Projects: Tribute
Waves
W ave 3
Grapevine, Nose Perch, Hang Foot Drag-Stall, Backpedal
Skate
Reef
Gear
Surf
History
Non Google Sponsors
Grapevine walk
The grapevine is a series of steps in which the legs cross in front and behind. Each time you cross your legs back and forth, you hit a rail with the ball of your foot and initiate a turn.
Heelside reverse drop knee turn
The grapevine in Hotdog Wave 2 starts with a toeside reverse turn, and this Wave starts with a heelside reverse turn. The reverse drop knee, or reverse turn for short, is a little more natural to do to heelside, because you don't have to stretch your leg behind so far.
I start in a narrow stance just forward of the tail. This is the setup for the backpedal step into a reverse drop knee turn
I cross my front leg, which is my left, back behind my right and place it on the heelside rail.
The technique is similar to the drop knee turn, but the body is twisted because the legs are crossed. Heelside reverses tend to be whippy because your legs are close together, so watch out.
The reverse turn wants to unwind into an uncross step up the board. Next the back foot is uncrossed and placed back in the side by side, close together position. I prepare for the back cross step by rotating my hips clockwise so my back begins to face the nose.
The back cross step
The back cross step is the critical part of the routine. I cross my foot behind the other and up the board. The front foot stays in its original position so both feet end up quite turned out. You can look over your shoulder where you're going. My toe hits the heelside rail, so it continues the left turn from the reverse turn.
It helps to concentrate on getting your shoulders around and facing them backwards. In this frame I am looking backwards to make it easier to square off my shoulders. I sacrifice seeing where I'm going for balance. The real trick of this routine is to get all the steps to flow slowly and smoothly one after the other, so they are all held about the same length of time. It takes control and will power to keep from rushing a step. The reward is a smooth pattern of turns while you walk the board in a way that's very different from what you'd normally see other longboarders do.
Full turnout uncross step
In Footdog Wave 2 you'll see when I uncross after the back cross, I simply place my feet side to side. That was an older routine, and this one has a more difficult step after the back cross, because I really have it wired now. What I mean to do is to come out of the back cross, where my shoulders face fully backwards, and go to a position facing squarely forwards, all in one flowing step.
I plant my right foot, which was back crossed, where it was.
I uncross my left foot while turning my shoulders to the left. The left leg uncrosses and I turn my foot out. This doesn't take much turnout and is the smoothest way to get from facing backwards 180 degrees around to forwards all in one slow, smooth motion. There is some pivoting on the ball of the left foot as well. The more turnout you have, the less you have to pivot and the smoother you can turn your shoulders while walking.
My right toe points at the right rail and my left toe points at the nose. At this point I am still turning my shoulders and I put my left heel on the nose. I am going to pivot on this heel so I can turn my feet way out. This is the setup for the nose perch.
Arching nose perch
This is the tip ride, and I'm going to pose and perch for a bit. The styling is to throw my hips forward, arch my back, and pull my arms down to help the back bend. At this point I turn my toes way out and a take a Charley Chaplin, or duck foot position. For me this is the easiest way to be able to get a lot of forward thrust in my hips for the arch nose move. You can see I roll my right foot onto its arch. If your feet point forward, they will flex only so far and you can't push your knees far enough forward to get a good arch. If you can't turn your feet out into a straight line, just leave the left foot pointing at the nose.
I do my arch mostly with my knees and legs. Some people have a really limber back and do more of a back bend at the nose. If you cant arch just stick your chest out or make some hand gestures at least. The nose is where you stop cross stepping for a while and do something with your body to show you're really proud of yourself for the super controlled and dazzling footwork you just showed off to get there.
Hang whole foot
In a hang five you hang your five toes off the tip. In a hang ten you put your feet together on the tip and hang all ten toes. But that's not enough. In this trick I'm going to hang my whole foot off the nose. What's more I'm going to stall with it, dragging it on the ground.
I rise up out of the arch, using my hands up high for balance, and pick up my left foot. At this point I'm standing on one foot and I'm going to be standing on one foot for quite some time.
Turned out foot drag-stall
I cross the left foot forward and hold in a cross stance. Only the crossed foot isn't on the board, it's hanging off the front. So this is really a cross stance hang whole foot.
The tough thing with this hang foot move is that you have to put all your weight on one leg and do somewhat of a one legged knee bend. Elsewhere on these pages I've done a deep knee bend on one leg, but this isn't that drastic a bend. It may be hard for you to do the knee bend. Practice while doing your ordinary pushing, trying to deepen the bend in your standing leg while you drag your pushing foot to slow down.
I love tricks like this that are hard, unusual, look cool, and have some function. It's actually the ball of my foot dragging on the pavement to slow the board down. My foot is turned out again, so the sole of the foot drags easily, and wont hang up. The foot is facing almost backwards. There's more detail about this technique on my stalling page in the cross stepping section.
If you're worried about snagging or running over your foot, and that is a distinct possibility, use your heel to skid off speed, and don't try to be so fancy. Heel dragging is more functional and will look ok, if not as stylish as the turned out foot drag-stall. I use heel dragging as a downhill slowing technique when carving or bombing hills.
Now I pick up the hang whole foot and put it back into a tip ride position. As in the frame just before the arch, my left toe points forward and the right points at the right rail, heel to arch. I use this t shaped position whenever I want a lot of stability even with my feet right together. I think it's a lot more versatile than the feet together or hang ten position.
Next I backpedal toward the tail to end the routine. One technical thing that I would point out is the way I use a certain tension in my arms for balance. Maybe you can't tell but I'm actually working pretty hard to keep my arms firm in two bow shapes, rather than just letting them hang. Even my fingers have a bit of tension and arent floppy. This really helps in balance, because my arms are like a tightrope walker's balance beam, even when I've got them hanging at my sides. The trick is to try to look really relaxed when actually you're working pretty hard.
You can see the difference in this frame, where I really am relaxed. I've planted my foot right on the spot for a tail stance and the step is solid, so I'm letting my arms flop a bit, to relax. Try this arm technique, I'm sure you'll be happy with the balance it gives you.
