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P umping
Getting up speed to set up a wide slide
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Note: those of you coming in from a search or someplace, this pump article is about pumping a 54 inch heavy wooden skateboard. It's part of Cruise Power, slides and walks for classic style boards. You can figure out how to pump from this article, but keep in mind that this is written about pumping an oversize.
Pumping is the technique of linking short turns in a continuous way so that side to side pressure is squeezed forward. In this way, forward speed is generated from sideways motion. With a big board, lots of twist to either side is needed to get the board going sideways.
Hopefully the movements are big enough in these pictures that you can see what's going on. You can try it on a little (46 inch!) board, then when you have it, move up to your cruising board.
There is kind of a delay of the leg action behind the shoulder turn. This timing seems to be the toughest thing for beginners to get, because you're literally doing two turns out of sync from one another: you're starting a new turn with your upper body while the lower body is still finishing the last turn. The only way to get the hang of it is to practice the frontside and backside arcs separately, spaced apart. Then perform them closer and closer together until finally they are linked. Linked turns actually cannot be totally separated, they are knitted together, because the end of one is the beginning of another.
The turns must be solid, consistent, with lots of force behind them, both from shoulders and legs. The only thing easy about the big board pump is that the board is so heavy that once it gets going it's easier to keep it going. It has glide. With soft wheels it also is unlikely to squirrel or slide out to the side. If you are new to big board pumping, you may want to try it with soft wheels.
Once you can pump big boards with soft wheels, switch to the hard wheels. Try to get some looseness and squirrelly-ness into your pump. You want to be able to break any pump arc right into a slide. You want to be able to fishtail one way and then throw it back in the other direction. If you go to a hard wheel style, don't use a cruising style of pump. Push the envelope.
It really is just turning
If you look at some of the frontside and backside turn and slide sequences in the Arcs pages, you can see that the turns look exactly the same as these linked frontside and backside turns in the pump sequence. That's part of skating technique and how to learn stuff-- make connections and put it all together. For the purposed of discription, frontside will mean heelside, my turn to the left (FS/HS left). Backside will mean toeside, my turn to the right (BS/TS right).
Pump sequence
In this frame I'm coming out of a backside (toeside) turn and I'm ready to make the transition into the frontside (heelside) turn. Note how my arms are fully extended front and back. I reach my front hand 45 degrees or more across my chest to the right. My arms and shoulders stay connected, but I like to think of my hands leading or cueing the turn.
Although my upper body relaxes after untwisting between the turns, it's important to keep the flow linking them. I keep pressure on the board by keeping my knees bent, so I can "cross under", shifting the board from one side to the other. If you scroll the sequence quickly, you can see the board cross under and swing away from me in alternating arcs. Cross under is what makes linked turns different from two separate turns.
Here I've changed rails and am now starting a frontside arc. My arms have switched sides and my shoulders are now firmly swinging to the left.
Power arc
In a pump set of two turns, you can make the two arcs the same or you can have one power side. In this frame you can see how much twist I put into my frontside pump arc. This is my power side of the s sequence. My shoulders have squared off and my arms are reaching almost straight out to either side. With the frame of my upper body and my arms as a "balance beam", I have enough support to crank hard with my legs on the frontside turn. I should get a good burst of speed at this point.
As my legs push frontside my upper body unwinds rightwards from the extreme twist.
At this point I change rails, putting more weight on the right side. I bring my front arm across my chest to cue the backside turn.
It can help to press way back with your back hand. The arm styling I usually use is thumb down. I push my thumb and palm back hard into the new turn. My arm and shoulder angle is about 45 deg to this side. My backside twist is shallower than my frontside. Compare the angle of the two. In a slightly asymetrical way, my shoulders alternate almost a full 180 deg in the pump sequence. Once I have some speed I'll tighten it to a 90 deg swing.
In this frame I've started another arc to frontside. This is a shallower arc and I'm beginning to let the board coast. I can start a walking trick or set up a slide.
