How to Turn a Longboard
Turning a longboard is all about fundamentals.
Here is a step by step breakdown on what those fundamentals look like.
Photo By: Russell Ord
By Rachael Tilly
Surfing is divided up into two main disciplines: shortboarding and longboarding. While shortboarding is known for its quick and flashy manoeuvres, longboarding is known to encompass more style and grace. However, while longboarding’s most popular manoeuvre of walking up and down the board to ‘hang 10’ is much about learned skill, turning such a large board is much more about understanding proper technique and equipment. Throughout this article, we’re going to look at the biomechanics of what it takes to fundamentally complete a proper cutback as well as the fluid dynamics around different equipment and how equipment affects a surfer’s ability to perform certain manoeuvres.
Let’s talk about what a cutback should look like on a longboard. There is much controversy around this in the sport at the moment on whether the turn should look like a complete figure 8 (also known as a round house) or more like a sweeping ‘S’ turn. While the sport is heading in the direction of the more traditional look of ‘S’ turns, much of the biomechanics is the same to complete either style of turn.
So let’s break the cutback down step by step.
Step 1 – Position the upper body
Wherever your eyes look and your arms point, the rest of your body will follow. At least that’s how my dad always explained it to me when coaching me on my cutbacks. Turning a 9-foot board isn’t easy, and by positioning the arms in the direction you want to go at the beginning, you are setting up the direction for your body to follow throughout the whole cutback. This method works without fail. When you position your upper body to be turning around your hips as an axis, your lower body and subsequently your longboard, will follow. Once you’re in this position, you’re ready to direct momentum into it.
It should also be noted that foot positioning is vital. The location of the fins on a surfboard is the ‘pivot point’ of the board. Often times, the natural jump up position on a longboard is the centre of the board. It’s impossible to turn a longboard from the centre of the board due to the fact that the feet are so far away from the fins and the board’s ‘pivot point’. Therefore, it’s important to stay aware of shuffling or cross-stepping a foot backwards to ensure your feet are near the fins.
Step 2 – Throw upper arms
Getting the initial impulse to turn and redirect the longboard is probably the hardest part of the whole turn. Once this is done, the rest of the cutback is about the follow through. First, we have to put impulse into the movement. This movement starts out when your longboard is heading parallel along the wave. The more speed you have in the space, the easier it is to redirect that speed into the cutback.
Once your feet are in the right position, the force applied with the back foot needs to be complemented by the motion of your upper body to help apply direction to the movement, therefore, you want to throw your upper body around in the position that I described in Step 1. The more force you are able to put into this movement, the greater the impulse will be into the change of direction.
Step 3 – Follow through
At this point, the hard work has been done. Now the momentum will carry you and the board for the rest of the manoeuvre. Remember, a longboard is at least 9-feet long. The longer the board is, the more mass there is to maintain the momentum. People see turning longboards as a much harder task than turning shortboards due to the fact that there is so much more board to handle. While they’re right in the fact that it takes a larger initial impulse to redirect the board, and therefore a larger amount of required work, longboards create an advantage for the rest of the manoeuvre as it carries momentum a lot longer due to its greater mass.
The best advice for the follow through is to keep knees bent and centre of gravity low to the board as this increases your ability to counteract any external forces thrown by the wave. In simple terms, referring again back to my dad’s advice: ‘tall you fall, low you go’.
