deathbyjung: Okay so I got a longboard and I was wondering if any of you, my lovely followers, skate
deathbyjung: Okay so I got a longboard and I was wondering if any of you, my lovely followers, skateboard or longboard? If you do, how long have you been into it and do you have any tips for a beginner? When you begin learning how to longboard, focus on two things separately. (1) The first thing is pushing off. When you push off, keep your front foot on the board and keep your back foot off the board as long ad possible. Eventually, you should be able to ride on just one foot and not have to worry about shifting your weight as much. Another thing to mention is that when you push off, you’ll be tempted to put your foot way behind you and hop onto the board, but the proper way is to keep both legs underneath you, much like you’re walking or running. (2) the second thing you need to work on is balancing on the board when it’s picking up speed. Going on huge hills early on will give you what my friends and I call “the death wobble” which you may have already experienced. There are three main things that cause death wobbles. Your (a)weight distribution, (b)center of gravity, and ©fear. a) Be sure that when you go down hills your weight is at least 50% on your front leg. Less than that and the board will slide out from under you. If you do more, you will go faster, but it won’t adversely affect your balance. b) if your center of gravity is too high, it can reduce the amount of control you have over your board, making wobble (sometimes violently). Bend your knees a little bit. c) fear is both the simplest but often the most difficult hurdle to overcome. Experience is the number one solution to this. Does a hill look scary? Walk down part of it and longboard the rest. Then walk up a little further and repeat. Continue on this trend until the hill is no big deal. One thing I do to slow down (which may take some practice) is drag one foot on the ground to slow myself down. This takes a bit of practice, but so does pretty much everything else. The more hills you tackle, the more confident you will be and hills will make you less afraid (the fear never completely goes away tho), and the more satisfaction you’ll get from the really good ones. P.S. another method I’ve learned to get rid of death wobbles is by swerving gently from side to side.P.P.S. for the love of all things good, learn to bail before you hit hills(I hope this was helpful, sorry that my writing turned into a jumbled mess at the end! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!) -- source link