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We hope it's not for long.
We hope it's not for long.
Tired of doing that awkward little crab scuffle as you inch around on your board? The cross step is a classic longboard move every Paddlesurfer should master. If nothing else it looks totally soulful. But really the reason for the cross step is not so you can win tango contests, it’s to keep the board flat and trimmed. Your crab scuttle rocks the board from side to side. A properly placed cross step distributes the weight across the board without dipping the rails.
Step one: Tango at home. Seriously–walk around for a few days cross stepping as often as you can. The movement needs to become natural before you get on a board. Don’t just stagger around sideways, place your foot carefully, keeping weight on your toes and heel as you put the foot down. The only way you can do that is to bend your knees, stick your ass out, and get low.. Which is exactly what you want to do. Don’t bend forward at the waist–stay balanced.
Step two: Get loose on your board. Move around, shift your weight, step forward and back. I see guys all the time that are rooted in place on the board.
Step three: Fall in a lot. Hey, it’s going to happen. Catch a wave, trim in, get in a good surfing stance, stay low, start steppin’ brah.
Step four: Be one with the waves. As you move forward the board will accelerate down the wave–unless you’re trimmed straight down the line. As the board accelerates it will tend to boot you off the back. One more reason to stay low.
Step five: No premature celebration. I tend to take three steps and then stand up straight to say “look at me, I’m cross-stepping” though the last three words are mumbled underwater. Stay low going forward, then step your way back.
Okay, NOW you can celebrate.
2 comments
flipper
Beautiful, beautiful job on the magazine, Bill. Now let me be the first to add a comment, here on the cross-stepping page. I can’t cross step worth a hill o’ beans but I’ve done a certain amount of online research about how to learn to do it and have clipped several bits of info that I think are worth sharing. Remember, none of these quotes come from me. I know nothing. But these other guys certainly do (and if only I could remember where I got the clips, I’d add attributions but I don’t so I can’t). Anyway:
1: Try cross stepping on land and pay attention to what happens. As you lift your foot to step forward you tend to go up and forward which is OK when the ground is not moving. But it’s a whole different story on a moving surfboard. Surfing is unique in the sports world because it involves three moving objects the surfer, the board and the wave, all operating independent of each other. Surfing then becomes a science in physically/mentally understanding the successful coordination of the three moving objects.
The second element is being centered. Balance is easily achieved when you maintain a centered posture with knees bent, head and shoulders up with no bending forward at the waist and your arms down because then you are maintaining the strongest and most efficient stance. The trick is to maintain this posture as you move. With this in mind, try to cross-step again, slowly this time, concentrating so you do not go up or forward as your foot moves from back to front. This requires you to keep your stationary leg/knee well bent with
no upward movement as you step.
2: In order to move fluidly and lightly on a moving surfboard you must learn how to un-weight and step over your front foot with your back foot. You do this purposely by leaning forward onto your front foot. This shift in weight and momentum will cause the body to move forward. At the top of the step the back foot will release and will travel forward and cross step over what had been your front foot. As your back foot lands the same process takes place so you end up back in your stance. Riding the wave out of your stance, or when your feet are crossed up, while very stylish is an extremely unstable position.
After this first cross step forward is completed we need to see if our wave is cooperating fur further advancement to the tip or if a cutback is in order. We will have to cross step back if we need to turn because long boards don’t turn from the middle. But if the wave has a nice steep face and your board is holding trim then tally ho, up to the nose we go.
If your board starts to drop in closer to the floor of the wave then some quick footed back peddling needs to happen right away or else. Walking back from the tip to reset the tail is trickier to do and will provide months of tripping over your “what seem like” oversized feet.
One key to remember in all difficult surfing maneuvers is to stay low in the leg. Some additional knee bending is very necessary. It will lighten you up and the board will seem more stable underneath you. Once you start spending some time up on the nose you will develop a feel for it. For now, get better at cross stepping up and back from the tail to your trim position about two feet further forward than where you turned from. As time marches on you will become more relaxed and comfortable with cross stepping and your trips to the tip will become more frequent.
A great dry land drill is to practice cross stepping forward and backward on a parking curb. It’s like a 4 inch high balance beam. Keep your eyes on the curb about six feet in front of you and practice going up and back, up and back. Keep the knees very bent and in a short while your thighs should start burning from the constant pressure. This is good, the burn is making you a better surfer and a stronger person.
3: I think the easiest way to become comfortable cross-stepping on a surfboard is by doing it right out of of a bottom turn.
After you make the bottom turn, you’ll start up the face onto the shoulder of the wave, which will slow you down (a stalling action of sorts), keeping you closer to the curl and higher on the wave. Then take two quick steps. Or four. It should feel like it’s all part of the same action — bottom turn, climb, cross-step. You’ll start to pick up speed, getting ahead of the wave, so you’ll do your backward dance, cutback into the curl, and start the the whole process all over again (and, yes, it’s easier going backward than forward).
The combination of climbing / stalling out of the turn makes it feel like you’re walking “up” the board, rather than “down” it, which mentally is probably easier and physically a little more stable. As far as going backside goes, try keeping your feet a little more parallel to the board as you walk out.
4: Fluid and natural cross-stepping is important for getting there and back quickly. So practice when out of the water by walking the curb, or a telephone pole or 2×12 plank laying on the ground. Go quickly up and back, until it becomes so natural you don’t even think about it. Lean forward slightly, comfortably, to give yourself more momentum and natural ease — it’s a slight falling forward feeling — when going for the tip of the plank, pole, curb or board. This will make running to the nose easier and more natural. Get use to going for that tip and Hang 5 and 10. This will also get you use to the distance of each step — from whatever your starting point is — and how many steps it takes. But don’t count them or measure them. This needs to become automatic–so just let it happen. Repeat that over and over again. Then, do it even more quickly–at a run. Go up and back until you don’t have to think about it at all. Then take it into the waves. The object is to get to the nose as fast as possible. And cross stepping is the way you do that, not scooting. Besides cross-stepping adds big points to your style quotient. And you can never have too much styyyyyyle! So practice. And have fun doing it.
flipper
With pix being worth 1k words, I thought I’d offer up this video of some guys longboarding at Cardiff reef. It’s not SUP but it does show a lot of what we’re talking about here, cross stepping and getting close to the nose. Pretty inspiring stuff, I think.
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