5 Tricks to Learn BEFORE the Ollie

If you taught yourself the basics, i assume it's rolling and steering okay. Those are my main concerns with the board itself. Cheap bearings, wheels, and trucks could cause a lot of frustrating issues with staying balanced, pushing, steering, etc. But anyway, in answer to your question: what basics have you covered? The beginning is usually lots of riding, steering, kick turns, balancing, speeding up, ride up and down little inclines, stuff like that. Once you feel comfortable, you can go in a lot of directions. I recommend learning non-Ollie type tricks. You can search on YouTube or your favorite social media app "tricks to learn before Ollie" and you'll get stuff like this video from Waltz Skateboarding. [VIDEO] just have fun. Experiment. Play. There's no right pathway.

I agree with everything and want to add two more things: 1, skate, skate, skate. OP you seem uncertain on your board. 2. While ollie is a must for many tricks it is a somewgat advanced technique. There are dozens of other, maybe easier, but definitely cool stunts, where ollie isn't needed [VIDEO] [VIDEO] [VIDEO] [VIDEO]

In similar boat to you, except I used to skate as a teenager (very basic ollie onto stuff and shuvit). I'm beginning from scratch at 40 as well, and I wish I had started out with this stuff back in the day: [VIDEO]

I actually think that taking the time to build confidence with your board is a really sound decision, and I respect you for it. I applaud your ability to chill out and not rush things. I do believe little things like nose stalls are great to learn, and there are other simple tricks you can do before an ollie. Braille Bootcamp on YouTube is a great series for that kind of thing. I also enjoyed this video for simple tricks that highlight and work on fundemtal parts of skateboarding: [VIDEO] Don't let anyone rain on your parade. Skating is about having fun your way; there are no rules as to how fast and how uncomfortable you need to be.