Our San Diego Surf School staff loves surfskating! Here are all the essentials and some tips on how you can use your skating on land to improve your surfing in the water.
SurfSkate Styles
There are many different styles of surfskate boards, from shortboard cruisers or fishtails, to longboards. Some skate companies like Carver even collaborate with surfboard shapers like Channel Islands or Mayhem to make surfskates based on real surfboard models! Feel free to ask one of our San Diego Surf School staff if you want a recommendation.
How SurfSkating can Improve your Surfing
Generally speaking, skating is a great way to improve your balance and work on what you learned in your surf lessons here at San Diego Surf School!. On your surfskate, practice transferring your weight from heel to toe, and start to get the hang of activating your whole body as you do turns. Turning your surfboard is as much about engaging your hips and shoulders as it is your legs.
Best Places to Practice
Do some research and see if you have a ‘pump track’ skatepark in your local area. If you are staying in San Diego and looking for something fun to do after surf lessons, check out the Del Mar pump track. Pump tracks feel like you’re pumping along a wave and they will have turns and banks to practice your turns and carves.
If you don’t have a pump track or are a more advanced surfskater, maybe you have a local skatepark with a bowl, mini halfpipe, or snake track. San Diego has tons of great skateparks to go surf-skate!
If a skate park isn’t an option, maybe you have a banked driveway in front of your house or apartment, or you know a spot nearby that resembles a sloped driveway. This is a perfect place to practice those turns and feel like you’re on the face of a wave! But ultimately, you don’t need a bank or anything to practice. Cruise around on the flat ground and practice pumping, going heel to toe, doing heel side cutbacks, and backhand snaps!