Surfing Waves

I need help cross stepping on my 8'8" board. What foot do you start with? when do you step? how many steps? angle of feet? special tricks or techniques? thanx

bend yer knees and relax. i cant do it all the way (just a coupla steps) and this is the best advice ive been given. good luck

I'm not a longboarder, but ive seen them doing it at my loca break... and it looked like they did it to go faster on a critical part of the wave... and they started with the back foot...

Have the board in the upper third of the wave. Back foot first- place it toward the wave to hold the board in the wave. There is no magic number of steps, whatever works. I tend to place my foot perpendicular to the board on my first step, it helps with my balance but I'm not sure if others do.

The key: Practice, practice, practice.


Watch some pro's on video clips and see how they do it. Good luck!

back foot first like mentioned above, and the pourpose of it is to help push your board back into the wave, as when you shuffle foward you just move forward and your board stays generally in place, and you end up getting hit in the back of the head. When you cross step you move your board farther back under you... something to think about.

I went surfing today but before I actually read all of the tips hehe. I tried to get to the nose and I took three steps and I guess I pushed the board backwards pretty hard because I fell forward way in front of the board and ate it hehe. I think the wave needs to be pretty big because I surf at Waikiki which is like 1-3 pretty much yearround which is kinda small and I hardly see anyone even attemping to noseride although longboards dominate the lineup so..

i can give you so me real advice now because... yesterday i did my first proper bit of crosstepping on a big clean wave YIPPEEE! it is so much fun, ok so advice, do it asap, when your still high up on the wave before it starts to close out or anything, dont hesitate and make sure youre right in the wave before you start or youll only lose it anyway.

what i found helps also is to stall the board lift the nose out of the water so the board slows down then quickly cross step to the nose

you have to cross step to maintain balance and to stop the board from flicking out from under your feet. i am only just learning myself and it is a fine art to master well. u need some speed to make it easy but you also need to be at the top of the wave. i found if u do the bottom turn then as soon as u turn back down the wave for a fast section u can actually cross step to the nose and maintain speed through the section until u slow the board up at the nose. thats when u balance and then race back to the tail to start the process all over again.

See if you can buy the movie "Walkabout"....it's all about cross-stepping...you can find it at your local surf shop or Indoboard shop....it's a great movie..I have it, and watch it like everyday...

Actually, you can get it at Aloha Surf on corner of King and University Ave....I noticed you live where I live and surf where I do too...like Waiks...
check it out...no other surf shop has it here duh kine...it's awesome...costs like 28 bucks but worth it...and there are other clips of shortboard technique too.... it's an indoboard promo video filmed at Noosa Heads Australia...like perfect peeling waves....just awesome

hey about cross stepin all u hav to remembr is to always hav ur knees bent for balance, the mor bend da more stable it is n dont b afraid to experement . U can try practicing it on solid ground first jus 2 get da hang of it then as u get bettr at it try doin it on mor unstable surfaces e.g. on ur bed. Start wif da bak foot n don forget 2 see wat da wave is doin.
well l8r days n good luck

I have only tried to cross sep once...and I tried to go the whole hang ten.

On the way back down the board i tripped, smacked my head on the board, then got creamed by the wave!!!

Not gunna try that again!

Ok, start w/ your back foot, then cross it front of the other (repeat)

Sorry to pop an old thread.

But I came across a cross stepping questions thread on the Longboard.net surfing forum and thought that some on here may appreciate it.

Cheers!
-doug

i think u'v got loads of types of cross stepping, youve got some pros that do loads of small cross steps then youve got some that to leading cross steps and others which do it slow and make it look cool.

bluesnowcone2000 wrote:i think u'v got loads of types of cross stepping, youve got some pros that do loads of small cross steps then youve got some that to leading cross steps and others which do it slow and make it look cool.

didnt mean to confuse you