Hey, it's Steve with Surfskate Love coming to you from St. George, Utah. Today we are teaching you how to pump on a surfskate. And instead of just teaching to the camera, I decided it would be better for you as the learner, the viewer, to watch other learners with you. So I grabbed a couple buddies who have longboarding and skateboarding experience but no surfskating experience. And I'm going to teach them live how to pump on a surfskate. As they learn, you're going to learn right alongside them. So really quickly, say your name and what experience you have with any kind of board sports. Dave, I've done wakeboarding and snowboarding. I'm Alex and I'm experienced in snowboarding, and a little bit in skateboarding and longboarding. This is my first time on a surfskate so I'm a little excited. So bottom line, they have some experience with board sports. They can get on a board, they can balance on a board, And now it's just a matter of learning the actual pump actions. So let's grab a surfskate and learn how to pump. I'm going to start on the Carver Greenroom with the Carver C7 trucks. I think that's probably a really good beginner truck to learn on. And this is a good size, this is about a 34-inch board. For these guys' height, it's going to be perfect. Let me do this live and then I'll slow it down for you guys and walk you guys through it. Okay, so it's just an expansion and contraction. Contract and expand, contract and expand. I'm doing this in real slow motion here, and then we'll teach you the motions. So that's a really basic pump, really slow motion pump on a surfskate. So are you guys regular or goofy foot? "I'm
regular." I'm goofy with my right foot forward here. So you're goofy, you're regular. So stand in your regular stance as if you were, if we're going this way. That's exactly your stance. The first mistake that I see people make with surfskating is, they see the back and forth action, the twisty body motion, and try to just do that. In fact, let me just show you what that looks like. Most people will try to just wiggle it with their toes while kind of swinging their hands a little bit like this. And you know, you can do that and it will work. You can just wiggle a surfskate with your toes and it will work. But that's not the action we're looking for. With surfskating, think surfing. And with surfing, it's a lot of knees. So the first thing that I teach people, before you learn the twisting upper body motions, you want to learn knee flexibility. So right now I want you to get in your stance as if we're going this way, and I want you to just basically just go as deep as you can. That's it that, that deep. Because the number one mistake I see people make is, they're just really really stiff up on their boards, and especially skateboarders and longboarders try to do all the action basically in their legs and their feet, that's what you're used to. Well surfskating is all upper body, but it's upper body mixed with the knee expansion and contraction. So the basic movement is, just like in surfing, when I'm coming down and then I come up, I'm going to push with my back foot. So if my toe on this foot is pushing back, my heel on this foot is pushing forward, and vice versa. If I'm going this way, this heel is pushing me that way and this toe is pushing me that way. But we're controlling it more with our upper body. It's like shoulders, hips follow, and then the feet follow shoulders and hips. But you're timing. As you're doing the twist, you're timing a contraction and expansion. So I contract, expand, and explode coming out. So let's show you this in slow motion. Go down, come up, go down, come up. And you're going to see this, my left arm, it's my left arm for me since I'm goofy. If you're regular, it will be your right arm. You're going to see me basically reach forward almost like I'm swimming. And then when I come back, I want you to imagine my hand is attached to a stick on that foot because it's kind of pushing the same thing. So watch that motion for a second. I push down and my foot goes back. Reach forward, push back, reach forward, push back. See the knees coming up and down, knees coming up and down. That's a basic pump. Bend those knees, bend those knees. There it is. "So that's a little challenging." It's just that coordination. You got the foot positioning naturally and I forgot to mention that. The very first thing you need to know on a surfskate is foot positioning. So on a longboard you're used to probably riding it up in here kind of a thing. With a surfskate, your back foot acts as your pivot. So you actually want it right on the tail. So you start on the tail, and then your front foot you want to be right behind those front trucks. You totally got it the first time. And now we're gonna add, I showed you how when we compress and then expand and we push that leg out, that's what kind of gives you that drive. Now you're going to do it the same way coming this way. So you got this first motion that way. Now you're going to do the same thing the other way pushing that way. And now we're going to add this side to it to push that way. So when i'm coming this way, that leg is pushing back. When I come this way, now that leg is pushing out. So now you've got that contraction and expansion going both ways. So let's try that again. So you're seeing