Stopping on a longboard is one of the most crucial steps to becoming a better longboarder. It may take awhile to learn some of these techniques but it’s well worth it for your safety. Besides who actually likes getting road rash?
1. Air Braking – Standing straight up with your arms out to increase wind resistance and lower your overall speed.
Wind braking is a very effective technique to decrease your speed (to about 25-30mph if done properly) and is extremely useful when doing downhill. It’s nice to be able to shave some speed off so you can take a turn easier or avoid a potential obstacle.
2. Footbraking – Taking one foot off the skateboard and dragging it along the pavement to increase friction and decrease your speed.
Footbraking is one of the most effective ways to stop and is fairly easy to learn. You simply take your back foot off the board and press it down lightly increasing the weight slowly on your dragging foot so you don’t eat asphalt. I recommend learning footbraking as soon as you start longboarding, it’s extremely useful and can save you a lot of skin.
3. Carving – Turning across the road back and forth.
Carving is probably one of the first things you’ll learn when first starting to longboard. It is one of the best ways to reduce speeds but is pretty hard to come to a complete stop when going fast. The more aggressive and wider the carves the more your going to slow down.
4. Running it off - Jumping off your longboard and trying to run off the speed.
This is probably one of the worst and most dangerous ways to try and stop when going fast. For a new longboarder this is the first thing you think of doing when you start going beyond your limits. It’s very easy to underestimate how fast your going so be sure to know you can actually run the speed off. I certainly don’t recommend this method and your sure to eat some pavement if you make a habit out of it.
5. Sliding – Breaking the skateboard’s wheels out in a controlled movement.
Sliding is hands down the most effective way to stop when longboarding and learning how to do it will make you a much better rider. It is the hardest method to learn but it is well worth it if your going to be going fast. The most popular kinds of slides are the Coleman, Bert and Standup.
6.Rolling off the road - Rolling from the road to another surface to cause friction.
This method involves rolling off the road onto some other surface such as grass or dirt to try and kill off any speed. It certainly is better than running off the board but it can be a bit risky and should only be used as a last resort.
7. Ride it out – Staying on your longboard till the road flattens and coming to a stop naturally.
The best and usually easiest method of stopping. When doing any downhill runs always make sure to scope out the bottom and make sure you have ample room to ride it out and slow down.
So get out there and start practicing these ways of stopping.
