Royales are a new school trick that has changed the sport. From this trick come others like the unity grind, the backslide, the soyle, the meow, the cowboy, and Im sure many others. A Royale is a grind in which you are grinding an object frontside like normal, but your trailing (back) foot is grinding on the outside edge. To accomplish this, you need to bring your back foot in, and push your ankle over so that you are on the outside (and hopefully touching the boot to the rail). Now that you have the stance, lets describe how to do it. First off, unless you want to learn this the slow way you need to start off right- Try and land in the royale position. When I started I landed frontside and would go over to a royale, and believe me it was no fun trying to relearn it! So skate up to the rail (flat for the purpose of this tutorial) like you are going to do a normal frontside. When you jump up to land on the surface, try and imagine your back foot under you as if you were going to do a soul grind. But since you arent going to do a soul grind, turn it normal!! You should have the same crouched stance as a soul, and most of the weight should be on the back foot like a soul. You need to make sure that you are sliding between the middle two wheels on both skates (duh!), but the back skate should be sliding on the outside of the frame and the boot. Ie- you have 2 points of contact with the bar. You grind it out and hop off like normal.. BUT, there are 2 main problems when doing them. Balance and balance..

Before you go and try doing it on a rail, just stand in place in your skates and try to assume the royale position. Its tricky because you reaaalllly have to bend that ankle out so that the boot touches. Some people will unbuckle their boot to make it easier, but its really not necessary. Crank over the foot as much as possible, then bend your knees as if you were going to take a dump (heh). Both together should make it possible to get down to the boot. So now you should be squatting down and have your ankle bent over so that both the boot and frame of your skate is touching. Good. But now comes the hard part- foot position. Since you dont want your feet to wash out from under you when you grind, you need to keep the royale foot no further under you than your shoulder. You may be tempted to bring it in closer, but DONT DO IT! Okie, so you are grinding with most of your weight on your back foot. But wait, whats to keep your feet from washing out?! Well to offset the balance of your back foot in close, you will need to lean forwards slightly. Now I guess you are ready to actually try it. Just remember to try and land in the royale position, and keep the weight distrobution much like a soul grind. Keep your ankles and knees bent down so that you are crouching, and it'll easier to grind. Since you are good enough to be thinking about this, you should be able to do it. Its not much harder than a frontside! As you get comfortable with royales, doing a backslide is a natural extension. Since your back foot is under you, most of your weight is on that foot. Just like in a soul grind, its not too much trouble to pick up that front foot once you have the stance down. So after you have it down, practice your royales and lift up your foot a bit off of the rail/curb. Its not too hard, so try and lift it up a foot. thats a bit tougher. Now try and land with your foot a bit off of the rail. Thats a backslide! A few weeks of good practice is typical when learning this, so dont stress if you cant get it down! Good luck!