Why you MUST learn how to stop

After learning to ride and adequately balance on your longboard, learning to stop is the next most important skill to know.

Learning to stop will allow you to control your speed and will help keep you safe in almost all riding situations.

Being safe is essential as it means you can ride time and time again and not have to take time off because you’re injured.

7 ways to stop on a longboard

The are a variety of different ways to stop on a longboard. Each has its ideal use case and skill level. Mastering all of them will make you a versatile longboarder.

1. Don’t go faster than you can handle

My first tip is NOT to go faster than you can handle. 

If you don’t think you can make it down a hill without falling or manage to stop in time, don’t go down or allow yourself to gain too much speed.

It’s not the most exciting rule, but it'll save you from some possibly severe injuries over time. Always abiding by this rule will allow you to stay out of all sorts of trouble. Simply skate within your limits.

2. Run it out

One of the easiest ways to stop on a longboard is to run it out or "bail."

If you feel like you're going too fast, you can simply run off your longboard, sprinting on the ground.

As you start to lose momentum, you'll be able to stop. However, it is important that you continue your run and not just jump off as the sheer speed you're going at will knock you over.

3. Carving aggressively

Carving back and forth across the road allows you to shave off a bit of speed.

Carving aggressively works because it allows you to increase the distance you take down the road. If you’re aggressive enough, it makes your wheels “scrub” which is essentially a “micro-slide”, and the friction from your wheels scrubbing slows you down a bit.

4. Stomping

Using your back foot, you stomp on the ground and lift your foot again multiple times in quick succession. Each stomp slows you down a little bit.

Most people that try to learn foot braking will start with the stomping variation as it is easier to learn. It's a viable technique when you're going at slow speeds and it doesn't wear your shoes down as much as regular foot braking does.

5. Foot braking - MUST LEARN

Foot braking is the most consistent and reliable method of controlling your speed and coming to a stop on your longboard. 

I highly recommend everyone learn this method and take time to get to grips with it.

Some people will have a harder time than others, but it is worth the struggle. For the average skater, it will take more than a few sessions to learn it.

How to Footbrake in 5 Steps

You footbrake by bringing your back foot off the board, and placing it lightly on the ground heel first. 

Doing this allows the sole of your shoe to grind against the ground, creating friction. In turn, the friction slows you down gradually.

Step 1 - Position your front foot

Bring your front foot slightly over the board's center line, close to or over the front trucks.

You can have it directly over the center line or slightly skewed. Some people feel they have better control when their foot is skewed. You’ll have to play around with which you like best.

Finally, shift all of your weight over your front. Apply it as close to the middle of your front foot as possible will make balancing easier.

Step 2 - Bring your back foot to a parallel

With your rear foot deweighted, you can now comfortably bring it parallel to your front foot and hover it to the side.

Step 3 - Bend your board leg

Slowly bend your board leg to bring your hovering foot closer to the ground.

Surprisingly, this is the step that is most challenging for the majority of skaters.

Surprisingly, most longboarders will find this step to be the most challenging. It isn't easy to confidently balance on a single leg while also bending it.

I recommend you practice this move 10-15 times daily off the board to build strength and balance in both legs.

The balancing bit normally develops over time the more you footbrake.

Step 4 - Drive your heel into the ground

As you bend your board leg, lower the other foot to the ground heel first. You want to do this as gently as possible and then gradually apply more pressure to get more braking force.

You must drive your heel into the ground, not your toes. If you go toes first, your foot may catch on the ground. This will could potentially send you off your longboard.

The most important piece of advice here is always to feel the movement. Only make minor, gradual adjustments in braking pressure as too heavy shifts in power may throw you off balance.

Step 5 - Bring your back foot to its starting point

Once you’re done slowing down as much as you want, gently lift your foot off the ground (heel last), place it back gently on the board and then shift your front foot back into a comfortable standing position.

