Longboarding for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide to Getting Started
Longboarding, with its elegant and seemingly effortless style, is an appealing activity for many. It offers not only a fun way to get around but also a great way to improve your balance, posture, coordination, and concentration. While the basic principle of longboarding is easy to grasp, mastering it requires practice and dedication. This guide provides a comprehensive introduction to longboarding for beginners, covering everything from choosing the right board to mastering essential techniques.
Is Longboarding Right for You?
Before diving into the specifics, it's essential to determine if longboarding suits your interests and needs. Longboarding is not only a lot of fun, but also an ideal training for your balance. I've been skating for over 20 years and it's had an incredibly positive impact on my mental health. My mission is to show the world the power of cruising and carving.
Choosing Your First Longboard
One of the most frequently asked questions by aspiring longboarders is, "Which longboard should I buy?" The answer depends on your intended riding style and budget. After talking to many beginners, I found that most want a cheap longboard ($100) to test the waters. Longboards vary in price by their designs. They can range anywhere from $70 to $150 or more. A good rule of thumb: look to spend around $150-220 on your board. This will ensure you get decent components that will make the longboarding experience as fun as possible.
Types of Longboards
Cruisers: These boards are typically more affordable and smaller than other types, making them easily accessible and portable. They are ideal for simple transportation from one point to another.
Dance and Freestyle Boards: Designed for longboard dancing and freestyle tricks, these boards are large, stable, and often have a flexible deck to cushion the ride. They offer a comfortable riding experience and endless possibilities for tricks. I almost always recommend these types of boards to new riders because they’re simply the most enjoyable to ride. The bigger platform feels much more comfortable to ride than cruisers and the possibility for tricks is endless. If you want something to vibe around on and learn some tricks, dance and freestyle boards are the move.
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Freeride Boards: Combining elements of downhill, sliding, and dancing, freeride boards are versatile and often feature tails. These types of long boards are the most versatile of any category and make a great longboard for tricks of all styles.
Downhill Boards: Stiff and stable, downhill boards are designed for high speeds. However, they may not be ideal for slow speeds or tricks.
Longboard Features
Deck Mounting: Longboards are usually defined by how the trucks mount onto the board. A drop-through longboard is when the trucks are installed through the deck. A drop-down longboard is when the deck drops downward.
Kicktail: A kicktail longboard is when there’s an upward curve at the end of the deck. You also might want to consider a setup that has an angled kicktail/nose.
Trucks: Reverse kingpin trucks (RKPs) are the most common type of longboard trucks.
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Wheels: If the roads you ride on have cracks and rocks, you’ll want your board to have large, soft wheels.
Deck Size: More deck space = more room for your feet.
Flexibility: Pay attention to the flexibility of the board for learning to ride a longboard. The heavier you are and the faster you want to go, the more stable your longboard must be. For lightweights and for relaxed cruising, the deck can be a bit more flexible in comparison.
Ball Bearings: Attention: The ball bearings are also worth a look. With too fast ball bearings you probably have problems as a beginner when learning to ride a longboard.
Longboard Shapes
The most common shapes are pintail and twintip. Pintail boards have a round nose and a narrower as well as pointed tail. This makes them very stable and perfect for cruising, especially for beginners learning to ride longboards. Twintip boards, on the other hand, are symmetrically shaped and may even have cutouts for the axles. This makes them particularly suitable for sliding.
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Safety First: Essential Protective Gear
Before you even step on a longboard, prioritize safety. Always wear a helmet that is CPSC tested and provides full-formed protection. Helmets that are CPSC tested and provide full-formed protection are the way to go. Also, do not buy second hand helmets. Two reasons: 1. The inner shell (the part that protects you) deteriorate over time and you’ll have no way of knowing how old the helmet is. 2. Helmets are pretty much useless once they have taken a hit. We recommend a full cut helmet as it protects your head and sides of the face, should you fall.
In addition to a helmet, consider wearing knee pads, elbow pads, and slide gloves. Number two on our list, get yourself some decent knee pads like these G-Form X3 Knee Pads. As with the above, we like G-Form Elbow Pads for the comfortability aspect. Slide gloves are purpose built gloves with velcro pads on to attach your slide pucks. What are slide pucks?
Finding Your Stance
The first step in learning to ride a longboard is determining your stance: regular or goofy. Step one: put your front foot forward-but which is your front foot? Foot dominance is like hand dominance. When you stand on the board, it should feel more natural to put either your left or right foot forward. We call these stances "regular" (left foot forward) or "goofy" (right foot forward). On average, right handed people tend toward a “regular” position, while left handed people typically tend toward a “goofy” position. Ultimately, however, it should all come down to what feels most comfortable for you. The easiest way to tell if you’re going to ride regular or goofy is just by stepping onto the board without thinking. If you naturally put your left foot at the front of the board*, you’re going to ride regular.
