> IMHO, Terr's guess is exactly right. You get all the lift from pushing down the nose / dragging across the grip tape. This is clearly not the case. The front

> IMHO, Terr's guess is exactly right. You get all the lift from pushing down the nose / dragging across the grip tape. This is clearly not the case. The front foot guides the board, stops it rotating backwards, and is necessary to land the ollie, but it doesn't help get the board into the air. The back foot pushes down (HARD) on the tail, the entire board rotates about the back axle until the tail hits the ground. At this point the front truck (which has significant weight (relative to the rest of the board)) is moving up and the rear truck is stationary, the momentum of the entire system is now up - the skater now (simply!) has to lift the rear foot at about the same speed as the tail lifts off the ground, and use the front foot to stop the board from over rotating back.