If you like the idea of longboard skating but fancy something a little more elegant than laser flips and pops, you could learn to dance on your longboard.
There are lots of steps and routines you can incorporate into longboard skating but if you’re new to it the one step you need to know is the cross-step. It’s a basic piece of footwork that you can then add steps and moves into and use it to link sequences. Here’s how you do it.
Choose a flat, smooth piece of ground. Start with your feet wide apart in a normal skating position, and start skating to pick up a bit of speed.
Move your front foot back towards the end of the board next to your back foot, taking your weight to the back of the board, and using your arms for balance.
Move your back foot slowly around your front foot, up the board, so your back foot becomes your front foot.
Shift your weight onto your ‘new front foot’ and then smoothly swing your ‘new back foot’ around it up to the nose of the board.
Enjoy looking cool, skating at the front of the board.
Do the same in reverse until you’re back at the back of the board.
Max out the car park and feel pretty rad with your gnarly new dance steps.
Who says you can’t be a skate longboarder? In our October issue’s Modern Eccentics feature, Julian Owen met a group of women from Bristol Girls Longboard. Jonathan Cherry took the photos and did the Ollies. You can read all about them from page 76.
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