Once you've determined your stance, practice standing on the board. When you put your feet shoulder width apart on the board, your front foot should be pointed diagonally forward and your back foot should be parallel with your back truck. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet and practice pivoting and leaning side to side. Test yourself well and for a long time, bounce sometimes, climb up and down, bend your knees, teeter a little, stand on your toes or heels and also vary your stance width a little. If you are standing securely and the balancing works, we now come to the locomotion - the core of learning to ride a longboard. The front foot is going to provide all of your stability. The front foot will sit directly behind the front truck at an angle. One set up, you’ll need to keep your weight forward and knees bent in order to keep your balance. The other thing to keep in mind is that your body will naturally stiffen up until you get used to riding your longboard.
Getting Rolling: Pushing and Balancing
When you have a feel for standing and balancing on your board, put it on flat pavement and try it at a slow roll. First, stand on your board normally. Start slowly until you become more confident. Bend your knees a little and keep more weight on your front foot. To get moving, use the pushing technique. There are different techniques: pushing (pedaling movements) and pumping (slalom movements). The simpler of the two is certainly pushing, so you should internalize this first when learning to ride a longboard. In principle, you do exactly the same as when you were a child with your scooter. The front foot stands in the direction of travel as centrally as possible in the front area of the deck (knee slightly bent), the back foot is on the ground. Now shift your weight diagonally forward over your standing foot and push off with your pedaling foot. Attention: Make sure that there is enough distance between the longboard and the pedal foot so that you don't hit your board and stumble. Now leave your foot in the air for a moment, balance yourself and roll smoothly… then comes the next push.
Avoid Mongo Push - Pushing with your front foot while your back foot is on the deck. Avoid this as its awkward to push this way, and you look like a loser…
Start on a flat surface, with your front foot just behind the truck bolts, lean forward slightly, with a bent knee, and push off with your back foot. The aim here is not to try to tackle high speeds, but get a steady roll where you can practice: 1. Your push off, 2. your foot and body positioning
Steering and Carving
Steering on a longboard is primarily achieved through weight shifting. Steering is the easiest step when learning to ride a longboard. Especially if you already have a good sense of balance. Because strictly speaking, when you steer, nothing more happens than a shift of weight. If you want to go right while learning to ride a longboard, you lean to the right, if you want to go left, you lean to the left. Which strength provides which reaction of your longboard, you have to find out and feel with time. Our tip: Train your balance in addition to learning to ride a longboard - not on the longboard, but on a balance board. You can use it comfortably at home in front of the TV or in the office - maybe when the weather is too uncomfortable to learn longboarding anyway. Through short units you train your sense of balance effectively. All this helps you as soon as you stand on a longboard again. Next, you are going to want to turn.
Sharp turns are known as carving and you can use these to control the speed of the board, and even pump to generate more speed. For more moderate speeds, carving works well. Carving means making sharp S-turns. You do this by bending your knees, leaning at the waist, and moving your weight from toeside to heelside quickly. The turns will create some friction that will slow you down. Ok, to turn your longboard, follow the steps above to get rolling on a flat surface first, then, once your feet are both facing the outer edge of the deck, shift your body weight by rolling your ankle toward your toes (toeside) or heel (heelside). By shifting body weight to the toes or heels, the board and trucks will start to turn underneath you. Always keep your body loosey goosey with your knees slightly bent. Make sure to look where you are wanting to go and lead with your shoulder when turning - ie. If you want to turn left, your shoulder points left. One other thing to mention here is that turning and carving will feel very different depending on the type of trucks you have on your set up.
As you gain more experience, sharp turns (also known as carving) will become one of your favorite parts of turf surfing. So once you're ready for a challenge, carve around objects to see just how tight and fast you can do it.
Mastering Braking Techniques
Stopping is the most important thing to know how to do on a longboard. Now we come to a very important point when learning to ride a longboard: braking. In order to be able to cruise really safely, you must have a good command of braking. You can use different techniques. Depending on the riding situation, sometimes one is more suitable and sometimes the other. There are three main techniques for slowing yourself down: braking, carving, and sliding.
Foot Braking
At low riding speeds, you can try one of two things. The easiest is to hop off your board. But it's also good to practice braking at low speeds. Braking means setting your back foot on the ground lightly, as if you were going to push. But rather than pushing, drag it along the ground to slow yourself down. The easiest way to stop (or slow down) is by foot braking! With foot braking you stop your longboard by putting one foot on the ground.
