San Vansterdam: Quick Tips & Tricks - The Ultimate Skate Guide

Part I: Getting Rolling – Your First Day to Skate 🛹

Every legend starts with a single push. This section will get you comfy on your board 🤙 and familiar with the core systems of San Vansterdam. Master these fundamentals, and you’ll be shredding in no time! 🔥

The Fundamentals of Skate

Before you can hit the mega-ramps, you need to learn to roll. These first few tips are all about basic board control. 🕹️

Push with Purpose 💨: Your main way to get speed is by pushing. Get into the rhythm of taking your back foot off to push, then placing it back on to coast. Momentum is your best friend in Skate.
Learn to Turn and Carve 🔄: Use the left analog stick to steer your skater. Gentle movements lead to wide, carving turns. Sharper movements allow for tighter turns. Practice carving back and forth to get a feel for your board.
Master the Stop 🛑: To slow down or stop, pull back on the left stick to do a powerslide. The harder you pull and the longer you hold, the faster you’ll stop. This is essential for controlling your speed before a big trick!
Find Your Stance 🤔: Your skater has a default stance: Regular (left foot forward) or Goofy (right foot forward). This changes your trick inputs! Skating with your non-dominant foot forward is called “Switch,” and skating backward is “Fakie.”

Welcome to the San Vansterdam Skate Scene 🏙️

This city has its own rules. Understanding them is key to unlocking your true potential. 🚀

Join the Resident Incentive Program (RIP) 🏆: This is the main progression system. By completing challenges all over the map, you’ll earn a “Rip Score.” This score unlocks new gear and helps you level up.
Understand the Districts 🗺️: San Vansterdam is made of three districts: Hedgemont, Gullcrest Village, and Market Mile. Each area has its own “neighborhood score.” As you complete challenges, the score increases, unlocking Fast Travel points and other goodies.
Spend Your Rip Chips Wisely 💰: Completing challenges also earns you Rip Chips. Use this currency to open Product Boxes in the shop, which have awesome cosmetic items for your skater. 👕👖👟

Your First Skate Missions

While you can freely explore, the game offers missions to guide you on your journey. 🌟

Embark on Grand Tours 🚩: Marked by a purple flag on your map, Tours are the main story missions. Characters like Shingo, Slappy, and Izzy will introduce you to game mechanics and key locations.
Check Your Mission Tab 📋: Sometimes, you’ll run out of narrated missions. When this happens, open your pause menu and check the Missions tab. It will show you how many open-world challenges you need to complete to unlock the next Tour.

Getting Around This Massive Skate City

San Vansterdam is HUGE. Use these tips to get around like a pro. 🌐

Unlock Fast Travel Points ASAP ⚡: As you raise your neighborhood score, new Fast Travel points will appear on your map (they’ll be grayed out). Skate to them and activate them. This will save you a TON of time later.
Spectate to Scout 👀: A cool, lesser-known feature is spectating other players. From the player list, pick a skater and watch them. If they’re at a sick spot you don’t recognize, you can teleport right to them!
Embrace Climbing 🧗: This isn’t your old Skate game. San Vansterdam is super vertical. Many of the best secret spots can only be reached by using the new parkour and climbing mechanics. If you see a building, you can probably climb it.

Part II: Mastering the Flickit System – The Soul of Skate ❤️

The Flickit system is what makes Skate feel like Skate. It’s not about button combos; it’s about getting an intuitive feel for the board under your feet. Let’s break it down.

Flickit 101: The Two-Stick Philosophy

Understanding this simple concept is the first step to becoming a master. 🧠

Left Stick is Your Body, Right Stick is Your Board 👍: This is the golden rule. The left stick controls your skater—steering, crouching, and turning. The right stick controls the board—this is for your ollies, flips, and shove-its. Get this down, and everything will click.
It’s Called ‘Flickit’ for a Reason ✨: The name says it all! Most tricks are done with a quick “flick” of the right analog stick. A common rookie mistake is to slowly drag or hold the stick. Be snappy with your inputs!

