Physics of Riding Although it might sound simple to ride a piece of wood stuck to the ground with 4 wheels, it actually has a bit of physics to it. To stay balanced on the board you want to make sure that your weight stays over the centroid. This is where the balance of the board is and where you'll be most likely to not fall off. Keeping both of your feet where the trucks are limits the amount of movement the board will have in the y-axis giving you more balance allowing you to ride the board.     Just look at scruffy he's got it down, by keeping both of his paws on top of the trucks, and by keeping a low center of gravity he can ride comfortably and safely. (Always remember to wear a helmet because skating can be ruff.)     Now if we want scruffy to get some speed we're going to want to send him down a hill, now don't worry we have consent of scruffy the daredevil dog. Now if we're going to get him down the hill fur-real we're going to want to use some physics to make sure he can withstand the speeds. This is how we find the velocity, acceleration, and forces, when we are using a slope. Let's say that scruffy is a dog that weighs 5kg, is on a 20 meter long hill, and the angle of elevation is 10 degree. We're going to find the time it takes him to get to the bottom of hill. Normal force  = m*g = 5kg * 9.81m/s^2 = 49.05N ax = g* sin(theta) = 9.81* sin(10) = 1.70m/s^2 x - xo = vox t + ½ ax t2 20 - 0 = 0 + (1/2)1.70t^2 t = 4.85s