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Waves
W ave 2
Right bottom turn and cutback, walk, nose ride, kickout
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This routine simulates a right breaking wave. The skating is done on a hill which banks a little to the left. It's a gentle bank, but enough to feel more gravity on one turn direction than another. It's about a half a road length wide, and trucks parked there made it even narrower. Surf skating is a fantasy of surfing, so think of the trucks as the background cliffs of skateboarding.
The hill then turns into a downhill foot path. This will simulate the smaller inside section of a right breaking wave.
Toeside arch turn
The wave starts with an arch toeside turn. Since it heads down the bank, it feels like a surfing bottom turn. I drop a bit then begin the arch turn.
I bend my knees and press my shoulders back. My arms hang or pull down to aid the arch. When you arch your back it may help to think of pushing the sternum forward, in other words, puff your chest out. The effect is to push the board backwards.
Crossunder
Crossunder happens when the board passes side to side under the body. When the board is pulled downhill under the body in the toeside turn and pushed back uphill during the following heelside turn, the board travels some distance side to side. This is called crossunder, and is the easiest way to defy gravity and project the board uphill.
The legs project the board behind on a toeside turn, using arch motion, and in front on a heelside turn, using a leg press motion. One of the goals of this first set of turns is to get as much crossunder as possible through these leg actions.
The toeside turn ends and the board retracts under my body. I straighten the arch and prepare for the next linked turn.
Heelside top turn
Since the bank simulates a right, the heelside turn is similar to a top turn. The board has to go uphill, defying gravity. More leg action is needed to get the board uphill, and the balance is more difficult. Gravity works to tip me over, rather than gluing me to the board as during the bottom turn. At the apex of the top turn, there is a feeling of less gravity pulling. Then there is acceleration as the board drops down the bank as well as down the hill.
I lean into the backhand turn, but I counter balance the lean by bending forward at the waist and reaching my chest toward the right side rail. I load the tail by extending my front foot. The nose is light so it will swing or sweep across the pavement. Note how one front wheel is actually off the ground. This is desirable and adds to the loose feel of the tail carve turn.
Here you can see the crossunder continue on the backhand turn, as my legs press the board away from my body.
I create rotation to the left by pressing strongly back with my front (left) hand and arm.
Cutback part two, toeside redirect
After the cutback I redirect the board "down the line" in a toeside turn. It's a smaller turn than the others, meant to set up a long, straight downhill ride. This ride simulates an inside section.
Inside section
The next part represents an inside section where a nose ride is performed.
Walk up with stalls
The hill is narrow with no room for carving off speed. It's also crowded with pedestrians. Think of it as like Malibu on a nice day, where skill is required to surf through the crowd. The technique I use to stall the board without turning is by toe dragging as I cross step. The cross step rhythm is the same as normal. My foot is hung off the rail but some weight is still carried on it. The side of my toe is dragged on the ground. The board is kept level while the dragging toe slows it down.
Cross stance drag
My right foot crosses in front and is turned out a bit. The sole of my foot faces slightly forward, making a clean slide. If too much pressure or too steep an angle is used, the sole of the foot will grab or "chatter", grabbing and releasing suddenly and repeatedly. The drag can be fine tuned by rocking left to right using pressure from both feet.
I replace the cross drag foot in the cross stance.
Approach to the nose
As I get closer to the nose my weight must drop back so the board stays balanced and doesn't tip forward. The overall motion is like sitting down while your feet move forward out from under you.
I take an uncrossing step with my left foot and place it on the nose, slightly to the left. I lower my weight straight down.
Tip ride
The next step with the right foot is a half shuffle, bringing me onto the very tip. The feet and knees are pressed tightly together. The board will feel loose, like it does with the tail weighted, but the feeling is different with nose weighting, with all the weight and length of the board and wheels behind the tip rider. The weight is kept back to keep from nose wheelie-ing or tail swinging.
Nose stall
The stall at the nose used here is similar to the cross stance drag earlier. It's a little different in stance. The feet are close together because the nose is narrower than the middle. Most of the weight is carried on the left leg, making this somewhat of a cross hang five.
Arching and relaxing the arch are used to apply more foot pressure on the ground.
The possibility of chatter and grabbing is greater at the nose, so my foot is turned out quite a bit. The more the sole faces forward, the cleaner the drag and the more area of "shoe leather" that can be used as a brake.
Backpedal or back walk
After a few moments of stalling, I place my right foot behind the front truck. I then walk back on my board two more steps.
I backpedal off the nose, and back onto the tail. Shown here is the last backpedal cross step before the tail stance is reached.
Kickout toeside
Properly paced off backpedal steps put me into tail stance. The stance is pretty narrow, less than shoulder width, making it easy to swing the board a full 180. I turn a bit to heelside to open up a little space to kick out into.
Windup
My shoulders are rotated counter clockwise to wind up the kickout. My right arm is reached leftward across my body. My knees are bent. My head stays facing right a bit. These motions are the coiling setup to the kickout. Uncoiling will swing the heavy board around and back uphill.
The weight is shifted all at once to the back foot, which is on the tip of the tail, or hanging off. My shoulders unwind rapidly and firmly and initiate the kickout. The nose lifts up in a wheelie and swings around. The tail doesn't exactly pivot, but moves around in a small half circle. This kickout actually rotated quite slowly. When the wheelie is balanced, a slow, smooth kickout is possible.
The kickout is finished by centering my weight over the board. There is some "checking," or counter rotation. In other words, my shoulders rotate in the opposite direction of the turn an eighth turn or so. This helps push the board the last bit as well as keeping control of the rotation.
You can think of this check as the beginning of a linked turn that never happens. The motion is the same as linking a frontside and backside turn, it just stops after one turn. In surfing, it's how you get your body back over the board after you've swung it out of the wave.
