Longboarding is a sport developed by American surfers in the 1950s so that they could surf on land when they could not find waves. The first longboards were produced by attaching the trucks and wheels of quad skates to surfboards. It would not be wrong to do longboarding in the sense of wave surfing, because we can also see longboard movements such as Cross Step and Hang Ten in surfing. It can be considered as the exact land version of the Longboard style in wave surfing. Based on this information, we can define longboard as land surfing.

How to Use a Longboard?

What is the difference between Longboard and Skateboarding?

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Doing longboarding is not as dangerous as it looks from the outside, once you know the falling techniques. At first, the Longboard will dominate you, you may not be able to control your board as you wish, but with plenty of practice, you can easily overcome this problem. That's what's important, lots of practice!

In Turkey, we can not give them credit there are people who think that this sport is expensive because it originated from a product dollars we import now the price of everything flew just went Longboard not what I now reach out to you that hold the laptop up to the cars we use everything prohibitively expensive, unfortunately we love or interest in our sport materials to we must show patience and save money while reaching.

There are many different variables when choosing a Longboard Board. Many factors from sports close to us, such as 7.8 - 8.0 - 8.5 in skateboard, concaveler features, how many layers of wood it is made of, come across when purchasing the board. With the longboard, this is even more complicated. Because boards that vary not only in width but also in length and even in shape are produced. If we do not master the styles of Longboards, the board we will buy at the beginning may not be the right choice for us, worse, it may cause us to spend again. There is an important issue you need to know when purchasing a longboard; Their Styles, Concaves, Shape and Styles are.

There are 5 generally accepted styles in Longboard Sport. Now we will examine these styles closely with you!

Style 1 (Downhill / Freeride) - for Video Click

You've always seen skateboarders with big boards descending from mountaintops at high speeds on TV. What you call those skateboarders are actually the riders who are dealing with Longboard Downhill, the protection equipment of these riders who experience the passion of speed on longboards by going through the corners with slide movements by going to very high speed comes first. Their longboards are generally heavier than other boards, and they usually prefer ceramic bearings. There are also very wide wheels, there are riders with wheels of 70mm for slide purposes, and when it comes to trucks, there should be a minimum of 50 degrees in this regard, and I saw that it drops it down to 43 degrees. Most importantly, the sandpaper can shatter your shirt while carrying it, they use the thickest sandpaper in this sense, so do not carry the board sander towards you while carrying the downhill board. They can accelerate to 80-90 km at high speeds, and even 155 km 89.41 mph / 143.89 km / h - we've seen the KyleWester hit record speeds. Just imagine, at 80km, you suddenly escape from under your feet and drift on the ground. This is crazy, but passion for speed is something like that I guess? it will remain a style that will definitely not happen to me, I never want this sport that I do for pleasure to turn into a disaster, I have a lot more to do in this sport! Turkey unfortunately not given much importance to this style, which does not give much importance to the protection equipment olds abroad. It is normal for them not to give it because it is really expensive, consider it like motorcycle users. I look at them as you look at people who buy a very good motorcycle for 50-60 thousand TL and buy a helmet for 300-400 TL. No matter how awful style it may seem, you can actually experience a little downhill / freeride excitement without going to places like Adalar in Istanbul and hitting very high speeds. This is one of the activities we usually do in Turkish Longboard Burgazada summer camps. Equipped and controlled!

2.Style (Dance) - For video Click

There is one of the dance moves, you turn around in an instant. The movement is called pirouette. You can do the same movement in the Longboard dance style. The reason for saying dance style is that you can dance on it and take the board without stepping on the ground. Aesthetically beautiful images of this style emerge from the outside. The boards of the riders involved in this style are very long. 52 inches are average dance board sizes. Their wheels start with an average of 65mm and they usually use 50 degrees truck, but this can be changed on request, their bearings can be abec 7 or abec 5. They usually remove the middle of their sandpaper so that they can perform their dance moves more easily. In this style, wearing only a helmet may be sufficient.
When you wear knee or elbow pads, your dance movements may be limited. If you know how to fall, obviously, falling in this style is not as dangerous as it seems, follow the fall techniques of freerunning people, these techniques will be useful when you fall on the longboard. There are contests about this style in the world such as So You Can Longboard Dance, of course, you can see a lot of people mixing them with styles like freestlye here. 3 years in Istanbul in Turkey under the roof Sportfest Freestyle / Dance contests are organized.

