Surfing Tricks Pages...
I'm not really very good at surfing tricks yet, however as I stated in the About Skua page, I was very keen to perform a 360 slide, so I designed a board especially for it. The design I came up with was a fish shape, twin small fins, and flat bottom contour and quite soft rails. The overall effect was a really super loose board. I can now 360 this board most rides if the waves are right. In this section, I'm attempting to give you a few tips on how to do a slide, if you have a loose board and your up for giving it a go. Firstly I well recomending skateboarding or giving it a bash on one of your mates decks, because it does really help, however its not essential. I`ve decided to freeze frame one of my videos of surfing in Portugal and showing every 3 - 5 frames and putting them together in ".gif" format.
The first clipis of me skating outside my house. Ok to start with lower your weight on the board twising your shoulders slightly in the direction you wish to slide. One snowboard instructor once told me, your legs will follow your shoulders, so point them where you wish to go. Then as you raise your weight again twist your upper body further and lean slightly over the board and lift your weight almost completley off the board so as to reduce the friction between the wheels and the ground. Then as your weight is the lightest on the board, push the back round with your back foot, so that the wheels slide sideways over the ground.
Practice just the first part, sliding the board a bit, then pointing it straight again. Just keep getting the slide bigger and further round until you can spin the board 180. Now the hard part of doing the full 180 is the riding backwards afterwards. You really have to keep your legs flexible and let them bend as the board slows, absorbing the shock with bent knees, before the board continues backwards again.
Once you are happy with this part then you just have to master the easier part which is when you turn the board back straight to complete the 360 turn. Just place your weight over the tail griping the front end of the deck with your front foot (well now its effectivly your back foot because your travelling backwards, but the foot that was front when you ride normally!) and twisting your shoulders first lift the the front foot round 180, to completley turn 360.
This file is quite large so might take a minute or two to load up depending on your internet connection:
So effectively the first 180 is a slide and the last part is just straightening out. Give it a try, it isn't that hard really.
The next page is another animation of a skateboard, before showing you the 360 on a surfboard.
Next Pages:
2) A Small Slide on a Surfboard.
4) Another 360 in quicker animation.