Hey Moonshine, you can do an ollie with any board really, people are always blaming their lack of patience on their board (although a good board does help a lot). Places to buy a board... two seasons, route one, online there must be a load of places. Buy the skating mag "Sidewalk", probably from WHSmiths or something, they have a load of mail order things, they're probably quite expensive but you can also look at them for designs.
I presume your setup is one of those ready made woolworth dealeys that are made of lead. You should probably start off with a blank deck, graphics add nothing but £30
, try south star, or some other blank deck. Some can be gotten as low as £20 - £30. Trucks you don't really need to worry about, the cheapest will do, there isn't much difference really. Wheels, same again, if you're going for ramps then get thick wheels, they keep the speed for longer, but street you will need thinner, lighter wheels. Probably cheapest will do.
Umm, ollie tips. Just keep practicing, push down with your back foot as hard as you can, jump as high as you can and concentrate on dragging the board up with your front foot. I tend to have my front foot on or just behind the front bolts, back foot right on the tail, just jump, the board comes with you, you dont go with the board. Try this site for inspiration and tips...
http://www.bobstricktips.com
Lots of in depth detail and video clips to study, it's the site where I started
.
Hope I helped a bit, as for the deck design, I think vanB got it, just study skate culture and copy other designs
.
@ vanB - Umm, make you're own deck? You know how much pummling those things go through
?
Do you bite your thumb at me sir?
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