Recalling the first day to take up longboarding, I was both nervous and excited. At that time, no one told me what to do, how to keep balance on skate, or how to practice riding. But with passion, determination, and efforts, I have become more skillful and could even take part in many sports events. Now, I wish I could have learned these seven tips when I started longboarding before. Thus, you may have better starting point than me when reading this.
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# 1. Choose your suitable board
Before going into the battle, you have to prepare your weapon as carefully as you can; a board is your weapon in longboarding. Thus, one of the most important things at the beginning is to choose a suitable longboard that fits your height, weight, age, skills, and level.
# 2. Choose your stance on the board
What do I mean by saying that?
Your posture when you are standing on it is extremely important. If your left foot is forward while your right one is backward, it is a regular stance. If vice versa, it is called “goofy”. This stance is based on your dominant foot: your stronger one is usually backward to do most things such as pushing, turning, braking, etc.
Therefore, your stance is likely regular when your stronger foot is the right one; and goofy when your stronger foot is the left one. I said “likely” because there are a few exceptional cases. Some people with right dominant foot prefer goofy stance, while those with left dominant one prefers regular one.
# 3. Learn to balance
When I first took up longboarding, I rushed into riding, dashing, and turning; and you can guess the result: I got fallen all the time. Now I find it stupid and regretful because I should have learned to balance properly on the board first. Yes, balance is one of the first and foremost lessons in longboarding.
First, put the skate onto grass or a thick carpet to keep it stand still. Then, stay on it with your feet separating about shoulder width. Your backward foot is angled about 90º with the board, while the forward one is about 45º. Finally, bend your knees and lean forward with a comfortable and convenient stance.
# 4. Learn the turning posture
You may ask how people can turn the board to the left or right without using their legs. The answer is they use their entire body. So how to use the whole body but not losing your balance while riding?
Stand on the skate put on grass or carpet. Don’t move the wheels but slowly lean your body to the sides, using your weight. Remember not to use your ankles, feet, or legs to lean your body. Though it is a tricky lesson, you will get familiar to longboarding once you can excel at this exercise.
# 5. Study the pushing and braking stance
Pushes and brakes are among the most challenging techniques in longboarding. Once you get used to it, you will be more confident and skillful. So, this part shows you how to do these techniques step by step:
Balance yourself on the skate. Slowly rotate your front toes to point ahead. Keep your hips and shoulders forward, too.
Then, lift your back foot out of the skate and get balanced at the same time. Bend your front knee, lower your body so that your back foot touches the ground. In the meantime, keep your hips straight forward.
After touching the ground, bring your back foot onto the board again at the beginning position. Repeat these steps several times.
You may find it very hard at first but will get familiar soon enough. Do this exercise several times a day for a better balance before riding on the street.
# 6. Start rolling
Now, it’s time to start running on the ground, not on the grass or carpets. I bet you are excited to ride, but take it easy, use your body weight to make a roll first without pushing your board too hard. Make a balanced stance on it, then lean and lower your body ahead to move it along.
Do you remember the turning lesson? We practice that skill here. While rolling the skate, bend both of your knees and lean your body to the sides of it. Now you can ride with your desired directions.
Precaution: At this stage, you cannot ride on the street since it is dangerous for both you and the people around. Instead, find a backyard, parking area, or a place with few people to practice.
# 7. Learn to brake by foot – foot braking
This is the first braking technique that you need to master before learning the others. Why? Because it is easy, suitable for beginners and mostly used for low-speed riding. As I said before, at this stage, you can only make a slow roll with a little pushing (when necessary). Therefore, it is not challenging to break by your foot.
While the skate is moving, step your back foot onto the ground, firmly hold it back and keep the skate stop. It is quite simple since you ride slowly, but it will be a problem when you are on high speed. Make sure that you step your foot fully and flatly onto the ground for better braking ability.
In brief
Sammy Jackson from https://longboardbrand.com says above are the seven tips that I wish I could have known when first coming to longboarding. These are all efficient and useful lessons to learn and practice for beginners. If you are just getting started, take it easy and don’t be rushed because good things take time. Keep training, practicing, and I believe that you can be an excellent skateboarder in no time.