Why you shouldn't wiggle on a surf skate
How to avoid bad style when surf skating and ensure you don't train a bad habit that doesn't transfer to your surfing.
Wiggling on a surf skate. Feels good but is a horrible habit. If you watched the carver vs smoothstar video, you may not have noticed this considering it was only a few seconds long.
Clay and Ant broke down exactly why you should not wiggle on a smoothstar or a surf skate. If you look at the gif below taken from the video. You'll see Ant wiggling on a smoothstar, it helps the surf skate move, gain speed and can be fun...
but to what cost of your surfing?
Clay mimics the wiggling on a board, it's not pretty and doesn't get him very far. This is the movements wiggling is training for you to repeat and the muscle memory it teaches you.
Advice against wiggling is just push or skate down a slope. I've been on carvers for 10 years, pushing is fun and a great tool to learn to use your body to create lift and momentum. There is a massive difference between just pushing and also using your arms to propel yourself forward as you push. It takes coordination.
Surf skating in a bowl
The same thing applies, don't wiggle in the flats or the ramp. You are hiding bad habits or bad technique with a worse one. Point being, if you don't have enough space to get from ramp to ramp or around the bowl, you need to work on your compression and extension. You need to be able to generate momentum with your body and use the ramp to accelerate.
Otherwise, if you are going that slow, push with foot.
How to improve your style
I wrote this guide for surfing, but the same applies to your skating, it's the same stance and technique when surf skating. How to surf with more style
