Learning to Surf: My First Surfskate, Loaded Carver Bolsa with CX Trucks, Session 67,

Learning to Surf: My First Surfskate, Loaded Carver Bolsa with CX Trucks, Session 67, #surfskate
In this video, I show you how I started using a surf skate to help me in my surfing progression. This is my first surf skate, a Loaded Carver Bolsa Surfskate with CX trucks. I want to give a shoutout and a thank you to my wife and daughter who gave this to me for my birthday! A surfskate looks like a large skateboard with longboard wheels and flexible trucks that allow you to turn more and mimick the feel of a surfboard. I am wearing protective gear. I first warm up by starting on the board by kicking off with my back foot, balancing on the board, and then stopping the board by dragging my back foot.

I found an empty parking lot to practice in and I put three markers to form an upside down triangle to practice my bottom turn and my top turn. I used three fishing hats for my markers. I am first practicing the front side turns and then practice the backside turns.

For the first marker, I kick off and head down the imaginary wave, pretending that I am riding a surfboard. I try to compress my knees when I enter the turn by bending them and crouching low. I then turn my gaze to the right and reach out with my right hand towards the second marker as a pivot point. As I turn, my gaze starts to look at the third marker on the top of the wave.

As my turn accelerates me and I hit the area near the top marker, I then try a top turn by rotating my gaze and my upper body to look back and the bottom marker. I am also extending and compressing a little bit during the top turn rotation. It feels like I am unwinding my crouch and rotating this. I imagine that I am doing this turn on a wave and rotating my head to look back down to the beach or back 180 degrees to the white water.

The backside bottom turn is similar to the frontside bottom turn. Instead of reaching with my right hand to the pivot point, I am reaching out with my left forward arm. I am also trying to make sure I am in a front on stance, rather than a side on stance, which allows my body to turn and face forward more. The front on stance helps a lot with turning either direction, but it really helps with this turn. To look at the third marker or the top of the wave, I really need to remember to look over my left shoulder to see the top of the wave.

If you have any tips or constructive criticism, please leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. I am still a beginner, but this is what I was trying to do.

The surfskate has really helped with my surfing. Here are a few waves I caught the very next day after this surf skating practice session. Hurricane Ida brought some waves to the Boston area on September 2, 2021. For each of these waves, I am trying to do at least one bottom turn and one top turn, using the same concepts I practiced on the surfskate.

For the bottom turns, I am trying to crouch low and compress into the turn, then reach out towards the pivot point. I make sure that my gaze is to the right, better if it is down the line or towards the top of the wave. In this footage, I notice that my gaze is still more forward and often looking down at my board, esp. during take off. I will try to make sure my gaze is more focused on the top of the wave next time and try to avoid looking down on the board, as that will force me to go down the wave or even nose dive.

For the top turn, I am working on simply turning in the opposite direction. I do not know if it is appropriate to call this a top turn, because my waves are small and I am still a beginner, but I love connecting two waves together on each run and thinking of them as a bottom turn and a top turn works for me. As I complete my bottom turn, I start to extend and rotate my head shoulder arms and body to look back towards the beach or better towards the whitewater. I try to make sure that I shuffle back a bit or lean back on my board to prevent nose diving.

I have been learning to surf for about 8 months now, and I am still a beginner, but this is how I use a surfskate board to help with my surfing progression. I love it because it allows me to practice many things, such as stance, turns, compressions and extensions, I hope you liked this video, if you did, please click like, comment or subscribe. If you surf and have any tips or constructive critcism, I am a beginner and I would appreciate any tips for surfskating or for surfing in the comments below. Thanks!
#surfskate #surfing #surfingprogression #carver #loaded