Longboarding for Beginners: Tips, Tricks, and Recommended Gear

Longboarding is a fast-growing sport that has taken over the world, and it’s easy to see why. It is an exciting activity that requires coordination and balance, making it a great way to stay active while having fun. Plus, it’s a great way to explore your city or the great outdoors. In this post, we’ll share longboarding tips for beginners and tricks for more experienced riders. Plus, we’ll also recommend some of the best gear and equipment to help you get started.

Longboarding vs. Skateboarding

While both sports involve riding on a board with wheels, there are some striking differences between skateboarding and longboarding. The most noticeable one is size: longboards are larger and much more stable than skateboards, making them easier to ride and more suitable for cruising than doing tricks. Longboards also have softer, bigger wheels than skateboards, allowing for smoother rides and better carving, as well as wider decks with concave shapes that provide more stability and better control.

Longboards offer an incredibly smooth ride even over bumps and cracks in the pavement, a feature that skateboards can’t match. This makes them great for long distances or just for riding around town. Longboarders can also cruise through turns without always putting their feet down; skateboarders, on the other hand, will have to push off with their feet. And with its midsize design, many people prefer longboards over skateboards because they’re easier to maneuver while still providing plenty of speed.

Understanding the Features of a Longboard

Some Basic Moves to Get You Started

Before attempting any complex maneuvers like slides or jumps, you must learn some basic moves such as pushing off from standing still with one foot, balancing yourself while riding down a hill at slower speeds, gaining momentum by pushing off with your other foot in a ‘one-two’ step pattern, turning left and right by leaning into each side and applying pressure on your toes and heels accordingly. YouTube has plenty of instructional videos that can help you understand these basic concepts better.

One of the most important things that beginner longboarders need to learn is how to safely stop themselves while riding downhill using foot brakes (using your shoes against the ground) or heel-to-toe slides (using both feet against either side of the board). You should practice these techniques regularly until they become second nature so that you can easily avoid hazards while riding downhill.

Don’t get discouraged if you find yourself struggling at first. Each maneuver takes practice, and eventually, things will start making sense as routines become muscle memory. The key element behind any successful trick is balance. If you can’t maintain balance, then most tricks will be impossible due to the constant shifting forces generated when performing them. For example, to stay balanced while skating, you must keep your knees bent slightly so you’re constantly ready to adjust depending on terrain irregularities or sudden shifts in direction or speed. You should also consider your body’s center of gravity throughout each move.

Advancing To More Complex Moves

Once you’ve gained some confidence in your ability to maintain balance on flat surfaces, you can begin progressing to learning how to carve downhill sets or take sharp turns. Using this knowledge and some practice performing ollies, slaloms, slides, and small jumps, you can develop advanced maneuvering skills needed for aggressive forms of longboarding such as downhill racing, freeriding, and slalom racing.

Numerous longboarding styles, such as downhill, freeride, slalom, dancing, and speed boarding, emphasize different aspects of this extreme sport. For example, downhill riders focus on speed, whereas freeride riders focus on mastering technical maneuvers. Slalom riders combine speed, agility, flexibility, and technique to navigate cones set up in courses. Dancing is all about style doing intricate maneuvers such as flipping around spins while moving from one end of an obstacle course all set to music. Speedboarding emphasizes reaching maximum velocity over flat surfaces.

If your aim is performing tricks, plenty of difficulty levels range from easy ollies over small obstacles to complex flips off railings and stair sets. Regardless of whether they’re simple or complex, all tricks require mastering fundamental fundamentals such as balance. Most skilled riders also recommend wearing protective gear, including helmets, elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards while attempting tricks.

After mastering basic maneuvering skills navigating turns and braking properly, it’s important to hone in on your overall speed, especially if you’re interested in competing. Riding fast enough without losing control largely depends on understanding basic physics principles such as centripetal force, angular momentum inertia, acceleration, and gravity friction. Investing in good wheel bearings, trucks, and bushings, will help maximize speed potential.

Longboarding Safety Tips

Protective items, including helmets, knee pads, gloves, elbow pads, and full-face masks, help cushion impacts and protect against scrapes, cuts, bruises, broken bones, or other injuries. Serious injuries can still occur even when wearing full protective gear, particularly when trying higher-tier tricks without enough training. This is why it’s important to understand risk tolerance levels, set personal boundaries to understand limits, pay attention and avoid terrain irregularities.

Regularly checking your board ensures optimal performance, which helps minimize potential risks. In addition, keeping your board tuned up keeps it strong, lightweight, flexible, nimble, agile, and responsive, making it easier to handle sudden changes in terrain irregularities, accelerations, transitions, curves, descents, and high speeds.

Staying safe also requires having an appropriate attitude. With practice comes confidence, so always remember to never attempt anything outside your comfort zone. Respect other riders, limit trick attempts until ready, keep open communication with friends and family regarding your location, stay aware of surroundings, educate yourselves about local laws and regulations, observe traffic, and understand the consequences of breaking the rules. Remember, this sport can be potentially hazardous, so being knowledgeable and prepared pays off.