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L ean Technique for Turns
Theory of weight and position in lean to help turns
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Lean, counter lean, and counter weight
Drop knee turn with extreme counter lean
The way you lean your body is a key to controlling turns. By setting up a proper lean in your body, you are able to get more angle out of your board and thus a sharper turn. By keeping your upper body properly positioned, you end up working less and getting more control and power in your turns.
Leaning is the obvious way to turn a skateboard. You lean in the direction of the turn. There is only so far that you can lean into a turn before you will tip over. To advance in your skateboarding it's important to learn to balance a stance as you are turning. This concept is pretty hard for beginning surfers and skaters to get. Too often they just lean until they fall over.
Counter leaning is leaning against the turning rail, or away from the turning direction. You use your upper body to counterweight your legs so you can get more balance and leverage. Meanwhile, there's a great deal of pressure built up on the turning rail, and a sharp turn can be executed.
Counter weighting goes hand in hand with counter leaning, and it means spreading your body weight along the board over the pivot point of your turn. You can spread your weight over the see saw point of your lean, technically the fulcrum of your lean. This see saw point may mean your board tipping fore and aft, as in a wheelie, or tipping side to side, as when turning. Counter weighting gives you balance over this tipping point, as a tightrope walker holds a beam to aid balance.
As you explore Surface Motion's skateboarding pages you will see many examples of different ways to lean and counter lean. You can experiment with different leans on your own once you get the idea. For instance, try leaning into the turn, then keep the same lean as you turn the other way, which will turn into a counter lean. Your body will not move, but there will be a completely different feel to the turn. It's a way of cutting down on the amount of moves your body has to do to pull off a turn. This makes the ride more stable, more efficient, and will look better as well.
Going from counter lean in one turn to counter lean in the next turn is the key to linking turns. What ends up happening is the leans flow into one another, and the turns knit together. The turns never separate, the end of one turn is the start of another. You'll see linking turns referred to in many places on the site. Look for the different leans when you see skaters, surfers, snow boarders, and even skiiers.
Toeside counter lean
Banana shape
This is something I learned from skiing originally, but have applied it to surfing and skateboarding. You can see I'm leaning into the turn but there is also a leaning away from the turn in the upper body. The body line is a "banana" shape with the legs curved under a straight upper body.
Toeside kick carve with banana shape
Banana shape is a subtle arch turn. An arch turn can be more extreme and stylized when the back is bowed, as in the soul arch stance shown farther below.
Body and board as compass
I keep my upper body from leaning while letting my legs swing out from underneath. It's hard to do this at first, but once you get it, turning becomes much easier. You can think of having your body upright in the center of a circle that the board is tracing. The board should be pushed away from the body so it can perform its role of the pencil part of the compass to draw arcs. It's easier to link turns this way, because as the legs retract from one turn, the momentum propels them straight into the next.
Quiet upper body
This is another image borrowed from skiing. While tracing arcs like a compass, the "quiet upper body" acts as a home position, staying still while the legs move from side to side underneath.
Arch stance or knee-bent position
A toeside arch position is a classic counter lean stance.
When turning to toeside, I sometimes use deeply bent knees and an arch in my back to get some leverage on the rail. This looks like something stylish, like the "soul arch", but it's really a functional move. The arch functions as a way to lean away from the turn to put more weight over the rail and get more turning edge. When I do a back bend away from the turn it gives me more angle out of my board with more balance, a win-win situation.
I turn to toeside by bending my knees to lean the board over. I also arch my back and push my stomach out. I reach toward the ground with my arms.
The board comes around pretty sharply without much effort, other than the arch and knee bend.
Here is a diagram that shows a stick figure leaning and counter leaning.
Notice how in the first diagram, the blue weight is over the rail that is leaned. In the second diagram, the green weight is over the opposite rail to the one that is leaned. This means the board can be leaned over farther and the skater will not tip over.
The green weight drawing resembles a skater in a toeside turn, with his knees bent.
Heelside counter lean
The chair position
To counter lean on a heelside turn, I often use a stance I call the chair stance, where it looks like I'm seated. I like to lean my upper body toward the board, away from the lean of the turn. I try to keep my back straight to get more leverage.
Here is a sequence showing a heelside turn using counter leaning.
Notice I'm able to lean the board over until the outside wheel is off the ground, but the turn is still very relaxed and nowhere near tipping over.
You can see I use my right arm and shoulder to get some weight over the outside rail, even while I am twisting my upper body into the turn. To do this counter weighting, I bend at the waist and keep my back straight.
Counter weighting
The following diagram is a representation of counter weighting. It shows a stylized skater in a chair position setting up a heelside kick turn. The blue weight of the shoulders balances the green weight of the seat.
This shows what I mean about balancing fore and aft, or laterally. You can see the weights balance over the rear wheels, which are the fulcrum of the see saw of the board. Thus the skater is balancing fore and aft.
You can use this same weighting idea for balancing the turn part of the kickturn, or balancing laterally. Think of this skater balancing over both sides of his board which is leaned to heelside.
