What's Surfskate?
Since a couple of years more than less, we are watching in the streets new skateboards that slide different as the classic ones. Also, they are wider, with an almost plain tail and no elevation in the nose, these boards are called surfskates. In the last half year, the number of this type of boards has grown strongly because they are really funny. The reason is clear, surfskates are boards ready for real surfing the streets.Surfskate is a variant of classical skateboarding. It shares the essence to go on a board with wheels, but they are very different in the way how they react with the asphalt and the behavior. If a classical skater rides on a surfskates, he or she will say to us that the boards don't seem like one to the other. Visually they share similar features in a first view but riding both, we will find a big difference. The classical skateboard has the main point on the tail, where the skater kicks to make the tricks, so the rear foot is who has the main performance. With the surfskate, the front foot becomes the main one becasue the front truck is where the action and power is made to move the board.
This variety of the skateboard has become very popular because it is one of the best ways to train surfing. It allows improve the coordination, the flow and the balance outside the water, so it is the ideal complement for surfing and improving asociated skills. If we think about the borning of traditional skate, it was in the neighbourhoods of California, where surfers searched an alternative to follow surfing the no waves days.With the surfskate boards we can practice almost all the movements relative to surf, but we can do them outside the water and in days without waves. This type of skateboarding uses more flexible trucks with a bigger turn angle than the classical skateboards, so you will can imitate the movements o that you make on your surfboard but now, on your surfskate. That's the reason why surfskate becomes very famous between surfers community.
Surfskate benefits:
Balance
A Surfskate board imitates the natural movements of surfing. The place where you put your feet or the position of your body is very similar between surfboard and surfskate. It is one of the main reasons to practice this variety of skateboard like a way to improve your surfing skills. You will bring your surfing stance to the surfskate board, and it will help you to feel comfortable with your knees bent because in the water you are not stand up on your board the needed time to improve this factor, so the surfskate will help you to get better.Physical condition
You will train and go on fit having a very funny sessions. This is one of the most important aspects for many people surfing. This sport requires an especific training when you are outside the water. If you make a focused workout dedicated to improve your surfing when you are not in the water, you will surf better, but training in the gym can be bored for many people, as well as the surfskate could be a way to replace the indoor sessions for outdoor sessions with a surfskate. Your legs will be stronger with the practice on the road, your hip and butt will have notice about this extra work too, and your lower body half will gain strenght in general. It is an areobic exercise with high demand, so your heart will have to work hard and you need to coordinate the breathe to make the tricks propperly. This type of exercise is the healthier one because at the same time you are burning calories but you are not bearing your body to extreme efforts, the exercise is continuous so you are doing healthy phisics having a nice time.
This is one of the reasons why surfskate is so funny and addictive. It is recommended by surfing coaches as well. Funny time is esential in all the activities that we make everyday and we must apply this aspect to all the activities that we do in our life. For this reason, if you like surfing, we strongly recommend you to try the surfskate, a recreational way to be on fit and ready for the big days in the waves.
Coordination and psychomotricity
How we said before, many of the movements and tricks that we do in surfskate are the same as the surfing ones. To make the tricks completely and in a right way while we are surfing, it is essential to have a good coordination between muscles, movement and action. These are the same on the surfskate as well as on the surfboard, and they include a complementary brain activity that it is located in the same area of the brain, so we will automate them with the work in the dry zone, and when you will go to the sea, the maneuvers will make automatically, like a reflex action and you will surf better than ever.Improve the Flow
What's flow? It is refered on the surfer language to the capacity for linking maneuvers and movements fluency, without breaks. For this factor, the surfskate is amazing because it helps you to improve your flow. With the surfskate board you need to link your movements to go far with the board and have a good riding. With surfing, it is the same idea more than less. In the first wave, we are happy only making the take off and standing on our feet a few meters, just only ten seconds can bring a smile to our face. After the beginner step we want to improve our surfing, and it is the moment to face the wall of the wave to surf it until the end (or almost 30 seconds). When you do this, maybe you feel as the happiest person in the earth. After that, you start to try tricks, and one day you can make one isolated and another day other different trick. It is one of the most difficult parts of surfing because time and waves are limited and you need to train a lot. But you can practice with the surfskate and maybe when you will go into the water you can link a couple of tricks. Imagine then how you can feel!
