The Perfect Beginner Guide On How To Learn Skimboarding
Skimboarding is one of the most thrilling and rapidly growing sports in the world. Some amazing skimboarding events are held around the world, and many experts participate in these events. Apart from that, the game has got so popular among youngsters in certain countries that numerous kids are interested to know how to skimboard and how does skimboarding work. Most of them keep learning and enjoying skimboarding as fun and have a great time on the beach, while some choose the sport as a profession. In this beginner guide, we will help people from all levels by discussing how to learn skimboarding.
Basic Lessons Before You Learn How Does Skimboarding Work:
To become an expert in skimboarding, you must learn a few basic lessons. The following are a few of them.
Choose the Right Board for You:
If you ask us how to learn skimboarding, we recommend that you skimboard on the sand at first, then on the water as the former is a lot easier than the latter. You need to get a small and flat wooden board, which is heavier than the board used for skimboarding on water. While choosing the board, keep your height and body dimensions in your mind to make sure that you can maintain your firm grip on the board. We have another blog post, which discuss more in details about choosing the right skimboard.
When You Have Learned How to Skimboard:
At this stage, you must be looking to skimboard on water. The boards used for water skimboarding are curved in shape, and much lighter than those used for sand skimboarding. Water boards are usually made up of foam, so they may easily float on the water and give you a long ride. Again, keep your body dimensions into consideration while selecting the board.
Find the Perfect Beach for Skimboarding:
Once you are done with selecting your board and learned the basics, look for the best beach that facilitates skimboarding. It would be best if you found a beach with long waves that may carry you through to the shore for skimming on water. A beach with a steep slope would be the perfect place for water skimming. Whereas, if you want to skim on the sand, you can go to any beach with smooth and flat sand.
How to Learn Skimboarding?
You need to follow several steps and certain skills you need to focus on while doing skimboarding. Let's discuss them briefly.
Hold Your Board:
The most important thing on how to skimboard is to get started, hold your board with your one hand on the tail and your other hand on the side rail of the board, and then lean forward. Ensure that you hold the board about 15 centimeters above the water and parallel to the sand, with water being on your right side if you are left-handed and on your left if you are right-handed.
Throw the Board:
After setting up your position, throw the board on the sand when it has a thin water layer. If you are skimming on the sand, the best time to throw the board on sand is when a wave has just sucked back into the water. While skimming on water, throw the board just before the arrival of a wave. Throwing the board parallel to the beach can give you a longer ride.
Run-on the Board:
After throwing the board, run onto and alongside the board at a moderate pace. If you jump on the board instead of running on to it, the board may stop skimming as it loses the water's surface tension. Your feet position is also important to maintain balance. Place your front foot just ahead of the middle of the board and place your back foot behind it.
Keep the Board Balanced:
While surfing on the water, keep your knees bent and maintain your entire weight on the board. This position will make you feel comfortable throughout the ride and help the skimboard in the running fast and smooth. While skimming on the sand, apply a little more pressure on your front foot, while skimming on the water, apply slightly more pressure on your back foot. Keeping your knees bent for long can make you feel tired, so take proper breaks while skimming.
A Brief Scientific Overview of Skimboarding:
To understand How does skimboarding work, let’s analyze it on the laws of physics. Just like a watercraft, skimboard also moves ahead by displacing the water. The more the water it displaces, the slower it moves. So, the skimboard is given the perfect shape to make it run fast as it does not have to displace a lot of water. Similarly, the ground effect also keeps the board floating more quickly as the small masses of swirling water under the board push the water towards the ground. The ground again squeezes the stream above. The action keeps continues, and as a result, the skimboard keeps floating for long.
Important Safety Measures:
When you are a newbie, or learning how does skimboarding work, always wear a helmet to avoid any possible injury.
Do not forget for doing a proper warm up before you start your skimboarding adventure.
Start with dry and wet sand practices and repeat them to get a feeling of how it works.
While holding your board, don’t point it upward from either side. Hold it parallel to the ground before throwing it on the sand.
Do not jump on the board after throwing it as you may fall immediately.
If your knees feel tired while skimming, immediately stop skimming to avoid any major injury.
Don't jump off the board when it is skimming as you may fall and get injured. Wait for the board to stop and then take yourself off the board.
Conclusion:
People, especially young kids, are always keen to learn how to skimboard. Skimboarding it is a great way to spend your time on the beach, especially under the sun and a relaxed atmosphere. Heads up if you don’t master it straight away and need more time to practice. So, we suggest you first learn skimboarding properly and then start doing it freely. Learning skimboarding is not a big deal if you put your focus and concentration in. It may take only a few attempts before a kid or adult starts skimming and is learning the basics of skimboarding. So, follow the techniques mentioned above and start skimming accordingly, it surely will work for you. We hope our beginner guide was helpful for your first steps on a skimboard.