The Skate and surf are two sports that go hand in hand. However, one is born from the other. skateboarding originates from the development of surfing.
The history of the birth of skateboarding begins when a group of surfers decided, in the mid-50s, to place boards on four wheels to be able to “surf” on the street on those days when there were no waves and the sea was calm.
At first, as is obvious, skate models were large, quite heavy, and the wheels were made of metal and clay. Like everything, as the years went by, materials evolved and urethane wheels were incorporated, and much more dynamic designs were devised, bringing lightness to skateboards.
As skateboarding began to gain popularity, especially in the United States where national championships started to be held, the sport began to be treated as an extreme sport and did not have a very good reputation among those who did not practice it. Skateboarding started to adhere to cultural, political, musical currents… And it was not well received by everyone. Over time, as happens with most trends that end up settling and normalizing, skateboarding reconnected with the concept of “cool” and “alternative,” seen from a positive perspective.
Nowadays there are numerous ways to use these seemingly simple boards. You can practice surf skate, Down Hill, Freeride… The trajectory of surf's evolution was; first in the water, then on land, and finally on asphalt.
Although skateboarding is greatly influenced by surfing, surfing has also occasionally been inspired by skateboarding. In the 70s, skaters began to jump, to fly over the ground, and surfers then started trying aerials over the water. These moves were born on solid ground, and surfers like Christian Fletcher or Kelly Slater were pioneers in mastering this technique.
Skate, moreover, is used as training to perfect technique in the water. It provides the surfer with muscle memory when on the board, helps improve balance, and allows practicing the maneuvers to be performed in the water countless times on the skatepark floor.
Nowadays there is an industry dedicated to designing skates that recreate the movements performed in surf practice. The best known is the Carver model, which was born in 1995 in California when two surfers decided to create a board that over time would be called “surf skate”.
The surfskate has been the sport that has united the practice of surf and skate separately. The vast majority of the movements performed in surf skate are a decal of those practiced in the water. To perform them on solid ground, the same muscles and brain sectors are activated as in surf, so when you head to the sea, the movements are performed almost involuntarily.
The surfskate helps to chain movements fluidly, which is vital when practicing surf. Dynamism in movements is essential in both sports, but much more complicated to achieve on the water, as there are many more factors to pay attention to than on solid ground. So, what better than to practice this Flow first in a skatepark before taking it to real practice?
Whoever practices a lot of surfskate is as if they practiced a lot of surf. When surfing, you don't spend enough time on the board for the style to improve quickly, so surfskate is the best way to increase efficiency, and above all to accelerate it.
Knowing when to change the direction of the body in search of the perfect position in relation to the wave is something very complicated to do, it is what all surfers seek to achieve without barely flinching. The surfskate also helps in this aspect and can accelerate the learning process. Although water is a practically uncontrollable entity, knowing how to descend a slope or ramp depending on its inclination is, at the very least, beneficial.
Although at first glance surf skate and skate may look alike, the truth is they have many things that differentiate them.
The skateboard has small and hard wheels, while those of the surfskate are usually larger and softer; furthermore, the size of skate wheels is usually between 50 and 60 millimeters, and surfskate wheels are somewhat larger.
Although the big difference between both boards lies in the wheel trucks of each. Skate trucks are symmetrical, and this symmetry gives them two pivot points. On the other hand, a surfskate, as with surfboards, has only one pivot point.
On the other hand, surfskate trucks are usually not symmetrical; its front truck has a wide and horizontal tilt, and a rear truck similar to that of skate. The aim of this structure is to allow surfskate a much greater range of movements. Skate is more rigid.
And, are surf and surfskate similar?
Of course, the feeling of surfing on a board on the waves in the sea is not comparable to skating on asphalt. However, the movements, gestures, and body posture used in surfskate are very similar to those made when practicing surf. In fact, surfskate has more in common with surf than with skate itself.
At The Indian Face we have caps Born To Surf and Born To Skate, but if surfskate is your thing, don't hesitate to get both and alternate! The important thing is that, whatever you do, you feel free, just like our cap Born To Be Free, which reminds you that you are alive, and nothing can stop you.