3.Style (Freestyle) - For Video Click

Skateboarding movements lie at the core of the Freestyle style, which is one of the most talked about styles of creativity on the street. It wouldn't be wrong to call people who do many of the movements you see in skateboarding on longboards Freestyle longboard athletes, because movements such as 'shove it', 'nocomply', 'kickflip' are originally skateboarding movements. We can say that one of the best longboard athletes in this style is Carl Foster in Spain. I first learned the 'hippiejump' movement by watching him. Skateboarding legends like Rodney Mullen are actually called Freestyle skaters. Because some of the movements were discovered by them. The boards used in this style are usually dance style boards because there are many athletes who combine the 2 styles. Of course, there are athletes who use short boards like Cruiser style, but trying to do Freestyle with a downhill board will be very difficult for you. Their sandpaper can be like regular skateboard sander. Their bearings can be selected as ABEC 7 or ABEC 5. Choosing the trucks as 50 degrees will make your job easier. It may be difficult for you to go above 65mm as a wheel.

4. Style (Cruiser) - For Video Click

The event that you enjoy on the beach from point A to point B is actually called cruising. It is better to choose bamboo for the boards and its light weight will not tire you. You have to be careful when choosing the wheels here. I recommend the 78a, the hard wheel will make you feel the place more. There are 2 types of cruising people in the selection of wheels, one with plenty of slalom, they usually choose smaller wheels, the advantage of which is that you can make slalons more comfortable and provide sharper turns. The other is they use wide wheels. Their turning tribes are limited, but since their wheels are wide, you can travel longer with one step. 50 degrees is ideal for trucks. You should definitely buy abec 5 bearings, abec 5 are more durable than others, as a result, you will make long roads, the most important equipment that should be durable is your helmet, then your bearing. I suggest you wear all of the protection equipment, you may be a good longboard riders, but the oncoming bike or car may not be as careful as you. Do not pass by saying that it is the coastal road, I even saw a truck on the Caddebostan coastal roads. Generally speaking, any style can be made with a boarduylacruiser, but this style-specific boards will always be one step ahead.

5. Style ( Slalom,  Pumping, Carve ) - For Video Click

These 3 names are actually very similar styles to each other and can be named in the same category. You can even think of it as a subcategory of cruiser. There are cruising boards sold under the name of surf simulation for slalom, there are special boards for this event. Even the bushing lineup of their trucks was very different. You will feel that you are traveling on land as if there is a wave beneath you. Think Waves on Land is the motto of our Turk Longboard Community? Riders who are interested in this style are usually surfing, it is like a training tool for them. The bearings of such boards are usually abec 5 (abec 5 has a longer life than other bearings) and you can use these boards without sandpaper. Because we often see riders using barefoot on coastal roads in this style. You should pay more attention to protection equipment such as helmets here than others because both you are cruising and your speed can increase more due to the acceleration given by the slalom, your control is more difficult than normal cruising in continuous slalom.

Styles of Longboard Boards

Top Mount

* It is a board style where trucks are connected from the bottom.
* Wheelbite (Wheel Bite) risk is high, but there are riser pads for this.

Drop Through

* It is a board style that trucks pass through from inside.
* The risk of wheelbite is negligible, but here the risk of Footbite is high.

Drop Deck

* Can be mixed with top mounts, but Drop decks are generally used for downhill, although they do not have through-through trucks.
* It has a more balanced structure compared to Drop Through decks.

Double Drop

* We can call it a mixture of a Drop Through deck and a Drop deck.
* It is closer to the ground than normal drop models.
* Trucks must pass through.
* When cruising with double drop models, these boards, which are close enough to draw the bottom, are generally preferred to go faster and more stable in downhill.

What Does Longboard Shape, Flex and Concave Mean?