how the the knees coming up and down are coordinating with the upper body movements. Move your feet back. There you go. Back knee, back knee. Your back knee is not contracting and expanding. So on a longboard you're pretty evenly weighted. On a surfskate I have the the bulk of my weight on my back foot. The back leg drives everything. "Yeah, I was feeling that coming here. Like my heel would pop up a little bit." Yes. The back leg is your driver, that's the spring. So we're going to time this reach forward with my arm with that back foot. Dave, your next time I want you to reach forward with your hand and then push your foot back as you come back like this. Reach, push. Reach, push. You're trying to do it all with your front foot. Your body weight is resting more on your front foot than your back and you're trying to do everything on your front foot. Just stand with me right here. Just settle down into a stance with flexy knees. Okay, feel your weight shift onto your front foot. Now just go slightly back. Don't lean but more just kind of put it there. You feel the weight more on your back leg? "For sure." That's your stance. And the power isn't coming from you doing stuff with your front foot. It's coming from you compressing and then springing up expanding, that push-back with your toe. Put that back foot more on the tail. There it is. There it is. Do you feel that difference? "Way different, yeah. I was using my front foot the whole time. That's because that's where my weight was." There it is. There it is. There's a pump. First time he's ever ridden a surfskate and there he is pumping. Alex, you picked up on it very intuitively. Honestly, the only thing for you to add is just the other motion swinging around. "Yeah, I was trying to figure that out. I was trying to get that other motion in with it. But it was kind of just...a little more practice. But I can definitely feel the flow." Yeah, exactly. One thing that's really going to help you guys is filming yourself. It's amazing how much you see when you film yourself. I think I'm kind of a good surfskater until I film myself and watch myself and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have so much to improve. And usually it all comes down to just that knee flexibility that I notice in me. So I'm going to come skating towards you and I want you to film me in slow motion and then we'll watch the action in slow motion. So the reach and the hand and the back foot match together. And I'm really kind of just exaggerating that first swing. But when you start adding the other foot, you'll twist that way more with that back foot pushing out. Once you feel the motion, I can do it without you really even noticing much. But right now I am compressing and expanding. It's not much motion, but it's there. It's almost easier to learn how to pump in slow motion. Most people get on and they try to do this. But I can get more power out of it by just doing this. It's just a slow come down and push. That's it. So then if you want to go fast, you're just speeding everything up. There it is. Travel straight along this line and get both motions coming back down. There it is. In all of 10 minutes Alex has learned how to pump on a surfskate. Dave, your whole problem is coordination. So both of you guys come over here real quick. Stand on the line right here, and stand in the position as if you were skating this way. I want you to stand in your stance and we're going to kind of just go through the movement. It's almost like your upper body is twisting in conjunction with that twist. So you first got this expansion and contraction, expansion contraction. And then it's adding...with surfskating your shoulders lead and your hips follow, and then your feet follow. So it's all upper body, but you're timing this with that expansion and contraction. This is one of the big things that I love so much about surfskating is that body fluidity. With longboarding you're kind of just standing up there and just kind of cruising. But with surfskating it's a whole body fluidity. So you almost want to just to practice just getting used to that expansion and contraction and that upper body just kind of gliding. Now let's put it all together on a surfskate. Here's here's one thing that I teach people. When you're first starting out, just glide and practice doing this to learn that knee bend. Just go like this. Then you can start adding some expansion and contraction to it. Contract, expand. Contract, expand. So now you can see the whole body working together. And if I want to get a push, it's all that back leg in either direction, either this way or that way. All back leg. But I can just glide. You see that back leg, Dave? That will get you used to that knee fluidity and contraction and expansion. You're twisting your body at the wrong time. Your upper body movements are not coordinating with your lower body. As this hand reaches through, it pushes back with your foot. Imagine you have a stick in your hand attached to your foot. So as you push through, your foot pushes back like so. Okay now it might actually be helpful for you to speed things up. So now try to get a bit of a faster motion. Dave, reach that back hand forward and time it with your foot. Instead of pushing out behind you with your foot, all you're doing is going up and down. Go up