Cons of foot braking

You tend to wear down your shoes quite a bit using foot braking. Most skate shoes constructed for the purpose last a while, but non-skate shoes get obliterated fairly quickly.

Some seasoned skaters use footbrake soles. These soles are made from rubber that you stick on the bottom of your actual shoe soles. This additional layer is easy to replace and lasts a long time.

Foot braking can also be time-consuming to learn. I know some skaters who never bothered learning it because they couldn’t put enough time aside. Some casual longboarders can't be bothered with the daunting learning curve.

Finally, foot braking at faster speeds is hard and scary. So, if you’re bombing a hill or going super fast, have some other ways of slowing yourself and controlling your speed that you feel comfortable with. 

6. Air braking

Similar to carving aggressively, air braking is a way to shave off a bit of speed.

It works by extending your arms out and making your aerodynamic profile as wide and as large as possible. This increases how much air is pushing against you (like a parachute), and it can slow you down a bit.

7. Sliding

Out of all the above methods, sliding requires the most skill. It is the most challenging braking method to learn and truthfully deserves an extensive guide of its own, but we will do our best to give you a brief overview of how it’s done.

Once you've conquered sliding, it is a highly reliable method for shedding speed. Downhill longboarders use it to slow down from as fast as 60 MPH in seconds.

If you consider yourself a casual skater, sliding isn't a necessary skill. However, making it down a hill without foot braking is a great feeling.

Different types of sliding

There are different ways to slide and different names for each slide, but we will categorize them into two;

• stand-up slides
• hands-down slides

Stand-up slide (also known as powerslide) is when you make a slide without putting your hand (or any other body part) in contact with the ground.

Hands-down slide is when you anchor your hand in the ground (with slide gloves) while kicking the board out into a slide.

How to slide on a longboard

A slide is when you turn your board so hard that it makes your wheels break traction and slide across the pavement. This creates a lot of resistance as the wheels aren't spinning around the trucks.

You maintain the slide by leaning back, placing your weight in the right places, and controlling the way the board rotates with your feet and body placement.

How to hands-down slide

Step 1 - Do a setup carve

To do a hands-down slide, you start with a setup carve. The setup carve is an aggressive carve that allows you to bring the wheels to their limit of traction.

It then becomes easy to push them into a slide. It also places your body in the optimal position to control the slide.

Step 2 - Place your hand on the ground

As you do your setup carve, you also place your hand on the ground. Which hand to use depends on whether you're doing a toeside or heelside slide.

The specifics of doing a toeside or heelside slide differ, but they share similarities. We’re covering the similarities to give you a brief idea of how the slides work.

So as you come to the zenith of the setup carve, you start to push the back of the board out. This makes the rear wheels lose traction. 

Step 3 - Distribute weight and position your hand

As you do the above, you need to ensure you have most of your weight on your front foot and that your hand on the ground is in line with your front truck or ahead of it.

You also want to shift a bit of weight (not the majority) to your hand to ensure it appropriately acts as a pivot point for the board to rotate around. This will allow you to control the slides more effectively.

Step 4 - Come back to the starting position

Once you’re done sliding as much as you want, you can release pressure on your back foot and allow the wheels to come back under you and regain traction.

You may want to bend your knees to absorb the lurch of the wheels hooking up.

How to do a stand-up slide

Step 1 - Do a setup carve

The stand-up slide starts with a setup carve as well. The setup carve will make completing the following step easier, as you can use the generated momentum in your direction change.

Step 2 - Kick your back leg out

At the setup carve's zenith, you kick your back leg out. As you do this, you should have a lot of your weight on your front foot as this will allow the board to pivot/rotate around it. 

You should also have most of your weight on your heels or toes, depending on whether you're doing a heelside or a toeside slide.

Step 3 - Lean back

As you kick out the board, you should begin leaning back.

If you’re doing a heelside slide, you can imagine sitting back in an imaginary chair.

For a toeside, lean back (with a twisted torso, so your chest faces down towards the ground).

