Let’s start with a very common question, why do you want to do longboarding? Either you use it for work purposes or longboarding is your hobby.
Whatever your motives, the most important thing you need to learn how to longboard.
But before that, you need to know what a longboard is, Longboards and skateboards are very close, but longboard is a little bigger than skateboard and longboarding are more adventures than skateboarding.
So if you want more fun, do longboarding. And the following articles will help you a lot to do longboarding properly.
Some Important Things Before Starting
1. Find a longboard that meets your style
First, find a best longboard that fits your needs. Longboard can use for many purposes; first, decide why you will use it. Some use it for cruising, some use it to go to the office, and some use it for a walk in the afternoon.
Longboards come in different sizes, some are bigger, and some are smaller. Each size has different advantages; some will help you go faster; some are better for turning. But if you are new, I’ll tell you to look for a board that gives you more stability.
So choose the one that suits you best.
2. Buy Safety Equipments
A Longboard is an exciting game, a game that is as much fun as it is risky. Because if you lose a little balance, you will fall and get pain. So for this, you have to wear safety gear so that you don’t get hurt even if you fall.
You have to buy the following accessories also:
- Helmet: There is no substitute for it, you must wear it
- Shoes: There are special shoes for longboard that you must wear because it will allow you to balance your feet.
- Knee Pad: It will help you not to get pain in the knee
- Elbow Pad: It will also help you not to get pain in the elbow
- Gloves: It will help your hand if you use your hand when sliding by hand
How to Longboard for Beginners
1. Find out if you are a regular rider or not?
You have to find out first what kind of rider are you? How to do?
Well, that’s very simple.
You stand normally on the longboard. Now look at your feet, What do you see?
If you see that your right foot is towards the front and your left foot is towards the back of the longboard, then you are ‘Goofy,’ and if you see that your left foot is towards the front and your right foot is towards the back of the longboard, then you are ‘Regular.’
Does it seem complicated?
There is another way if you are pushed from behind, which of your legs will go in front and stop the fall? I hope you got the answer.
2. Use a Low Stance at First
You have to take a low stance because it is risky for a beginner to try any other stance in the beginning. After a while, you can try another stance, but a low stance is a must in the beginning.
Stand on the longboard with your low stance. If you are regular, your right foot will be perpendicular to the deck, and your left foot will be at a 45-degree angle to the deck. Bend the knees and lean slightly.
3. Practice to Move Forward
The next step is to learn to move the longboard forward. Stand on your board and give a push to the ground to move forward with the back legs.
One thing to note when pushing is that you don’t lose your balance.
If you can’t push hard with the back foot, try to push with the front foot. It’s called ‘Mongo’ and normally, a rider doesn’t want to do this. The fact is, you need to be comfortable with whatever you do. You can use the right foot, or you can use the left foot.
In the beginning, you will try to move your longboard forward with a light push, but after a few days of practice, you will try to push hard and move forward.
4. Practice Turning
Then you have to learn how to turn the longboard. When you feel comfortable running a longboard in forward, it will be much easier for you to turn this.
Put a little pressure on the side of the longboard you want to take and lean a little towards that. That’s it, simple !!
5. Find a Method to Slow Down the Speed
Just as you need to learn to drive a longboard, you need to learn how to slow it down and finally how to stop it. The easiest way is to hit the ground with the back legs.
Hitting the ground with your back legs will create a friction that will slow down its board. There are also other methods to slow down the speed, one of which is carving. What is carving in the longboarding? Carving is when you successfully turn your longboard a few times into an S shape.
When carving back and forth, it will help you to slow down the longboard. During the turn you will try to push the longboard towards the ground, you will find that the longboard will gradually slow down.
6. Practice Sliding
We have now come to the most important stage of Longboard, Slide. The biggest advantage of sliding is that you can slow down your longboard even when you are at high speeds. It is a crazy thing.
You can do it in many ways:
- You can also slide while standing on the longboard
- You can also slide down with one hand bent on the ground
If your longboard has a lot of speed, try hands downslide, and if you have a fair amount of speed, I think it’s better to practice stand up sliding.
But everyone has their style; you will practice what you feel comfortable. You will practice it regularly, whatever you feel comfortable in between the two.
But it has to be kept in mind; sliding has to be learned well; it has to be.
7. Keep on Practicing
The next thing to do is just practice. Practice all of these again and again so that you can become an expert in each of them. You have to learn to balance with the board so that you can enjoy longboarding on your own.
There are also many longboard tricks that you can easily learn from more and more practice. Always remember, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’
Some other ways to improve skills:
There are many more ways to improve your skills and learn something new from the internet.
- You can read the blog
- You can watch videos
You can learn many new tricks from the internet and try them out yourself. It is best to learn by watching videos because you can learn the step-by-step process from the video.
Final Words
The main purpose of the guidelines above was to make the longboard not seem like a boring or tough thing to you because it’s a funny sport.
A longboard is a popular outdoor sport these days, so a rider needs to know the some basics and how to do it properly. If you can follow the above guidelines, I hope your first longboard journey will start in a very nice way.
