How to Longboard

1. How to Longboard By: Craig Mazzeo

2. Longboarding Longboarding is a sport in which the rider uses a skateboard that is over the traditional length of a trick skateboard in order to commute, freeride, freestyle, slalom, etc. Longboarding differs from trick deck skateboards for a number of reasons. Firstly, Longboards are usually around 32-60 inches long.Secondly, Longboards use bigger and softer wheels than a trick skateboard for a smoother rideThirdly, The bushings longboards use are generally much softer to make carving much easier. Lastly, Longboards come in a huge array of shapes, lengths, widths, wood type, and thickness.

3. How to use a Longboard • First you will need to find out if you are goofy, or regular standing, in order to do this you will need to stand on a board both with you left foot in front as well as your right foot. If you find it more comfortable to stand with your left foot leading, you are regular, and if your right foot is better in front then you are goofy. • Next you need to push, in order to push you will keep your front foot on the board but turn it to be parallel with your board and you will push off the ground in a walking or running motion with your back foot. Once you have reached your desirable speed you will put your back foot onto the board again and turn your feet perpendicular to your board again. • Lastly, you will need to decide what kind of board you want and the discipline of riding you wish to pursue.

4. Types of boards • The first kind of board is a top mount. The most popular kind of top mounted board is a pintail. these are meant for cruising, and pushing. They are mostly used by beginners because of how easy they are to use and they are usually very fairly priced. • The next kind of board is a drop-through, these are all around boards that can be used for almost all disciplines depending on the model that you get, these boards are meant to be low by mounting the trucks through the deck rather than on the bottom. • The last kind of board that beginners should know about are drop downs. These boards are almost like a hybrid to a top mount and a drop-through. These boards have their trucks top mounted, but are as low as or even lower than many drop through boards These boards are most common in downhill for stability, but there are many people that use it for push racing as well for a low center of gravity to make pushing easier.

5. Disciplines of riding Pushing/Commuting Riders that use longboards for commuting will often use shorter boards with a kick tail to help maneuver turns and curbs. People that push race often have traditional pintails with a good amount of flex to allow energy conservation. Downhill Downhill races are self explanatory, riders race in heats down very steep terrains reaching amazing speeds. Downhill boards are very stiff to increase stability and then according to rider preference are either short or long. Shorter boards increase the turning radius of the board, while longer will increase the wheelbase of the board allowing for another increase of stability. Free rideFree riding is similar to downhill, but instead of racing the main goal is to produce various slides while going medium-high speeds, free ride decks are often stiff with a lot of concave

6. Disciplines of riding cont. Dancing Dancing is also called board walking, this is because it originated from board walking in surfing. This style of riding is a resurgence of old-school tricks that have more to do with your feet than the board such as walking or spinning while riding. Slalom riders simply swerve around whatever obstacles they find in their path while navigating from one place to another. Slalom riders usually have soft and grippywheels in the back to grip during tight turns, and slightly harder wheels in the front to reduce rolling resistance and reach higher speeds. Slalom riders produce speed themselves by carving, a technique known as pumping. Tech Sliding Slide decks usually seem like typical skateboards in shape but are much wider and have different concave patterns. Most slide decks are between 8.5 inches and 10 inches in width. Slide decks are most commonly set up with conventional trucks, and hard wheels