C ross Academy
Different schools of skateboarding influence a hybrid longboarding style
Project Date: September - November 2005
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Ollie to back cross step
(Back crollie)
Boneless to front cross step
(Cross boneless)
Skating and text by Keith Johnson
Project Intro
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Cross Academy skating is a merging of "schools" of skating, the new, the old, and the classic. It is a mixture of ollie variations and cross step footwork, adapted to street longboards. I took parts of my earlier Surface Motion projects and added standard tricks that most "street" skateboarders know.
The simplest way to describe Cross Academy is to take a street trick and add cross steps to make it more suited to longboarding.
Origin of Cross Academy
Crossover was central to Surface Motion skateboarding from the beginning. My early projects featured longboard skating that borrowed heavily from surfing and also from other sports and disiplines. After a few years I had a lot of material on the site. I got the idea that I could have intra-site crossover styles that borrowed from my more basic material, so a skater could work up the ladder of levels of longboarding, within all the Surface Motion skate projects. Cruise Power was the first big project hybridizing material from other parts of the site. I took Slide Arc-itecture and Footplex and mixed the two together, performing slides, pumps, turns, and kick turns on a big board and linking the 180s together with complex footwork.
Around the time I finished Slide Arc-itecture and started Cruise Power I started working on another hybrid project. While practing ollies on mid length kinked street longboards, I found I still liked to walk the board, as I had on big flat wooden boards. In fact, I learned to walk on it not only before an ollie, or after an ollie, but in the middle of an ollie. I worked out a few basic ollie-cross step combinations.
For this project I went back to my original crossover method of bringing in material from another sport, in this case shortboard street skateboarding. I hadn't been much into skate tricks before then, so I started making an effort to learn "new school" or "street" tricks that I routinely saw other skaters doing, the basic ollies, 180s, and grinds. I also did research using sources such as tapes, websites, and vintage skateboard magazines to find "old school" pre-ollie tricks that you rarely see anymore. What evolved over four years of experimenting and practice is Cross Academy skating.
Ollie to front cross landing
(Crollie)
Course Requirements for the Academy
I would say, you should have worked through the footwork material on this site, that is, up to Footplex advanced footwork. Be able to walk the board two steps smoothly forward, backward, and switch stance. Back cross steps would help, but aren't totally necessary. The stand up slide basics on Slide Arc-itecture should be part of your repetoire. Having them will give you additional control and lots of ways to exit 180s.
The more Surface Motion tricks you can do the better, because Cross Academy means you borrow different longboard tricks and add them to modern skateboard tricks. Kick carve turns, classic drop knees, spinners, nose perches, nose turns, kick stalls, and toe drag stalls are some of the things you can use to lead into or out of your ollies.
Tail stand or ollie?
You should be able to ollie a 36 inch or longer board, or be in the process of learning a longboard ollie. The ollies and crollies I do aren't big, but they are in control. Maybe I should call the start of the tricks a tail stand or tail pop rather than an ollie. Much of the time I just release the tail and wheels in a vertical pop, because walking up in the middle of an ollie means it's very hard to level it, because the front foot kick is shortened. Maybe in the future I'll be able to hit the nose and level it with the crossed foot in mid air. This is something I've tried but just haven't pulled off yet. Maybe one of you will do it first. That's certainly a goal.
I've found I can mount a small curb of 4 inches or a normal 6 inch curb, especially if it's rounded, painted, or metal edged, with not much more than a tail stand. The big longboard wheelbase means you can make it up on an object with just a tail pop. So that means I can cross step land it on the curb. On the other hand, to mount a high curb (9 inch standard) or 1 foot ledge, yeah, you gotta level it to get the back wheels up. A 1 foot ledge is about as high as I've ollied a 40 inch board so far, and that required a stiff tailwind, a protein supplement, and a couple hours of rest after each successful attempt. Forget the tall curbs and ledges at first. Just practice popping the back wheels off the ground and the tail slightly off the ground and that'll be enough to develop tricks, because the board will come around on a 180 or make it up a small curb. With a modest longboard ollie, hundreds of Cross Academy variations are possible.
You probably don't need to have Cruise Power big board slides mastered. That's a pretty different set of skills.
