Surf Skate (Smoothstar) Training Drills
Everything you need in this pic. Barefeet, a decent surf skateboard, some chalk and some imagination.
Hi All, it’s been a very long time for many since you’ve surfed due to lockdowns and I know many of you have Surf Skates that you’re practising on surf skateboards to keep your muscle memory and ‘dry’ surf stoke alive.
Choosing a Skateboard
It seems like every surf brand or skate brand is jumping on the bandwagon with ‘Surf Skates’. There are so many available now, with many leaning towards a ‘skate’ feeling rather than a ‘surf’ feeling.
To be honest, I was never a fan of Surfskates up until a few years back. They always seemed a bit of a gimmick in my view and created bad habits in the sea. I’ve tried many over my 20+years of coaching and failed to get that feeling of surfing and more that I was just skating. That’s until I stepped on a Smoothstar. Copied by many, perfected by none. Some have come close but what I’m looking for is something that really drives forward from my compression and extension when loading up the toes or heals. What you’re looking for is a little squirt of speed with every load up of the board. I’m sure many others give this but not to the extent of a Smoothstar in my opinion. Anyway, this is what you’re looking for out of a Surf Skate board. Maybe it’s from a Carver, Surfskate, YOW, etc. Just make sure you get that feeling of driving off loading up the toes and heels when you compress and extend.
What surface?
Surfskates are a really useful training tool… as long as they’re ridden correctly. Ridden correctly means not bombing it as fast as you can down a hill., that’s good for losing teeth, and getting gravel rash, and getting featured on RedBull TV.
What we’re looking for is a smooth, flat or small gradient surface, which also needs to be stone free. Getting that sudden stop on a bit of gravel is never fun. Also something you can mark a course out using either cones, or my favourite, coloured chalk.
The Course
Above is a typical course I’ll chalk out on my drive down here in Devon. The whole idea of a course is to bring the inner grom out of you and you use your imagination for a decent ride. This particular one is basically 2 solid snaps (hard top turns), with a racing section then into a really hard roundhouse cutback (with a rebound off the white water). For me, this keeps everything in tune, requiring really hard bottom turns into quick top turns. Then carrying speed into a smooth, full power roundhouse. It has a really fine balance between fast dramatic movements and compressed, smooth but full railed turns.
The key to the right is to show you where your weight is on the board. I’m regular foot, so everything in green is on my heals, everything in red is on my toes. The orange is where my weight rolls into neutral weight when transitioning from rail to rail.
Key Points
Walk your course first. Any bottom turns you should be compressing into and going around your inside hand. A good tip is to try and touch the mark or cone you’ve drawn in (those are in white|).
Have a slow roll in - doing this with speed is cheating. You want to be generating your speed through your loading up of the board. Not from pushing in with your feet at the start.
Shoulders dictate everything (your shoulder line should be pointing into the next manoeuvre)
Do it bare foot - You typically surf barefoot, so you should train barefoot. It also stops you from trying to hammer through it all too quick.
We’re looking for smoothness throughout. I watch many people tag something up on Insta where they are wiggling away in between each manoeuvre. If you’re doing it right and loading your turns up correctly then you’ll generate speed during and out of each turn. That is the key.
Have a sturdy outdoor brush to sweep away those evil stones. A wheel jam on the tiniest of grit can end up in severe embarrassment and a bit of skin on the tarmac.
Avoid the wet. This should be obvious but you get that forward drive through grip from your wheels.
Mixing it up
As you’ve gone through this a few times, then start looking at mixing it up a little. By that, I mean, on the top turns, turn them into a fins free. Overpower that turn and get a bit of a slide out the tail.
MIrror the course, to then work on a left-hander. Same set-up but the other way.
I’m hoping you found that a little useful. The key is to use your imagination. As soon as my ankle crack has become strong then I’ll start posting up some video’s for drills to work on.
Stay stoked,
Jez