The secret is in the trucks
The main difference between classical and surfskate boards is in the trucks that the boards bring. While the traditional skateboards use fixed trucks, surfskates come with flexible trucks, thanks to them, the boards react to the movements on the same way that the surfboards on the water. You can make turns and displacement similar to the surfing that you practice on the wave. As well as the design of the boards allows you to make the pumping that you make on your surfboard to go faster, even without pushing with your foot on the ground.From the beginning of the skateboard, skaters have loosened the trucks looking for the same feeling that they have on the surfboard. From this moment to nowdays, skateboard has had an evolution and there are a lot of different techniques depending on the variety that you practice (cruising, longboard, ...), but always searching the similar factors than surfing. In 1996, Carver was born in California, this brand made the C7 truck, that was a true revolution in the skate world and for surfing and skateboarding fans becuase it gained to imitate the surfboards movements, now on the skateboards on the ground. So the Carver motto is "we make surfboards for the ground". With the surfskate you can surfing in a wave that has no end.
The C7 truck set is the signature truck that started it all. Still the smoothest turning, fastest pumping surf truck ever, it's at the leading edge of true surfskate performance. The patented second axis of this front truck not only increases the turning radius of your carve, but lets you snap the nose and pivot your turns off the tail. This dynamic creates thrust and drives you forward with increasing speed. The striking similarity to surfIng performance has made the C7 the choice for surf training by pros and ams alike.
After the C7, Caver made the CX truck, a hybrid surf and skate truck. On the one hand it’s a lightweight standard RKP (Reverse King Pin) hanger and base, on the other it has a patented geometry that squeezes every bit of turn and pump from the system. This means that you can pump this truck like a C7, but it lands airs and rides fakie with more stability as well. This opens up aerial maneuvers, and keys in with the latest progression of airs in surfIng. So it is easy, if you like carving and go relaxed, use the C7 trucks but it you want to start doing radical movements, then choose the CX trucks.
In Spain, there is a Spanish brand from Cantabria, called Miller Division that makes RKP axes and the new XRKP, with these trucks your turns will have no limits with the special geometry front XRKP trucks! Thanks to their extreme turning angle, superior to conventional RKP trucks, you will be able to do surprising turns, and at the same time, increase the pumping and boost similar to when you carve on a wave. The Miller way of life is easy and inspired by the beach, the mountains, the sea, art, music, friends, surfing, snowboarding; and above all, skateboarding! All these elements combine to make up the essence and soul of Miller. It is a brand that makes very good surfskates and that is the reason because it is a recognized brand in Europe.
Surf&Skate - A bit of history
Skateboarding was born on the 50s, when california surfers though about a way to surf in no waves days. The first board was a wood table with bindings for surfing on the streets. They were heavy, primitive and they had wheels made by clay and metal. In the following years, they put plastic wheels in the boards that improve the performance and sliding of the board. They allowed to start doing tricks that were impossible to that moment.After this first step when skateboarding borned from the surfing, there was a time where surfing "fed" skateboarding. In the 70s of the last century, skaters start to go into empty swimming pools in the neighbourghhoods of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and more cities accross California. They started to make unimaginable tricks to the moment, and specially aerials, so those skaters, who were surfers too, wanted to make the aerials on the waves, and the skateboarding had a high influence on surfing style.
There are a lot of names that we can related with surfing and skateboarding at the same time. Christian Fletcher was one of the first skaters doing the typical tricks of the skate on a surfboard. Kelly Slater started with the big aerials on the waves and won a lot of World Champions with a high influence of skateboarding on his surfing. Zoltan Torkos won $ 10.000 making the first kickflip on surf history.
But the influence between two sports is not only related to tricks. Most of the pro surfers use the skateboarding as a way to train the surfing skills and it is a complement to practice daily. Now, Surfskate gives muscles memory to the surfers on the board, it improves the balance and helps to practice the tricks on the ground unlimited times, so it is easier to do them on the water, it is a very goo way to get the perfection on your surfing. The repetition, the balance, the strenght and resistance, and also the recovery after long sessions will be improved by the use of the surfskate. We are sure that the next time that you go into the water, you feel you are surfing better.
If you want to practice surfskate, you can find on HoeNalu a range of the best boards by Carver y Miller, also you have another accessories for skateboarding in the skate section in the webshop.
And if you have questions, you need help or just want any info about surfskate, please feel free to contact us with the link below. We will be glad to help you!