Projects: Hybrid
Cruise Power
Slide Walking Footplex
H ang Heel routine pg 2
Skate
Cruise Power
Reef
Gear
Surf
History
Non Google Sponsors
Backwards cross half shuffle
You may have noticed how I occasionally shuffle one foot to narrow a stance or reposition. It's also possible to shuffle in a cross stance. In this case I do it while I'm going backwards.
There is a function to this. After the 270 deg spinner, I ended up too close to the tail. I want to get back to the nose, and I don't want to take a big step or shuffle back and look sloppy. Always strive to look smooth and innovative in your footwork. Try to develop many tools to do this so you can have many options and variations.
I've completed the step toward the tail and now I'm in a cross stance. I'm going to put my weight on my right (crossed) foot.
As I bend my right knee lower, I slide my left foot back toward the nose in a half shuffle movement.
It's important to learn the weighting technique that I use on these tricky steps. I always drop my weight straight down, then probe out with the leg I'm going to step on next. This is the secret of how to keep the board from jerky movement beneath you.
I put my weight on my left foot and step back toward the nose with my right.
Notice how the cross step shuffle made the steps into smooth and small steps. This will insure that my stance on the nose is nice and narrow, and precise.
Hang heel nose perch
Next I put my right heel down at the nose. If you've set it up right, you shouldn't have to look where you put your heel, you should know where you are on the board.
With my heel in place, I bend my knees and arch my back toward the nose, sticking my stomach out toward the tail. This is a way to keep some weight away from the nose, so you don't wheelie and lose rear wheel pressure and control. It also is a cool nose perch. You can see I've covered some ground away from the painted ring. I'm cruising, backwards, holding the pose a while.
Another variation would be to bring my left heel close to the the right and hang both heels. This is a little harder and requires more arch to keep the board level. It's worth learning the hang heels move after you have the hang heel down.
Half spinner and switch walk to tail
Now I take a step off the nose and walk toward the tail. You can tell by the shadow that my left arm is held high for balance. In this shot I'm walking directly down the board, foot straight. My intention is to do a half spinner in the next step, into switch stance.
I take the step with my right foot and point it left a bit. My back foot (left) pivots slightly to follow. This puts me in switch stance walking down the last two steps to the tail. I prefer this because I'll wind up in my regular stance at the tail.
I could also walk to tail regular foot and wind up switch. Or I could do a pivot at the tail into my regular stance. As long as I have practiced all my steps, I have many options.