The Basic Flickit Arsenal

These are the building blocks of every skate line you’ll ever do. 🧱

The Ollie: Your Key to Everything 🐇: The ollie is the most fundamental trick. Pull the right stick straight down, then flick it straight up. The longer you hold it down, the higher your “big ollie” will be.
The Kickflip: Your First Flip 🛹➡️: Often the first flip trick people learn. Pull the right stick down, then flick it up and diagonally to the side.
The Heelflip: The Kickflip’s Cousin 🛹⬅️: The inverse of a kickflip. Pull the right stick down, then flick it up and to the opposite diagonal direction of your kickflip.
The Shove-it: Spinning the Board 🔄: To make the board spin 180 degrees under you, pull the right stick down and then “scoop” it in a semi-circle along the bottom edge.
The Nollie: Popping off the Nose 👃: A nollie is an ollie off the nose of the board. Just invert the standard ollie motions. Push the right stick up and then flick it down.

Finding Your Control Style & Using In-Game Tools

Skate gives you plenty of tools to help you master the Flickit system. 🛠️

Experiment with Control Presets 🔧: In the settings, you’ll find different control presets. Streamlined is great for newbies. Classic feels like the original Skate trilogy. Experienced unlocks deep customization for pros.
Use the Skatepedia! 📚: This is your in-game bible. Accessible from the menu, the Skatepedia lists every trick and shows a visual diagram of the exact stick motion needed. When in doubt, check it out!
Think Like a Clock 🕒: For complex motions, visualize the analog stick as a clock face. For a 360 Flip, you might think: “Pull to 4 o’clock, drag to 6, then flick toward 11.” This can really improve your precision.
Proper Thumb Placement Matters 👍: For max control, try using the “palm” of your thumb over the analog stick instead of just the tip. This gives you a wider contact area and allows for more precise movements.

Part III: The Intermediate Toolkit – Building Your Skate Style 🎨

Got the basics down? Awesome! Now it’s time to connect them. This is where you move from just doing tricks to actually skating.

The Art of the Manual

A manual (a wheelie) is the glue that holds your flatground lines together. 🩹

Find the Sweet Spot 👌: To manual, gently pull back on the right stick. To nose manual, gently push forward. There’s a “sweet spot” for perfect balance. It takes practice!
Use Your Upper Body (and Knees) 💪: Balance comes from your whole body. Use small adjustments on the left stick to shift your skater’s weight and hold that manual.
Practice Manualing Between Cracks 📏: A great way to build consistency is to find a sidewalk and challenge yourself to manual from one crack to the next.
Pop Out of Manuals 💥: You can do tricks right out of a manual! While holding the manual, just do the flick motion for your trick. Easy peasy.

Pumping for Endless Speed

Pumping is how you keep your speed in bowls and on ramps without pushing. 💨💨💨

What is Pumping? 🤔: Pumping is using your body weight to turn gravity into forward momentum. In Skate, you do this with the left stick or the triggers.
The Left Stick Method 🕹️: As you approach the curve of a ramp, press the left stick forward slightly. Release it as you start going up the ramp.
The Trigger Method L2️⃣/R2️⃣: You can also pump using the triggers. Hold a trigger as you enter the curve, and release it as you start to climb.
Configure Your Pump Settings ⚙️: For best results, go into settings and enable “Press forward to pump.” Crucially, you should also disable “Forward to push” to avoid mistakes.
Use Pump Assist Intelligently 💡: The “Pump Assist” slider in the settings is a big help. Setting it high helps you keep a steady flow, while setting it low gives you full control for massive speed bursts.

Grinding with Confidence

Grinding is a cornerstone of street skating. It’s a physics-based challenge of alignment and balance. 🤘

There is No Grind Button! 🚫: This is super important. You don’t press a button to grind. You grind by ollieing onto a rail or ledge and landing correctly. It’s all about your approach.
Approach at an Angle 📐: To lock into a grind, approach the rail at a slight angle, not parallel to it. This helps your trucks catch the edge.
Your First Grind: The 50-50 🛹: The most basic grind is the 50-50, where both trucks are on the rail. Just ollie and land on the rail with no extra input.
Introduce the Boardslide 🏂: For a boardslide, you need to turn your board 90 degrees in the air. Use the left stick to turn your body as you ollie toward the rail.
Use Grind Shifts ✨: While grinding, you can move the right stick to shift your weight and change into different grinds.

