If you’ve been around for awhile, there’s a chance you’ve heard Aaron or the rest of the Braille Crew mention Skate Support Videos. But, what are they and how can you submit one that will actually be able to help you?

Have you ever tried to land a trick for a long time and it feels like it’s impossible? Yeah, me too! That’s why we have Skate Supports. You send us a video of the trick you’re having trouble with, we look it over and then we give you pointers on what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it, so you can actually land it!

Skate Supports work really well with Skateboarding Made Simple. We’ve found the most success with those that are learning tricks through Skateboarding Made Simple, but need some extra guidance. If you’re working through your tricks and can’t quite land it yet, try submitting a Skate Support!

So, here’s how to film a skate support the easiest way tutorial!

Filming

You can film your video using your phone, camcorder or really anything. It should minimally be 720p, but the higher the resolution the better. Please film them horizontally and not vertically. This allows more room to see your board, and works better when uploading to YouTube.

Wherever you’re filming, it’s helpful to us if the lighting is good so we can really get a chance to see what you’re doing. It’s also just visually better. You can film inside your garage or inside a room at night, but make sure you’re able to really see what the board doing.

You don’t need to include slow motion in your video, but you can if you like. Just make sure the entire video isn’t filmed in slow motion. When editing, we always try to slow down the clips you send us so we can really analyze what the problem is. If you’d like to include slow motion, then feel free to do so!

Talking points

When it comes to actually making a video, there are some things we look out for. Here’s a general guideline of what should be included in your video:

• Introduce yourself – include your name, where you’re from, your age, how long you’ve been skating, and really anything else you want to say. The more the merrier.
• Tell us the exact problem you’re having with the trick you’re having trouble with.
• Show us the tricks you can do, or at least a few of them. If you’re learning the Kickflip, you should show us all the tricks from Skateboarding Made Simple 1.
• Include many attempts of the trick you’re having trouble with. This part is very important. You should have about 5-15 attempts so we can really see what the trouble is so we can detect the problem.
• Have fun with it! If you know visual effects or have some illustrations or anything else you’d like to share with us, be sure to include it in the videos. We love seeing that kind of stuff!

While there are things to include in your video, there are some things we DON’T want you to do. Here’s just a few things in order to be safe on the internet.

• Don’t include your address. If you’re filming in front of your house, try shifting the camera so it doesn’t show the address. We always look out for this and always edit it out, whenever needed.
• Don’t film vertically on your cell phone. We want to be able to see your entire board, and still be close enough to see what you may be doing wrong.
• Don’t use any curse words or include any actions that would be deemed as inappropriate

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Tips for filming

It’s good to film your entire body and not just your board, but you can mix these two types of shots. If you’re a beginner to filming, you can film your entire body and we can zoom in as needed when editing.

We get a lot of skate supports for flat ground tricks, like the shuv-it and the heelflip. The most popular ones are the ollie and the kickflip. But, don’t feel like you can’t submit other types of tricks. If you’re having trouble with a grind trick, mini-ramp trick or whatever it is, you can submit a skate support! We’d really like to see more of those, so if you need any help, go ahead and send one to us.

Editing

Editing isn’t required for these videos, but if there’s anything you’d like to do to make it better or smoother, then go for it. If you don’t know how to edit your video, that’s okay too. You can just send us the video clip and we can edit it from there.

If you’d like to do simple editing tricks, such as combining multiple clips or adding transitions, here are a few tips to get you started.

A good editing software to start is iMovie. It’s free for Mac, iPhone or iPad. Additionally, it’s easy to use and makes editing videos like these fun and easy.

If you have a PC or anything other than a Mac, Hitfilm Express is a great option. It’s simple enough to learn, but also includes some more advanced features that make it easy to keep editing your skate videos as time goes on. It also includes several VFX features if you’re interested in learning that as well.

Uploading your video

Once you have your video, you can upload to YouTube and copy the link. Please note, this is the only way we’re accepting videos.

If you don’t want anyone else to see it, you can mark it as “unlisted” on YouTube when uploading a video. This means only those with the link will be able to view the video.

We’ve found that YouTube is the best way for submitting your videos. Other services like Dropbox, Google Drive or even Apple’s iCloud service often makes it hard for us to see your video. If we are unable to view your video for any reason, we will definitely reach out to you and help you re-upload it.

Submitting your video

Once your video is uploaded to Youtube, head over and use the submission form on our Skate Support page.

The whole goal here is to show you what you’re able to do and any tips you need help with in order to land the trick.

Please keep sending us your videos! We really enjoy watching you guys progress and landing new tricks. We do get a lot of them, but if you follow these steps, you’ll have a better chance of getting your video picked, reviewed and uploaded with the exact advice on how to land your trick.

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You should also check out Skateboarding Made Simple. We have seven volumes that you can buy in a package, or separately. They start out teaching you the basics, and then teaches you how to land harder tricks, so you’re always progressing. You can check it out here!