Written by: Plymouth University Surf Club https://www.upsu.com/sports/clubs/surf/
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Hi, I’m Jack, and I’m the President of the Plymouth University Surf Club 2020/21 as well as the founder of the new Instagram page @longboard_technique. I have been surfing for 10 years, as well as being a competitive longboarder for 3 years; winning the British Junior Championships in 2018.
Longboarding involves riding a board over 9ft in length, with emphasis on nose-riding (riding the front of the board), making it differ from the more popular ‘shortboarding’, where surfers perform radical manoeuvres such as airs and turns on boards around 5-6ft in length.
This didn’t detract from the quality on show, Jordan Zervas and Jack Gregorius going goofy-toe-to-goofy-toe in the Juniors in a battle which saw Jack take the win thanks to some powerful surfing off the tail in the somewhat wobbly lefthanders.
When learning how to longboard, I encountered a painful lack of online content with regards to longboard tutorials, hints, tips and tricks, which made my learning process a lot slower and harder than it could have been. To overcome this, I observed more experienced surfers and tried to visualize what they were doing, so I could compare myself to them. This was the main strategy I used throughout my longboard progression to figure out the correct techniques.
Any discovered techniques, tips and tricks I would note down in my ‘surf log’, of which I would complete after every surf. I would note the surf conditions, any good/notable manoeuvres I landed and some targets for the next surf. Eventually, when reading back through my surf logs from over the years, it made me aware of a large number of discovered tips, tricks and hacks that I had collated and written down along this journey of progression.
This eventually inspired me to start @longboard_technique, to share my discovered tips and techniques which I collated along the way in my surf log, with others, to help them improve their surfing, no matter what their ability or goals.
As students, be sure to follow the page; feel free to browse the content and/or message me directly with any surfing related questions/queries. Surfing has been so beneficial to my mental and physical health throughout the ongoing pandemic, with it being one of the only activities that have been able to still commence throughout. I hence believe getting involved with surfing is one of the best things you could do for yourself right now, and I hope @longboard_technique will give you the relevant tips and inspiration to encourage you to get keen to start/continue your surfing progression journey, even if you’ve never surfed before!
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