Transition and Lip Tricks

Ramps, bowls, and half-pipes are a whole different world. 🌎

Dropping In 👇: To start a run in a half-pipe, roll to the edge (the “coping”), place your tail on it, and press forward on the left stick to “drop in.”
Basic Stalls 🧘: Instead of dropping in, you can land on the coping. Ollie up to the edge and land with your trucks on it (axle stall) or your tail on it (tail stall).
Landing in a Lip Trick 🤸: If you get air out of a half-pipe, you can land back on the coping. As you reach the peak of your air, press forward on the left stick.
Hand Plants 🖐️: To do a hand plant, ride straight towards the coping and press the right bumper (RB/R1) just before you reach the top.

Part IV: The Advanced Tricktionary – Becoming a Skate Pro 🏆

You’ve mastered the fundamentals. Now it’s time to open up the full arsenal of tricks. This is how you go from a skater to a legend. 👑

Advanced Flip Tricks

These tricks combine rotations and flips to create some of the most iconic moves in skateboarding. 🤩

The 360 Flip (Tre Flip) 💎: A fan favorite! This combines a 360-degree board rotation with a kickflip. It requires a full scoop motion with the right stick.
The Hardflip 🤯: A technical trick where the board flips vertically between your legs. The motion is a quick downward flick followed by an upward flick slightly to the side.
The Laserflip ⚡: The opposite of a 360 flip, combining a frontside 360 shove-it with a heelflip.
Inward Heelflips & Varial Flips 🌀: These are hybrid tricks. A Varial Kickflip is a shove-it + a kickflip. An Inward Heelflip is a shove-it + a heelflip.
Add Late Flips ⌛: For extra style, you can add a flip after you’ve already ollied. While in the air, do a second flick motion to initiate the late trick.
Hold Your Flips 🔄: In the settings, you can enable “Held Flip Tricks.” This lets you hold the right stick after a flick to make the board keep spinning for a unique look.

The Grab Bag Deep Dive

Getting air is only half the battle. Grabbing your board is where you can truly express your style. ✨

Basic Grabs 👍: The triggers are your grab buttons. The left trigger is for frontside (FS) grabs, and the right trigger is for backside (BS) grabs.
Modified and Tweaked Grabs 💪: While holding a grab, use the right stick to “tweak” it. For example, holding a BS grab and pushing up on the right stick turns a Melon into a stylish Method.
One-Foot Grabs 🦶: By pressing face buttons in combination with the triggers, you can do one-foot grabs like the classic Benihana or Judo Air.
No-Foot Grabs 👟👟: The most spectacular moves involve taking both feet off the board. Combinations can lead to legendary tricks like the Christ Air or the Superdude.

Technical Grinds and Slides

Move beyond the 50-50 and learn the grinds that separate the pros from the amateurs. 😎

Smith and Feeble Grinds 📐: Technical grinds where one truck is on the ledge and the other hangs off. They require precise angle and stick input.
Tailslides and Noseslides 👃: Instead of grinding on your trucks, slide on the nose or tail of your board.
Bluntslides and Noseblunts 💥: An even more advanced slide. You need to ollie high enough to pop your whole board over the ledge to slide on top of it.
Darkslides ⚫: The ultimate display of skill. A darkslide is when you flip your board upside down and grind on the griptape. (Coming in a future update!)

Creating Killer Skate Lines & Combos

A “line” is a sequence of tricks performed in a fluid combo. This is the ultimate expression of skill. 🎬

Think in Sequences 🤔: Don’t just focus on one trick. Plan a path. A good line might be a flip trick down stairs, landing in a manual, then popping out into a grind.
Use Manuals to Connect Tricks 🔗: Manuals are the glue for your flat ground combos. Use them to travel between obstacles without your combo ending.
Use Reverts on Transition ↩️: When you land on a ramp, your combo would normally end. To continue it, perform a “revert” by pressing a trigger just as you land. This spins you 180 degrees and lets you link into a manual.
Flip In, Flip Out ✨: Don’t just ollie onto a rail; kickflip into it. Don’t just ollie off; 360 flip out. This adds complexity, style, and a huge score multiplier.
Set a Session Marker📍: Before attempting a difficult line, press and hold down on the D-pad to set a marker. If you bail, you can instantly teleport back and try again.
What is Tricklining? 🤯: The pinnacle of combo skating. Tricklining involves long, complex, rapid-fire combos, often using manual-reverts to keep the combo going forever on flat ground.

