Skateboarding adapted from classic and modern longboard surfing
by Keith Johnson - Surface Motion.

CONTENTS

Carves
Cheater Five
Cross Stepping
Cross Stepping - Backwards
Cross Stepping - Begining
Cross Stepping - Intermediate
Cross Stepping - Intermediate II
Cross Stepping - Technique
Cutback
Drop Knee
Drop Knee - Kick Carves
Drop Knee - Reverse
Grapevine
Hang Five
Hang Five - Crossing
Kick
Kick Carve - Reverse
Kickouts
Nose Sit
Nose Stance - Fakey
Nose Wheelie
Nose 180
Ocho
Prison Walk
Pushing
Stances
Stances - Cross Riding
Stalling
Turn - Backside
Turn - Layback
Turn - Tail Carve Backside
Turns - Linking
Walking
Walk the dog

 

Journey from tail to nose

Soul Skating Forum

THE WAVES

Routines for a 100 yard hill

The Waves are the routines that combine turns and tricks, from the top of the hill to the bottom. Pictures and notes explain the maneuvers that make up a complete ride. Good practice for surfers. Good discipline for skaters who want to put moves together into a sequence that has a beginning, middle, and end.

Wave 1 - Backside turn, nose ride, kickout.
Wave 2 - Frontside turn and cutback, walk, nose ride, kickout.
Wave 3 - Nose ride and stall, back pedal, kickout.

 

EXTRA SOUP

Location - Where to practice.

Equipment - for surf style skating. Boards. What to wear. Winter clothing. Padding.

Forum - the place for talking aboout soul.

Technical analysis - Explanation of some techniques and the physics of it all. Some diagrams to illustrate.

Terms and techniques - A glossary for surf style skating.

Credits - Thank yous and links to people who helped or inspired.

Speed - A Word About Speed

 

INSPIRATION

The goals of these pages are:

To get skateboarders into this style.

There are many people in my area, the eastern seabord and New York City, skating longboards, but surf style skating is relatively unknown. Maybe more will want to learn to tail carve and cross step if they see this.

To help longboard surfers cross train.

Learning how to ride and turn a big skateboard from the tail and some basic footwork can help greatly with surfing. Skateboarding is great surfing practice because you can break down problems and repeat drills in the stable environment of the paved hill.

To contribute to the style.

The essence of surf style skating is tribute; to the riding of great longboard surfers from the past and present. In addition to surfing tribute and imitation, I try to create style by introducing ideas borrowed from other sports and disciplines.

Since the response to this site has been very favorable, more is being added and some reorganization is underway. Bear with me if there are a few missing pictures or unfinished pages.

While the object of Surf Style Skating is to imitate longboard surfing past and present, there is a subtext of old school skateboarding running throughout. Many of these "modern" tricks are simply new takes on original skateboard tricks like the tic tac, wheelie, nose wheelie, walk the dog, and so forth. A study of old school skateboarding is a whole other story. There are links in the credits page that will take you to sites that specialize in old school.

 

Working on an early version of the kick carve on a Hobie with clay wheels.
Photo by M.C. Johnson, Santa Cruz, Calif.

(Photos by Karen Paquin. Additional photos by Mina Kuhn)