With the board static on a very slight incline, place your front foot so that it is facing forward, and your back foot so that it is on the ground next to the board. Lift your back foot (the one that is on the ground) off the ground very slightly until you start to roll forwards, then lower you back foot back down, heel first, to slow down and stop. The more pressure you apply to the ground the faster you will stop. Keep your supporting leg slightly bent on the board, shift your weight to your supporting leg and brake with the necessary pressure - the more, the faster you stop, but the more jerky your stop will be. You have to be prepared for this. Our tip: Sturdy shoes and not your favorite sneakers are extremely important here, because the sole of your shoes will wear out very quickly during foot braking.
Carving
For more moderate speeds, carving works well. Carving means making sharp S-turns. You do this by bending your knees, leaning at the waist, and moving your weight from toeside to heelside quickly. The turns will create some friction that will slow you down.
Sliding
Another very safe braking technique is sliding, but it requires a little practice. To do this, you need to bring your board across the lane… then nothing rolls. But how do you do it? Again, it's your balance that counts! You shift your body weight to one foot and pull the board on the opposite side across the direction of travel. Be sure to bend your knees slightly and strengthen your core so that the abrupt change doesn't throw you off course. Our tip: Use gloves when learning to ride a longboard, in case you need to support yourself on the road when sliding. By the way, sliding is not only suitable for braking, but can also be used as a riding technique. But we'll deal with that another time, because for this you already need to have a little experience on your longboard.
Other Braking Techniques
Rolling Out: When rolling out you don't have to do anything. This sounds good at first and is of course easy on the joints and material, but it has a big disadvantage: you need, depending on the speed, a decent long distance.
Jumping Off: Jumping off is really only for emergencies, because you always take a risk when jumping off the board, no matter at what speed: You can fall or twist your ankle, for example.
Using Wind Resistance: If you have a lot of speed and are not in a hurry to brake, you can also let the wind resistance work for you. Simply extend your arms while riding.
Gaining Momentum: Pumping and Tucking
There are a few ways to get moving faster on a longboard. One is pumping, as we've discussed. As you start getting more confident, you'll be able to pump more aggressively. If you're on a hill, though, this can be a bad move. At higher speeds, the way to gain more momentum is to enter what we call a "tuck". Tucking means lowering your body to the ground, with your knees bent to 90 degrees. This stance looks dangerous, even unstable. But it's actually the safest way to take on high speeds. It reduces air resistance and gives you much more balance by lowering your center of gravity.
Exploring Different Longboarding Styles
Now that you've got a basic idea of how to longboard, you should start thinking about how you want to do it.
Cruising: Cruising is what most people do when longboarding. It's the most casual style and also the easiest to do. Cruising means riding around town at low or medium speeds, carving corners, and generally having a fun, laid-back ride.
Freeride: Freeriders longboard at higher speeds, incorporating more stylistic riding like powersliding.
Downhill: Downhill longboarding takes the concept of freeride boarding to another level. Downhill riders are about one thing and one thing only: speed. This takes control, confidence, and a ton of practice. Avoid downhill and freeride due to their high speeds and advanced skill requirements.
Freestyle: Freestyle riding is the polar opposite of downhill riding. Freestyle is all about moving over flat ground as creatively as possible. Usually done at low speeds, freestyle riders will coast along pavement, chaining together tricks.
Choosing the Right Environment
Every riding style needs a different track. You can cruise on long, straight roads, for downhill riding the track should be a bit sloping and for a slalom narrow, winding streets are a nice challenge. So you can explore the most different routes with your longboard and of course find out what suits you best.
For your first lesson, you will need a peaceful location. Make sure you have lots of space, a flat surface to ride on and no cars around. Later on, you will be cruising the streets like it's no big deal, but as you're starting out, make sure to remove any possible danger and distraction.
Addressing Speed Wobbles
Speed wobbles happen when a rider becomes unstable at high speeds. Many elements go into preventing the dreaded speed wobble. One of them is practice. If you’re still experiencing speed wobbles even after practicing, check to see if either your wheels or trucks are loose.
Additional Tips for Beginners
Practice Regularly: At the end of the day, practice, like everything else will give you that perfect surf feeling. Don't expect to be flawless from the start. You will make mistakes and you will fall.
Stay Relaxed: Don't panic when the board starts to speed up. If you do, your body will stiffen up and you may hurt yourself. Instead, remember to bend your knees and relax your body.
Consider a Balance Board: And is the weather not suitable for learning to ride a longboard? Then you simply fall back on your balance board and put in a balance training session.
Learn from Others: Reference my longboard riding style post for more information. Learn more about all the different parts of a longboard from Stoked Ride Shop. Master your setup with our free (17-page) PDF.
Falling is Part of the Process: You are going to fall. We made this guide to help people get on their feet with longboarding, not to sell boards. You'll face a few bumps on your way to being a road surfer. True with anything in life, you’re going to fail some of the time.
Check for Comprehensive Guarantees: Also, most real skate companies have comprehensive guarantees, like our lifetime Beast Guarantee.
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