and down, and then as you as you come up that back leg pushes out like a spring. You're pushing the wrong way. Reach this hand, push your back foot. All I can say is, it just it feels like a constant flow. So you just gotta like get in the groove. If you're boxing and you're hitting a speed bag it's all about timing. It's just the rhythm. Think of it as like a wave. Like get both hands to just like move. For me, both hands moves my hips. A simple way to visualize that, Alex, is to simply do kind of a...you'll see how on these surfskates, because they're so responsive, your body weight shifts everything. So to practice what he was just saying, I can just do a body weight glide like this. So once you kind of get get the feel for how this feels in action, well now I can start pumping into that. And the other thing, Dave, is you're getting this up and down but you're not getting the coordinating of the up and down with your body. "Yeah, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing with my arms. Like, they just don't feel connected to what I'm doing." So try just a basic kind of a glide and shift your body weight and just try to do this upper body fly thing. There you go. Bend your knees, push. Bend your knees, push. "Yeah, using two hands helps a lot." Reach forward that back hand with your pump. "Yeah, that's totally different than what I was doing
before." Remember that back hand. Reach forward, almost like you're swimming. You both got the basic actions. Now let's work on your speed. Try to put it all together now at faster speed. Go your slow motion, get that contraction expansion and then we can just speed everything up. "It's easier than I thought. I thought I was gonna have trouble with this so I was a little nervous at first. But we picked it up pretty quickly. It was a blast." You are getting that first contraction and expansion and push pretty good, but then you don't get the other one coming back. So stand here for a second like this and I want you to practice just going like this. Swing your whole body. So you feel that real good full complete twist. When you come this way, look over your shoulder. Look over your shoulder. Get that real full twist because then you're gonna get it both ways. Do a full twist. So now instead of just getting one part of it, you're going to get both parts of it coming through as you twist. There it is. Now coordinate that with coming up and down on your knees. You come up and then you stop. When you come up I want you to basically look over your right shoulder. So watch this in motion. For you to fully engage that twist coming up out of your compression, look back over this shoulder like so. So I'm twisting, coming down, and then lean. So you're basically kind of going like this, and just
going like this. But if you get that other arm... Okay Dave, watch me come up clear back like so. Clear back. Really swing those arms and get the feel for that like so. Swing your arms like this. So if you can get this motion and then just time it with your knees, that's a pump. That's it. "This is fun. I didn't expect anything like this. First 30 minutes of this I was like I'm getting one for sure. I gotta look up this YOW board." "It's fun. It's a blast." So there you have it--how to pump on a surfskate. In an hour we've taken two newbies and they've picked it up and they already know how to pump. So just to recap here again, foot positioning on your board. Back foot on your back tail, front foot right beyind those front trucks. Start by getting that knee flexibility because it's all about that expansion and contraction. Then you're going to learn how to reach with that back hand, time it pushing that back foot, and then you're going to start adding these twisty body motions to your expansion and contraction, and that's how it works. So guys in conclusion what would you tell beginners? What are the things that you picked up on as you were learning this that you would tell beginners. "Once again foot position, and then make sure you're fluid. Make sure you're just going with the flow." "I felt like at first my feet were off and it made it very hard. It made me stiff. Once you get your feet in the right position you cruise, you flow a little more." "I feel like that was a big difference that helped me today." Awesome. How about you, Dave? What pointers would you give to beginners? "So I definitely felt out of sync at first. I didn't even really feel like my hands were connected to what my feet were doing." "But the thing that changed it for me was just standing on the board and then doing this, honestly." "And then your feet just move the board and I could feel the flow. Once I had that flow down, then it was a lot easier to put in the pump," "to get the up and down everything. Because this just naturally makes your board do one of those. So for me, that was the huge click moment," "was getting that arm motion in the back shoulder like that." Thanks, guys. And that is how to pump on a surfskate. So let's go pump on a surfskate!
This was super helpful! Been guilty of the wiggle. Gonna go back to the basics and practice that knee bend and build up the momentum. Thanks for sharing, I saved this post!
Don't know if this one was posted before, but I found it useful :)
Man, where was this video when I just starting out?
That squeak, tho'