Leaning back allows you to drive weight into the board and control the slide much better. You’re going to want to lean a lot more than you imagine is necessary.

Step 4 - Control the slide

As you break into the slide, hang in there, maintaining pressure on your back leg and weight on your front leg until you’ve shaved as much speed as you’d like.

Keep your arms broad from your body to better maintain your balance.

Step 5 - Release the slide

To bring the board back into going straight, release the pressure on your back leg whilst maintaining your weight on your front leg. This will allow the board to rotate back into going straight.

As the board comes back to a forward position, bend your knees to absorb the lurch that occurs from regaining traction.

Wrapping it up

Hopefully, you've learned something about stopping or slowing down on a longboard. At the bare minimum, I think you should learn to footbrake. It is one of the most essential skills to have in your skill set, and it doesn't take too much effort to learn.

If you wanna take things to the next level and do high-speed downhill riding, you'll eventually have to learn sliding. While the above info doesn't cover sliding into complete depth, it is an excellent starting point to get you dabbling with sliding.

Longboard pumping explained

Why should you learn to pump your longboard?

If you’re doing long-distance skating, pumping is a great skill to have. It allows you to take a break from pushing, and instead use high-speed carving to move forward. When you’re long distances, it's an effective way to take a break, but ensure you’re still covering ground.

Some people even build setups specifically for pumping. This allows you to pump for miles on end. 

And finally, it’s simply a fun skill to have. It’s a great way to engage with and enjoy your skateboard and ultimately develop a better feel for your board. 

When I’m out skating, I'll try to pump whatever longboard I am riding. It’s just a fun thing to do and it feels great. Nothing beats the satisfying feeling of pumping for miles without touching the ground.

It’s also super interesting to see what will or won’t pump well - unfortunately, not every longboard will work great for pumping.

However, if you have the skill and experience, you likely can pump just about any board. With your skill, you will be able to keep up the rhythm and the weight distribution and placement requirements you need to get the board to pump.

A skilled longboarder can pump just about any longboard. If you're experienced enough, you'll be able to adapt to more difficult setups and find the right rhythm, weight distribution, and foot placement.

However, if your longboard isn't optimized for pumping and you don't have a lot of experience, it is going to be hard to learn and completely nail the technique. More on that later.

How to pump your longboard

Let's get into the nitty-gritty of how to pump your longboard effectively.

The basics of longboard pumping - how it works

In its essence, longboard pumping is just carving left and right aggressively. By carving aggressively, we get our trucks to change direction quickly. This quick change in direction generates forward momentum, leading to more speed.

To make pumping easy and effective, you either need the skill to carve your setup quickly or simply ride your trucks loose so they are more responsive to direction change. In an optimal scenario, you'd have both.

Let's cover the skill half of longboard pumping first.

1. How you dig into your board is key for pumping - how to turn aggressively

How aggressively you can turn your board is key for pumping.

If we want to turn our board in a smooth leisurely way, we simply place a bit our weight on our toes or our heels, and the board will turn in the corresponding direction.

If we want to turn our board aggressively, we place a lot of our weight on our toes or heels, and the board turns a lot quicker.

Now for pumping, we want to turn super aggressively. We need to place a ton of weight and force it into our heels or toes. So, here is how to dig a ton of weight into the board.

2. We mainly want to turn off our front foot

We need to be able to pump primarily off our front foot, or at least ensure most of the turning is coming from the front truck.

The aggressive turning of the front truck is what generates the majority of the forward momentum.

So as you turn aggressively based on the instructions above, make sure you are driving into your front foot primarily, leaving less weight on the back foot.

High-angle / low-angle truck setups

Some pumping setups have high-angle trucks in the front, and low-angle trucks in the rear. 

This allows the skateboard to mostly turn from the front - almost like the way a car turns, with the front wheels turning and the back wheels only following.

