How to Ollie Nose Manual

The ollie nose manual is all about balance and commitment. You ollie up onto an obstacle, land on your front wheels and hold it to the end.

Before you start

Find a good spot. A box about seven inches high and eight feet long is a really good size. If you can, find something cement, like an actual manual pad. A box can move or sink in when you first land, and you can trip on the edge when you mess up. If you go much shorter, you’ll just be tapping the nose. You won’t have time to get your balance before you have to pop out, and it turns into a nose block.

Skills you need:

• You need to be able to ollie up onto the box.
• Regular manuals on the box will help. The technique is completely different, but getting up there and balancing on two wheels gets you into the feel.
• On flat, you should be able to nose manual at least twice as far as the box you’re trying. That way you know you can balance it, and landing and getting out are the only things you have to worry about.

If you can do nosegrinds and noseslides, you already know how to transfer your weight up to the nose. You don’t need them, though. Nosegrinds actually hurt me more than they helped. On a nosegrind you come in at an angle and bring the tail around so you grind straight. On a nose manual you come in straight, so I’d turn a little out of habit and have to pull it back around. They might still help you get used to the balance and popping out.

Foot position

For something this size, I set up with my front foot up toward the nose, about how you would for a nosegrind or noseslide. It depends on your preference and how high the obstacle is.

Don’t just roll up, lift the tail and shift your weight forward with your feet in a regular stance. It’s tempting, but it won’t help when you try higher stuff, and it looks bad.

How to ollie nose manual

1. Shift your weight, don’t ollie

On something this short, you don’t really need to pop the tail and get up in the air. It’s about shifting your weight. If you really ollie, you land in the nose manual and sink in a little, and that’s a lot harder. Get just high enough to shift your balance over the nose. It’s the same with regular manuals. You don’t ollie up and slam the tail down. You just clear the back truck so you can balance.

You can practice that weight shift by rolling with your feet on the bolts and hopping over the nose to land on it. Don’t practice with ollies, for the same reason.

2. Hold it at the start

When you first land, you might hold it a bit and then put the back wheels down anyway. Work on shifting your weight and then holding it. If you shift too fast, you keep going and fall off the front. It just takes practice to get used to the balance.

3. Commit

The first few feet are the hardest. Once you’re past that, you should be fine to the end if your nose manuals are good. But if you don’t commit at the start, one of two things happens:

• You land too far forward and fly off the front.
• You land too far back and the board shoots out or slams into the edge, which chips the edge or your truck and sends you flying.

With a regular manual, you can scrape your tail if you have to while you get used to it. With a nose manual you have to go for the whole thing. You can’t drag the nose. Keep your weight as much over the front two wheels as you can.

4. Go fast enough

If you’re slow, you’ll want to push the nose ahead to make sure it’s on top of the box. Push it too far and it shoots out. You need some speed, which makes the trick harder to learn. Speed matters at the end too, for popping out.

Go as fast as you’re comfortable. At first you might land in it and be too slow to pop out. That’s fine. Get used to the feel and build up your speed. Once you’re locked in, it’s the same as doing it on flat ground.

5. Pop out

It’s just like coming off a nosegrind. You don’t need to pop the nose and get up in the air. You push the board ahead and get your back wheels up so they clear the edge.

Start the motion before the end of the box. It’s like nollieing a gap: you start far enough away that the board doesn’t just roll off the end. If you start too late, you still have weight on the board when the back wheels come off. The board slams down and you go flying. Start early, so right when the wheels reach the end you’re coming up. Hop a little, push the board ahead, bring the wheels up and clear it.

Troubleshooting

Can’t pop out at the end

My friend Tony Clark can’t pop out of these. He’ll hit the back wheels on the edge. What he does instead is come off with a shove it, a bigspin or even a 360 shove it. Popping out is best, but if you’re having a lot of trouble, try pivoting or shoving it out and see what happens.