We don't all have the chance to live facing the ocean, and even for those who live there, it is difficult to surf 365 days/year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day... Unless you have a wave pool in your garden, it seems difficult to surf that much. That's why you have to learn to vary your leisure time. Surfing was the first born, but very quickly, surfers began to ride the streets as they once wrinkled the ocean waves, thus developing their own culture and technique. However, if we can practice both, we can see that it can only progress. "The more you skate, the better in the water you will become," said Yoda.
Here are 5 tricks to improve your surfing on flat days:
1 - Carving / Cruising / Turning
Cruising... any self-respecting skater will say "it's not real skateboarding". But we all do at some point. If you want to know how to knit or surf, you have to know how to cruiser! So it's too bad if they throw "posers" in our faces, we keep our heads up and we insist!
The mandatory passage is therefore the cruising box. Carving is THE way to ride that most resembles surfing maneuvers. The base of the base. But also the cream of the crop, since once you understand how it works, you can believe anywhere, in any weather, with anyone! There are even boards specially designed for that!
Then if you try to carve on a flat surface a little downhill and zigzag it for several minutes, it will improve your bottom-turn.
Poser? No, surfer.
2 - Stopping / Stalling / Powerslide
When we ride the asphalt, we usually use breaks and slides to brake because we go too fast, or because we want to lose a little speed. In surfing, we use the stall to take a tube or to return to the more powerful part of the wave. And as in skateboarding, the more you press the tail, the more you brake.
So two things to do:
- Learn to stop thanks to the tail of his board
- Learn to brake by doing a powerslide (you need speed)
In both cases, it is preferable to have a flat surface to begin with.
3 - The Kickturning
The surfboard doesn't have wheels, but it has fins, and it's just like. So when you do a kickturn on skateboard, you also train to do off-the-lip, closeout re-entries, and other cut-backs and tail slides.
In skateboarding, the rear truck and its wheels work like pivots and allow the board to turn 90°, 180°, 360°... whatever the direction.
Flat surfaces and ramps can be used to work it. The goal is to move her hips while keeping her knees bent and her gaze in the desired direction.
4 - The Ollie
Ahhhh the ollie. This trick which is as simple as possible remains the haunting of any beginner who respects himself. It is the fundamental trick in skateboarding that separates absolute beginners and skaters from the first intermediate levels.
In surfing, the ollie opens the door to a whole new world: the air.
Like skateboarding, it's long, tedious and you have to work hard at it. But once you understand, it comes back every time.
5 - The Boardslide
Another great classic: the boardslide. It can be done on any rail, ramp, ledge, curb... It's one of the best maneuvers to work on your balance. So perfect trick for surfing, especially when you want to do a tail slide.
The only problem is that to learn how to make a boardlide you have to pass the Master level of Ollie. Without a perfect ollie, the boardslide is to be excluded. So you have to be patient.
In surfing, as in skateboarding, if you are too far forward or too far back, you risk zipping and falling. So be centered and well balanced and your tail slide will be perfect. Magic!