Quick Reference Trick Tables

Use these for a quick look at the inputs for common tricks (for a regular-stance skater). 📝

Ollie Flip Tricks	Right Stick (RS) Input
Ollie	Flick Down, then Up
Kickflip	Flick Down, then Up-Right
Heelflip	Flick Down, then Up-Left
BS Pop Shove-it	Flick Down, then scoop Right
FS Pop Shove-it	Flick Down, then scoop Left
Varial Kickflip	Scoop Down-Left, then flick Up-Right
360 Flip	Scoop from Left to Down, then flick Up-Right
Hardflip	Flick Down, then Down-Right, then Up

Grab Tricks	Controller Input
BS Grab (Indy)	Hold RT/R2 in air
FS Grab (Mute)	Hold LT/L2 in air
Double Grab	Hold LT/L2 + RT/R2 in air
Tail Grab	Hold LT/L2 + RS Up in air
Nose Grab	Hold RT/R2 + RS Down in air
Method	Hold RT/R2 + RS Right in air
Christ Air	Hold RT/R2 + B/Circle in air
Superdude	Hold LT/L2 + RT/R2 + B/Circle in air

Part V: The Secrets of San Vansterdam – Exploring Every Corner of Skate 🕵️‍♂️

The city is filled with hidden spots, fun easter eggs, and weird mechanics. True masters know how to look beyond the obvious.

Finding Hidden Skate Spots

The best lines are often in places you have to work to find. 🤫

Climb Everything 🧗‍♀️: It bears repeating: the most rewarding spots are often vertical. If you see a way up, take it. Rooftops are the new frontier!
The Old Church in Gullcrest Village ⛪: A massive indoor spot that’s a community favorite. It’s filled with unique ramps and rails.
The San Van News Building 📰: A multi-level interior spot that’s a maze of secret ramps, ledges, and pipes.
The M Corp Tower 🏢: A callback to Skate 2, this skyscraper is a beast to climb. At the top, you’ll find a bowl and a huge rooftop line.
The Snake Art Skyscraper 🐍: Look for a building with a giant snake sculpture. You can climb it to reach a unique rooftop park.
Look for “Out of Bounds” Areas 🚧: A classic Skate tradition is finding unfinished areas of the map. Keep an eye on the edges of the world!

San Vansterdam’s Easter Eggs

The devs have hidden plenty of fun secrets for you to find. 🥚

Bouncy Umbrellas ☂️: See a large patio umbrella? Try jumping on it. Some have a hidden bounce mechanic!
Reactive Dinosaur Statues 🦖: In the Gullcrest district, you can find some large dinosaur statues. Bail into them, and they’ll let out a roar.
The Screaming Horse 🐴: Near the dinosaurs, there’s a horse statue. Just like its neighbors, it will scream if you bail into it.
Grinding Clams for Seagull Sounds 🐚: Head to the Market Mile skatepark and grind on the large, clam-shaped obstacles to hear the sound of seagulls.
Read the Newspaper Stands 🗞️: Look closely at the newspaper machines. You’ll find hilarious headlines like “Crop Circles: Cows Blame Aliens Again.”
Listen for Lore Callbacks 🗣️: Pay attention to the dialogue. Characters will occasionally make subtle references to events and people from previous Skate games.

The Art of the Bail (Hall of Meat) 🤕

Sometimes, crashing is just as fun as landing a trick.

How to Bail Intentionally 💥: You can force your skater to bail at any time. Hold down both triggers (L2/R2) and click in both analog sticks (L3/R3).
Use Bails for Traversal 🚀: Bailing isn’t just for failing. Use an intentional bail at the top of a ramp to launch your character across huge gaps.
Master the Spread Eagle 🦅: While you’re flying through the air in a bail, use the right stick and face buttons to put your skater into different poses.

Useful Glitches and Exploits (The Fun Stuff) 👾

The Skate community has always embraced the game’s quirky physics.

The Backwards Man Speed Glitch (Legacy) 💨: The most famous glitch in Skate 3 history. Jump, tap RB at the peak, then quickly press Y. It results in a massive speed boost.
Superdude Speed Glitch 🦸: A new speed glitch! Get some speed, do a 180 to land in fakie, and then immediately do a Superdude grab. Release all buttons as you land for a huge burst of speed.
The High Ollie / Boneless Pop Glitch ⏫: You can get way more height than a standard ollie using certain combinations of hippie jumps and cavemans.
Launch Glitches 🛰️: There are several inconsistent but powerful launch glitches. Certain tweaked grabs combined with flips can send you flying across the map.
Emote Climbing 🕺: Certain emotes can be used to exploit collision detection, letting you “climb” up walls that are normally inaccessible.

