History of surf-skateboarding, disciplines and tips for buying the perfect surfskate for you

A Surfskate is a unique kind of skateboard mounting specific trucks that simulate the surfboard behavior, and allow a dynamic push (aka "pump"), the movement performed by surfers to gain speed while surfing waves.

The surfskate trucks design gives the rail carve a much better thrust, which produces a carve dynamic that is almost like what you will get in a surfboard. The front truck acts like a fulcrum and allows very sharp and tight turns.

Riding a surfskate improves the surfing skills of the user exponentially. It is suitable for all kinds of surfers, both the newbies and the veterans, and guarantees that they will get a much better surfing experience while improving their skills.

You will almost get the same feeling that comes with riding a surfboard on water, only that this will be on land and right on the street. It is a great way to improve your surfing and skate skills, which will benefit you whether you are skating on land or surfing in the water.This kind of boards will allow you to learn new surfing techniques, improve turns on the surfboard, and achieving an overall improvement.

Carver Skateboards & the History of
Surf-Skateboarding

The idea behind surf-skateboard started in the summer of 1995 in Venice, California. Neil Carver and Greg Falk have spent the whole of winter surfing and were looking forward to surfing again in the summer on the warm water of Breakwater, their home spot. To their dismay, the ocean waters in that season are quite flat and surfing was totally not worth it. Thus, they chose to skate on land instead, looking for hills where they can surf.

Santa Monica and Venice offered multiple steep alleys and banks where they could skate their ass off. Still, they felt there was quite of difference between surfing on the water and skating on asphalt. While they got an experience similar to surfing, the skate did not have the drive and snap of a surfboard, with the crisp pivot on its tail which allows the surfer to make the most of the wave and generate speed. On land, the skateboards were stiff and even when they tried to loosen the trucks, it didn't get better. The result was instead a speed wobble that made it impossible to skate very steep hills. The turn dynamics remained the same even with the trucks loosened, no matter which skateboard they used.

This led the two men to imagine the kind of skateboard they needed since they couldn't find it in the market. It was what led to the creation of a surf-skateboard, which has now become a staple for surfers, who regularly use it for training but also for cruising around the city in a fun and stylish way, while still getting the surfing experience.

For Beginners

Beginner surfers will highly benefit from using a surfskate, as at the beginning the waves taken and the time effectively spent riding are not much.

A surfskate will improve your balance, stance, and can intuitively teach you the rail-to-rail mechanics and how to pump to generate speed through the board: two challenging but fundamental skills to acquire for becoming an intermediate surfer.

Finally, for someone who has never skateboarded, having a surfskate as a first experience on wheels, it's also a lot of fun.
You would be surprised about how many surfers never rode a skate before!

For Cruising

You don’t need to practice surf moves or tricks every time you mount on a surfskate deck!

A surfskate is also an eco-friendly, fun and stylish means of transport. That’s why they are appreciated also by horders of hipsters in cities located thousands of kilometers away from the ocean!

The cool feature about using surfskates for cruising, is that they allow you to generate speed without having to push with one foot, as with standard skates and longboards. The pivoting muvement of the trucks will allow you to “pump” rather than push with your leg, with the result of riding also for a long while whitout a single push. The most skilled skaters are also able to ride uphill! (when not too steep of course...).

For Skaters & Freestylers

A Surfskate is a toally new kind of board, which will let you experiment and try a whole new lot of tricks and moves. Don’t think just about slides and surf movers, ‘cause we’re talking also about bowl rides and aerials.

A freestyle skater should opt for the Carver CX trucks or a surfskate truck alike, like the Mindless surfskate trucks.

For surfers

Surfskates are particularly appreciated by surfers: If you think about it, on an average surfing session, you actually spend few seconds riding waves; most of the time, you are paddling around and waiting for the right wave to come.

This kind of skateboards finally give surfers the chance to practice their moves (and muscle memory) on the dryland.

On a skate-surf, you can work on your perfect stance, generate more speed, and train all the surfing fundamentals, like bottom turns, top turns, cutbacks and re-entry.

Learn to surf on a Surfskate

Whether you want to learn the fundamentals of surfing or looking to improve your techniques, you can safely do it on land with a surf skateboard and prepare yourself for when you are surfing on water. It is a fun and playful way to learn surfing and to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired on the surf-skateboard to a surfboard it’s quite straight forward.

PUMPING & GENERATING SPEED

The similarities between the techniques applicable to using a surfskate and surfboard are almost 100%. The body movement needed to improve speed on a surf-skate is what you also need to pump the surfboard. Thus, using the surf-skateboard first allows you to master the skills and become really good with a surfboard, and achieve speeds that looked impossible before. Training on a surfskate will open your mind and you’ll go like “Whoah!”.

