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5 Tips for Surfskating Like a Pro
Struggling to learn how to surfskate? Try these surfkating tips to speed up your progression.
Skateboards, longboards, and surfskates look similar: they all have a board, trucks, and wheels and you ride on top of them.
But as you’ve probably discovered, riding a surfskate is very different from riding a skateboard or longboard. It takes completely different body movements and has its own unique flow.
Surfers know these body movements and this flow very well. Surfskating was originally made for surf training, and surfskates mimic the feel of surfing on land.
But if you’re not a surfer, here are five tips that will get you surfskating like a pro. You may also want to check out my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”
Pro Surfskating Tip #1: Get the proper foot positioning.
On a skateboard or longboard, your feet often change position on the board. And when you cruise, your front foot is typically facing more forward than the other, and your hips are turned forward as well.
On a surfskate, your feet pretty much stay stationary. Furthermore, you want both feet to be facing perpendicular to your direction of travel.
Your front foot should sit just behind the front surfskate truck, and your back foot should rest either right on the back truck, or just behind it in the pocket between the truck bolts and the beginning curve of the tail.
Pro Surfskating Tip #2: Use shoulders and hips.
When skateboarding and longboarding, not only do your feet change position, but you also use them a lot to propel and steer your board. Most of the action in skateboarding and longboarding is below the knees.
Surfskating is like surfing: it’s all in the upper body, primarily the hips and shoulders.
To turn and carve on a surfskate, here’s your rule of thumb: Lead with your shoulders, then your hips follow, and then your feet.
To practice this, plant your feet on the ground and stand stationary. Hold your harms up parallel to the ground. Bend your knees, and then swing your arms and your shoulders in one direction. Now feel your hips turn as your body twists, but keep your feet stationary.
Can you feel that motion? Now practice it on a surfskate.
Keep your feet stationary on the board in the right position, bend your knees, hold your arms up, and then swing your body around with your arms and shoulders, feeling your hips follow your shoulders, then your feet following your hips.
Pro Surfskating Tip #3: Keep your knees fluid.
When I teach newbies how to surfskate, one of the most common mistakes I see is that they keep their knees rigid.
One of the beautiful things about surfskating is all I can describe as the “flow.”
The flow is in the way your board moves, but also the way your body moves on the board. You want both to move like water.
Surfskates can give you tight curves with far-out leans unlike any other type of skateboard. But to get those curves and leans requires that you move fluidly with the process.
Your body fluidity should start with your up and down movements in the knees.
Watch how these pro surfskaters use their knees to get low and move in the surfskate flow:
Surfskating Tip #4: It’s not about speed–it’s about control.
I came from a longboarding background. I was what I’d call a fast-paced cruiser. I wouldn’t divebomb hills, but I’d carve them out at a pretty good clip.
When I discovered surfskating, I soon realized that the thrill of surfskating isn’t in speed–it’s in control.
Instead of taking hills as fast as possible, I learned to control my board to make tight carves all the way back and forth down them.
On a surfskate, your goal isn’t to get to the bottom as quickly as possible–it’s to drink every last drop of that concrete wave and make the ride last as long as possible.
Pro Surfskating Tip #5: Feel the freedom, follow the flow.
Interestingly, it’s in the control of a surfskate that you feel the real freedom of surfskating.
On a surfskate, you have total control over the board, both where you go and how fast you go. You can tackle steep hills and random obstacles with ease because of your ability to carve tightly and control your descent and direction.
In my city, St. George, Utah, I can literally jump on my surfskate and pump for two to three hours without ever having to push my foot on the ground. When I hit steep hills, I just control my descent with tight carves back and forth.
Think of your concrete terrain as a wave. Follow the contours and see where she leads you. See how long you can go without pushing or stopping. Don’t try to get somewhere, just enjoy the experience and feeling of land surfing.
On a surfskate, there’s no destination—the freedom, the joy, the flow is in the perpetual street surfing journey.
If you’re ready to feel the freedom of surfskating, get my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”