1- Kick Tail: It is the feature that we can kick like a skateboard in the tail part of the longboard, so that we can go through the pavements with faster turns and jumping movements like ollie if we have the talent.

2- Wheel Cut - Outs (Wheel wells): They are the grooves where the wheel and the board come into contact with your wheels to prevent wheel bite.

3 - Concave: Although longboard boards look like a flat board due to sandpaper, they actually have a concave structure towards the inside. Thanks to this structure, the edges of the board will be higher and the middle lower. It makes an incredible contribution to how we grasp this board with our feet.

4- W Concave: Consider that the board is in the shape of a W, when there is a rise again in the middle of the normal concave, this shape is called w concave.

5- Flex: It is the flexibility of the board, divided into flexes according to people's weight. Flex 1 is the most flexible, Flex 2 is the middle and Flex 3 has the least stretch structure. Flexes of each brand can vary and even many brands can produce boards in a unique structure without putting flex feature. It is not possible for a very overweight person to use a Longboard or not to have these flexes. It is up to the user's choice.

What are the Styles of Longboards?

When choosing Boards according to Longboard Styles, we need to be able to master the styles and follow the riders according to those styles. Because the best way to understand style is to watch videos of riders.

1- Downhill / Freeride

Loaded Tesseract Model

The sanders of the Longboards produced for this style are incredibly thick and can even cut your hand because the thickness holds your feet better. This holding event will be useful when shooting slides. Additionally, there are board models with gas pedals. While sliding, it creates the effect of pressing the gas. The wood you see in the picture is made for Downhill and has the features I have described. Their boards are usually produced from Canadian maple wood. Carbon fiber inserts are used in many Downhill longboards to lighten or strengthen the boards.

It is your choice to buy Drop or Top Mount. When you buy a drop, its balance will be higher than a ball mount. Since there is no risk of wheel bite, you will be equally comfortable in your turns. Downhill boards are very heavy, so crusing will make your feet more tired than normal boards.

2- Freestyle

Loaded Overland Model

For Freestyle, boards with a wide front and back (we can call these Nose and Tail) are generally preferred. Freestyle movements are more comfortable due to the long kick distance. It can be used preferably in Bamboo wood instead of Freestyle boards, which are mostly produced from maple. For example Loaded bhangra is a dance board. However, Freestyle style riders can use the board in 2 ways by combining dance and Freestyle style. Drop models with kick distance or ball mount boards with quite wide tail are preferred. Freestyle with the Downhill board will be really difficult. Because the lighter your board is, the more comfortable you can make Freestyle movements.

3- Dance

Loaded Bhangra Dance Board

Usually long boards are used for this style. In order to make movements similar to dance movements like pirouette more easily, sandpaper is not used in the middle of the board except for the Nose and Tail parts. Dance boards can be 52 inches long on average, boards made of maple or bamboo wood can vary in length according to user preference.

4- Slalom, Pumping, Carve

Top mount Pumper and Gbomb / Longboards owner: Turk Longboard Istanbul Member: Murat Natan

Pumping boards are usually preferred by many riders involved in surfing. In fact, their trucks are sold as surf simulation because the front truck has a different spring structure. We see long models of slalom longboards, which are much shorter than other boards, in members of our Turk Longboard Community.

5- Cruiser

Loaded Dervish Model

You can cruising with any Longboard board. If you are a Downhill riders and do not have any other alternative board purchases, it is possible to make a cruiser with the Downhill board. However, if your goal is to go from point A to point B quickly and comfortably, then you should choose wide wheeled and very light boards made for Cruiser. The wide contact patch of the wheels will allow you to go longer with one step. Drop models do not wet the bottom of your board when you enter the water, Wheel does not bite and I recommend you to choose Drop models in cruiser because you will make more comfortable carve movements.

If you are starting Longboarding for the first time, definitely join the activities of the Turkish Longboard Community and try the Longboards of the members. Watch videos of riders by Styles and be a close follower of at least 2 riders before making your final decision. Waves on Land!

Technical Terms
Wheelbite: attaching the wheel to the board, locking the wheels and throwing you off the board
Footbite: By pressing your foot on the wheel, the wheels lock and throw you off the board