IMPROVE BALANCE

Another area where surfskates will improve your surfing skills is in terms of balance. When you practice with a surf-skateboard, it is quite easy to achieve better stability, and you will see the result in how the less often you fall off your surfboard. With a surf-skateboard, you can learn to control your body movement and balance your weight on the board, which will prove useful on the surfboard.

WORK ON YOUR SURFING STANCE

Practising with the surf-skateboard is also great to learn the best position on the board, such as where to put each foot and how shifting your back leg can be used for turning. Position of feet and stance is a challenge for most beginners, that can be solved with surf-skateboard.

Some surfers ride for decades on an incorrect or less than perfect stance. Fine-tuning your stance will dramatically improve your skills and lead you to finally land that long desired move!

IMPROVE YOUR RIDING STYLE

With a surf skateboard, you can learn to become confident on the board, and this will reflect in fluent body movements when surfing. Connecting turns from rail to rail becomes much easier and, last but not least your homies will notice your improvements in style!

TURNING AND CARVING

Another advantage of the surf skateboards is its ability to turn the same way a surfboard will. This means practising technical moves like cutbacks, top turns, bottom turns, either frontside or backside, will become a little easier. The next time you’ll get on a surfboard, you have already mastered the moves, and you will see how much better you surf.

IDENTIFY AND CORRECT MISTAKES

Most importantly, using a surfskate allow you to notice the same mistakes you make on surfboards and correct them appropriately. Common mistakes in stance, head and shoulders rotation, arms and hand movements... can be immediately spotted while riding on a surfskate.

That’s why nowadays many surf schools and trainers comprehend a mainland training part in their courses or clinics.

FEED YOUR MUSCLE MEMORY

“Practice makes perfect” they say. This statement could not be truer than with surfskates. When you practice your surf movements on them, your muscles develop long term memory of those moves, and get used to them. This means you can now easily replicate the same moves on a surfboard without making any conscious effort. Thus, you are more efficient when surfing as it has already become a part of you.

Leanr how the arms and body are positioned during cutbacks, turns and other moves, and bring it to the water!

The more you practice, the better you get. Full stop.

THE SURFSKATES SELECTION OF
WAKE-STYLE.COM

Wake-style.com is proud to offer you a selection of the best surskates models from the best and most innovative brands, with an eye also for sustainability.

On this page you can find a brief sum up for the most notable brands and products; you can check all of our surskates collection, spare parts and accessories on the dedicated page. If you can’t find the right setup for you, contact us directly: we’ll be happy to assist you and help you in finding the surfskate of your dreams.

CARVER SKATEBOARDS

Since the mid ‘90. Carver skateboards IS surskating. Carver the brand which started it all, introducing signature game changer trucks surfers could only dream about before. It is still the favorite brand of the most radical surfskate riders.

The brand makes available to the riders a variety of surf-inspired shapes and concaves, also in partnership with famous surf brands like Channel Islands and Lost, and recently adopted for some of their mothels the Ecothane Wheels feturing a mind blowing formula that incorporates soybean oil to offset the reliance on petroleum-based urethane!

SANDY SHAPES

Sandy Shapes is an Italian brand of woodgrain snowboards. For 2021 they introduced a brand new line of woodgrain surfskates, made from the scraps of the natural wood surfaces used for their snowboard production and wood from certified forests. The final look and feel is the one of natural wood with ever-changing grains combined with laser engravings instead of inks.

This eco-friendly surfskates feature a unique design and are 100% Made in Italy.

Sandy Shapes - Tropicale

LANDYACHTZ

Landyachts is a Canadian brand specialized in high quality Longboards and Cruisers. They have a wide range of boards for all the longboarding disciplines like: cruising, downhill and dancing, and Surfskates of course could not be missing.

Also Landyacht cares for the environment, through their “One board, one tree” program.

SURFSKATE TRUCKS

CARVER C7 Truck

The Carver C7 is the signature surfskate track by Carver. It has a patented design with an extra rotating arm, which gives it an additional axis that makes proper surf manoeuvres and radical turns possible. Rail to rail turns, and cutbacks have never been easier, and you will definitely be getting the surf feeling while on land.

CARVER CX

The CX truck is another game changer by Carver skateboards. The CX.4 technology offers the features of a cruiser longboard with the Carver C7 truck steer feeling. Generating speed has never been easier, and pumping uphill can also be achieved. With a sharp turning radius, this truck can perform incredible turns that no regular longboard truck is capable of. Its higher stability compared to the C7 guarantees that you can carve and cruise with it and allows for a higher amount of speed.

Being more stable when landing, the Carver CX is the surfskate of choice for all the freestyle skaters and those who want to push their limits with aerial tricks.

MINDLESS SURFSKATE TRUCKS:

If you are on a budget but still would like to try a surfskate truck, you have to try the Mindless surftrucks. They offer the same technology as the Carver CX but at an affordable price. In our opinion, the Mindless are good quality trucks and very good value for your money.