazed to see what some people could do with a scaled down skateboard. As anyone here may have also done, I instantly grabbed my Tech Deck and searched up some beginner tricks. I managed to learn how to ollie onto some cd cases with some help from online tutorials and decided to work my way up from there.

Within an unknown timeframe I'd learned how to kickflip, varial kickflip and tre-flip. BUZZING!
After going from a Tech Deck to a wide Tech Deck, and eventually to a 4 corner complete. The problem was I never actually really learned much from there.

The foam grip of the 4 corner wore away from attempting flip-grinds and landing on the grip, which when it did wear away, it was a hobby kind of forgotten about.

^^Backstory - TL;DR^^

I remembered the hobby again some months ago, found an old Tech Deck and began doing ollies again. After some time just playing with a Tech Deck on the off when I found myself needing to occupy 30 minutes, I decided to check out eBay to see if there was any interesting fingerboarding equipment on there for me to try out, and BANG!

I got a used bundle of fingerboards, most of which were tech decks, one unnamed wooden deck (it has a paw print on the top ply if anyone knows who made it, it looks nice), one Yellowood 32mm deck (haven't used yet but if I can improve I intend on getting some Ytrucks & Ywheels) and the main selling point for me was a 29mm (i think) Berlinwood deck with Blackriver Trucks and Winkler Wheels, every single thing on it so overtightened that I cannot disassemble even one wheel from it, but none-the-less all this for £25.
Bargain.

Now to the questions I want answered.

As a returning noobie fingerboarder, I can get kickflips and tre flips, varials, dolphin heelfips(I like these) and I can do some basic grinds and stuff, you get the idea..

The problem is consistency.
The way I kickflip is with a flick of the hand, causing it to flip and then catching it, but the problem I find is that the flip itself is very uncontrolled and it can take many tries before landing one, or I could land 20 in a row.
I constantly practice but don't seem to be getting any better or any more consistent. I seem to be really inconsistent with everything other than ollies.

I also cannot do heelflips. Ever. 1 in every 20 for a landing and 1 in every 50 actually looking decent.
I also suck at anything nollie.

I want to know
1) What can I do to improve myself? I've experimented with different styles to find one I feel better with, and I'd say that's been a key in getting better looking tricks, but I want to know some beneficial things
2) Would buying an obstacle of some sort be of help? Blackriver ramps are easy to get in the UK for the first time ever and I've always wanted something to practice flip to grinds with as my flips are very inconsistent
3) When I learned the tricks that I know how to do now, I learned them from youtuber FingerSkateSelective (some of you may remember). I want to know if the way he taught tricks prevented learning further tricks because of how they're done, explaining why I cannot do heelflips to save my life.


SORRYSORRYTLDRTLDRSORRYSORRY

Would like some friendly answers from a seasoned/intermediate fingerboarder.
THANK UUUU

-RBN/ODD17YROLD

Hi RBN

In terms of getting different fb bits and pieces, I highly recommend www.thenorwoodproject.com It's by far the best source of fb gear in the uk.

You could perhaps post some videos of where you're at now and then some people can give you some handy tips! Also you may have some other fbers living close to you and meeting others is a great way to improve!

Cheers!

I've been eyeing up some stuff from TNP (specifically the john cowart blackriver ramp), the new DK decks look so sweet too

[RBN] wrote:

one unnamed wooden deck (it has a paw print on the top ply if anyone knows who made it, it looks nice)

It could be a redwolf deck, I'm sure I recall seeing a paw print on those.

I'd reply to some other things on the page but I'm super busy, but as Simon said TNP is by far the best place in the UK to get fingerboard stuff, although postage from Blackriver and Europe in general isn't too unreasonable.

Check out cartwheels if you want some wheels, they're sweet.

Also with the black river trucks, stick a tool on each wheel nut and turn in opposite directions. They should loosen up pretty easily.

I've tried this but every nut on the damn board is visibly rounded apart from one of the wheel nuts. The previous owner obviously liked overtightening things (we all know at least one person who does this) hahahaha. Since the deck is 29mm(it might be less, it appears to be the same width as a Tech Deck), I'm just gonna use the hell out of that setup until I get money for Ytrucks/Ywheels. The yellowood deck I have is gripped and seemingly untouched, it's also 32mm for when I'm ready to move up. I have fairly big hands so the Berlinwood feels small but the setup as a whole has a nice charm to it, although when tre flipping if I'm not concentrating it has a mind of its own compared to a standard tech deck (overspin times 1,000,000) AHAHAHAAa so much p0p d00d