Part VI: The Social Skater – Mastering the Online World of Skate 🤝

The new Skate is a social experience. The city is alive with real players, and the best way to enjoy it is to engage with the community.

Skating with a Crew

You’re never alone in San Vansterdam. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

The World is Your Skatepark 🌍: The other skaters you see aren’t NPCs; they are real players. The world can hold up to 150 players at once!
Party Up for Co-op Goals 🎉: Many challenges have an extra goal that can only be completed in a party. Teaming up is a fast way to boost your Rip Score.
Challenge Players to a Throwdown ⚔️: See another skater you want to battle? Challenge them to a “Throwdown,” a quick, head-to-head trick competition.
Find the Crowd 🥳: It’s common for large groups of players to gather at a single spot. If you see a cluster of skaters on your map, head over and join the session!

Quick Drop Creativity & Community Parks

The new Skate gives you the tools to shape the world around you. 🏗️

Be a Builder with Quick Drop 🔨: From the radial menu, you can access the Quick Drop feature. This lets you instantly place objects like ramps and rails anywhere in the world.
Enhance Challenges 💡: Don’t like the setup for a challenge? Drop a kicker ramp to get more air or a rail to create a new line.
Check Out the Daily Created Parks 🏞️: Each day, the game features several rotating “Community Parks.” These are pre-built skateparks that offer new and unique layouts.
Add to the Community Parks ➕: Many of the daily parks are intentionally a bit sparse. They are a canvas for you and the community to fill in with your own Quick Drop objects.

More Tips, More Tricks, More Skate

Here is a rapid-fire list of extra tips to round out your knowledge. ⚡

Get Ready for the Park Creator 🛠️: A full-fledged park creator, a beloved feature from Skate 3, is planned for a future update!
Dream of an In-Game Social Media 🤳: The community is buzzing with ideas for the future, like an in-game social platform to upload clips and gain followers.
Pre-wind Your Spins 🌪️: Before you ollie, hold one or both triggers to “pre-wind” your body. You’ll spin much faster.
Learn Slappy Grinds 💥: You don’t always need to ollie. You can “slappy” grind by riding into a curb at the right angle.
Use No Complys & Boneless 🦶: These are stylish tricks where you plant a foot on the ground to help you pop onto an obstacle.
Master Wallies and Wallrides 🧱: Use walls as another surface to ride on (wallride) or pop off of (wallie).
Do Firecrackers Down Stairs 🧨: Instead of ollieing down stairs, manual down them. Your tail will smack each step, creating a “firecracker” sound.
Try a Hippie Jump 🤸‍♂️: Find a low rail. Press the jump button to leap over it while your board rolls underneath.
Start a Line with a Caveman 🏃‍♂️: Run while holding your board, then jump and place the board under your feet to start rolling.
Adjust Your Camera 🎥: Use the D-pad to zoom your camera in or out for different lens effects.
Use Gestures and Emotes 👋: Hold down on the D-pad to open your emote wheel and communicate with other players.
Maximize Market Mile First 📈: For efficient progression, many players focus their Rip Chips on Market Mile loot boxes until they reach level 10 there.
Reset Timers When Stuck ⏳: If you get stuck, pressing down on the D-pad can often reset the challenge timer.
Don’t Push Mongo ❌: A style tip from real life. Pushing with your front foot (“mongo”) is generally considered less stylish.
Tweak Your Stats 📊: Switch to the “Experienced” preset to adjust everything from pop height to gravity itself.
Choose Your Line ✨: The most important part of Skate is creativity. Look at the gaps, the planters, the walls. The entire city is your canvas.

Conclusion: Your Legend is Written 📜

You’ve made it. From that first push to mastering the Flickit system, you’ve learned the language of San Vansterdam. You know how to find hidden spots, link impossible combos, and share the fun with a community. 🥳

But this guide is just the start. These tips are the tools, not the final product. The magic of Skate is about personal expression. It’s about finding that one-in-a-million line nobody else has seen. It’s about spending an hour on one trick, just because it feels right. 😎

San Vansterdam is a live world, always evolving. Your journey doesn’t end here. Your legend is just beginning. Now go write it. 🤘❤️🛹

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Skate belong to the developer Full Circle.

Find the game here! skate. – EA Official Site

San Vansterdam: Quick Tips & Tricks – The Ultimate Skate Guide