Caution: flying longboards can hurt
Safety notes and warnings
A lot of the longboard skating on this website can be seen as an alternate to the body trashing modern trick skateboarding, accessible to a wide range of ages, body types, and skill levels. That is, most of Surface Motion Skate, but not Cross Academy. When you practice Cross Academy tricks, you need to protect yourself from the flying longboard, so it becomes, like most skateboarding, a dangerous sport.
In skateboarding, I guess you could say the danger is relative. Since I don't do tricks from much higher than a ledge I don't slam, which is good, but I do get hit with the heavy board, which is bad. A hard core street skateboarder who will routinely slam down a mid size flight of stairs or sack himself on a handrail will think that getting a longboard across the ankles is nothing. But to a flatboard walker or streetboard slider who wants to move up in level, it's going to be painful. Please take precautions to protect yourself, and don't say I didn't warn you.
Ollieing longboards poses a constant danger to your shins, knees, and ankles, a potential danger to your face and teeth, and occasional danger to the groin area.
I wouldn't blame you if you went and wore a cup and mouth protector when practicing, although I find that one shin guard prevents 90% of my injuries. Padded gloves help, especially the wrist guard type with a plastic splint. You can block the board with the wrist guard, and defend your upper body and even your legs sometimes.
Also big boards may pose a danger to other skaters. Be careful if you're practicing in a skate park, to try to keep your board under control. Be able to do grabs if you air up. If you're not at a park, but at a spot in close confinement with other skaters, the same applies: watch your board. I'll mention safety on the pages at certain points where there are dangers that I've encountered. There's information on safety and padding options on the gear page for Cross Academy.
Skating level: advanced, or determined intermediate
Even intermediate longboarders are going to have a tough time here. Like Cruise Power, I designed this for experienced, serious skaters who are fluent with intermediate material or who are looking to push themselves physically and mentally. You need a lot of background to get through these tricks. You really need to have walking the board mastered. If you can't cleanly perform a back cross step rolling on a heavy flat board with soft wheels, you have no business trying to ollie into a back cross and land it on a concave squirrely street board with loose trucks.
I know there are going to be guys who are not going to listen to me and who are going to want to jump right into longboard ollie tricks, or maybe there will be folks searching sites who get googled here who are only interested in ollies but aren't so into the crossover style. For these people I put in some exercises called bricks to help with longboard ollies. Work on the bricks first, if you can't cross step well. Then if you're interested, learn cross stepping and then work on Cross Academy basics.
A note about the gear used in Cross Academy
Cross Academy contents
Cross Academy basics
Basic combinations of cross stepping and new and old school tricks
From the new school and the old school of skateboarding I borrowed the ollie and the boneless. From those tricks I developed the Cross Academy basics. The Cross Academy basic is the ollie to cross step, or crollie. From that basic trick variations can be built, for example, the ollie to back cross step. The alternate basic is the boneless to cross step, or cross boneless, where the boneless substitutes for the ollie as a way to get some lift. Variations on the cross boneless can be built.
Alternate basic
- Cross Boneless. Boneless to front cross step.
Cross Academy basic variations
Variations with more difficult footwork
Ollie school
- Back Crollie. Ollie to back cross step.
- Back Crollie first try. A wild attempt, with some good moments.
Boneless school
Cross Academy bricks
Exercises and tools that break down tricks and build foot control
Whether you are following the Cross Academy style or even if you're only interested in longboard ollies, these bricks should help you get better snaps and drags.
- Tail stand. Ollie snap and front foot control brick.
- Pop, catch, jump. Ollie back foot control brick.
- Standing no comply. Ollie back foot and landing brick.
Cross Academy themes
Reoccurring techniques and ideas.
Cross Academy background information
Motiviation behind it. Origins and references in the name.
Folks please write me if you're working on Cross Academy style
I really appreciate that so many people come here and if you're just looking and don't write that's fine. I get a fair amount of mail and I always try to answer each one and it's great to get the links, clips, pictures, and other reports of your skating. This is one project, since it's so much in the development stage and often bizarre, that I would really appreciate the feedback.
Was it fun? Was it hard? Can you understand the essence of it? Was it easy to start coming up with your own variations? Can you already do this stuff better than me? Let me know.
Legal disclaimer Statement and skateboard safety warnings.