These setups are significantly easier to pump than the average setup - where both trucks are at the same angle and turn the same amount.

A surf skateboard is a good example of this. They have that obnoxiously turny front truck and a comparatively unturny rear truck. They do pump quite easily for this very reason.

3. Rhythm is key

Once you learn the basics of driving your weight into the board to turn, rhythm is the next key thing to learn.

Shifting force from left to right in a consistent manner will allow you to build up speed when pumping. If you're only hitting your technique right every two or three pumps, you'll struggle to accelerate.

Every board has its own rhythm so it’s hard to say exactly what is right. It’s up to you to figure it out by developing a feel for your particular hardware and setup.

Initially, figuring out the perfect rhythm may be difficult, but it gets much easier the more experienced you get.

4. Not every longboard is good for pumping

Pumping is a fairly niche discipline and the average longboard isn’t optimized for it.

However, there are several things you can do to make your longboard better for pumping.

Tag on below!

How to make your longboard pumpable

With the right tweaking, most longboards will be capable to pump to some degree. Let's talk about the optimum setup for pumping.

What makes a longboard good for pumping?

Generally speaking, a longboard with a rather loose front truck will be good for pumping.  But, the average longboard isn’t good for pumping for two main reasons:

1. Standard front and back trucks turn the same amount
2. Standard bushings keep your trucks relatively stiff. These bushings prevent the truck from being able to turn quickly enough to allow for pumping.

If we want to pump well at all, there are several things we need to address some several problems by optimizing the hardware.

Disadvantages of making your longboard good for pumping

Before jumping into hardware changes, we want to note, that optimizing a longboard for pumping has its drawbacks.

If we make our boards turn mostly from the front, we lose the ability to ride them backward.  We’ll only be able to ride our longboard well in one direction, and if you enjoy riding switch, or fakie, this is an obvious disadvantage.

But that aside, there are many advantages to having a fairly locked rear truck while having more play in the front. Namely, stability, a more confidence-inspiring experience, and a more “playful” ride. 

Personally, most of my favorite longboards have more play at the front, and I do not miss riding switch in the slightest.

Tuning longboards for better pumping

From easiest to hardest, below are some tuning tricks we can use to make our boards better for pumping.

1. Top mount beats drop-through trucks

Top-mounted trucks are superior for pumping. They have a higher pivot point and better aerodynamics for pumping than drop-throughs.

Top mounts are also taller than drop-throughs. The increased height allows you to drive more force into the trucks, resulting in stronger pumps with less effort.

You can still pump drop-throughs, drop mounts, or even double drops, but it won't be anywhere near as efficient. It takes a lot more effort and requires almost perfect technique.

2. Mess around with your washers and bushings

Washers and bushings are relatively cheap, so they're an easy way to optimize your pump setup.

Change the washers only

If you flip the roadside washer of your front truck, it will turn more than the back truck because the bushings have a bit more freedom to compress. 

You can also tighten your back truck by a full turn off the kingpin nut to reduce how easily it turns by a bit. This can make pumping a bit easier.

Change the washers and get different bushings 

You can buy softer aftermarket bushings for your front truck and harder ones for your back truck. Alternately, you can buy more voluminous bushings for your back truck so you still get a nice playful squish that compresses, instead of the rough feel of harder bushings.

For example, on my Landyachtz Drop Hammer. I used a softer Cone/Barrel combination in the front truck and a Barrel/Barrel combination in the back truck.

I also considered more voluminous bushings in the back truck like a Venom Barrical, but I didn’t want to fully commit this board to a pumping-only setup.

I know I haven’t touched on what durometer I used, but that is very user- and brand-specific. Most brands have independent durometer charts much like a size M t-shirt can be different from one brand to another.

3. Use different trucks with different angles

With RKP (reverse kingpin) trucks, you can buy them with different turning angles.

The angle of a truck describes how much a truck turns when compared to its lean. The higher the angle, the less lean you need for the same turn. For example, you can get a 50° Caliber III front truck and a 44° Caliber III rear truck. The high-angled front truck will outturn the low-angled rear truck due to its angle.

In most cases, you will need to buy after-market bushings to ensure the best performance out of your trucks, as most of these trucks come with fairly hard 90a bushings. Ideally, you need bushings of different hardnesses if you use two different angle trucks - more on this later.

However, with the majority of TKP (traditional kingpin) trucks, you will need to use wedge risers to change their angles - more on wedge risers below.

4. Mess around with your bushings, washers, and wedging

If you want to go beyond just the washers and bushings, you can also add wedge risers to your setup.

What do wedge risers do?

Wedge risers change the angle of your trucks. 

How to use wedge risers

Wedge risers have a fat end and a thin end. They're typically installed between the trucks and the deck.

• De-wedging - If you place the fat end under the pivot side, you reduce the angle of your truck.
• Wedging - If you place the fat end under the kingpin side, you increase the angle of your truck.

The increase in ride height varies between wedge risers so do note this.

You need different bushings for different angle trucks

If your trucks are of different angles, for example, 50° in front and 35° in the back. You will need different bushings.

This is because trucks with different angles work bushings differently. An 85a bushing in a 50° truck will feel stiffer than the same 85a bushing in a 35° truck, where it feels quite soft.

This is because the 50° truck doesn’t have as much leverage as the 35* truck, so it doesn’t work the bushing as hard. 

So, you will need harder bushings in the 35° truck to keep it from feeling too soft.

For example, I would use soft 85a bushings in the 50° truck, and harder 93a bushings in the 35° truck. This has worked well for me in the past.

Examples of boards that use wedge risers

The Comet Cruiser

The Comet cruiser is a good example of a board that uses wedge risers. 

It uses 7° Paris wedge risers on Paris TKP (traditional kingpin) trucks, effectively changing the angle to be +7° in the front and -7° in the back. 

It then uses soft 83a cone bushings for the front truck and harder 88a cone bushings for the rear truck.

This setup makes the board super turny and super pumpable.

My setup

I use a Landyachtz Ripper and have set it up to be good for pumping and general fun.

I have a 50° front truck and a 40° rear truck, de-wedged to 35°. This gives me 50/35° angles.
I’m using 130 mm wide Bear Gen 6 RKP (reverse kingpin) trucks on it.

I then use 78a/85a soft barrel bushings for the front truck, and harder 93a/93a barrel bushings for the rear truck.

I have a flat washer in the front truck and cupped washers in the rear truck.

This setup is pumpable and super fun to ride.

Is it hard to make your custom setup?

If you understand the various moving parts that go into making a pump-optimized setup, no it is not hard.

However, there is a bit of trial and error, and - more importantly - you have to get a board under your feet to feel the road and develop your own technique. Just like people have different running techniques, your pumping technique will vary ever so slightly from others.

A setup that works well for one person may be suboptimal for another. It comes down to variables that exceed the hardware of the board itself and thus you really have to get out there and try various setups to find the ideal one for you.

5. Buy a setup tuned for pumping

Some companies make longboards that work well for pumping out of the box. 

If you're looking to make pumping your main style of riding or you have some money to splurge, it may be worthwhile to get a prebuilt complete designed for the cause.

However, you may find yourself spending anywhere from $250-$1000 for one of these setups - depending on the quality of the hardware.

There are definitely money-saving and knowledge-gaining incentives to building your own, but it doesn't make pre-tuned boards any less viable.

There's a lot to choose from and it’s worth joining the LDP community for more advice on what to get. It’s beyond the scope of this article to break down which is best and why.

Get out there, and do some pumping!

I hope this article has been useful to describe the basics of pumping, how to do it, and what longboard setups work best for it.  

Practice, trial, and error, and trying different things, are all key components to successful pumping so don't give up just because you don't get it right on the first try. Perseverance is an important part of it.