/r/longboarding's Daily General Thread - Mar 26, 2016

Alright, these are some of the tips K-Rimes told him since he is about to be sponsored by Aera.

The first thing he told me was to distribute the weight properly. It's not as forward-focused as is believed, try to think of the board as a 4WD car and not a FWD car, this will help you get better traction from all wheels. I'd say the weight should be around 60% - 70% front 40% - 30% rear. This is why Reimer and the Aera team don't have much difference between the front and the rear in terms of angles and bushings, unlike the Rogue team who have pretty mayor differences between the two trucks. (Rogues and Aeras are pretty different trucks so I'm not sure if they perform differently under splits)

As for positioning, the front and rear foot should always be parallel and the rear foot should be flat. They should be around 45° and the front foot should move as little as possible in terms of position. Do not put your rear heel facing upwards like most people do, as it makes you put too much weight on the front and creates more drag. Compare Mischo Erban's tuck and P-Swiss' tuck. Mischo's tuck is what you should look like. Try to make your arms mold into your torso by putting your pucks facing to your butt, the inner part of your elbow should be filling your waist. Now that you're in tuck, lift your shoulders so that they're straight and parallel with the road. Make sure your chin is covering a bit of your knee cap and that your chin is aligned with the tip of the nose of your board. You now have the perfect tuck.

Now, from what I could guess, the guy who told me all of this weighed no more than 140lbs and was around 5'8", but he was still able to beat Mack Wacey (~200lbs 6'3") and Dalua (~200lbs 5'9") in the final heat of Guajataca 10. Reimer obviously won the race.

His setup was a Landyatchz Evo with Aera K4s and Free Loaders. He said that since it is kind of unfair that the Canadians get to be so big, don't be afraid to get a heavy and big board. Although he uses an Evo, he said that they're should be around a 2 - 5 degree difference between the front and rear. Ideally you should get something like a Madrid Trapstar or anything else that's heavy and has a wheel base longer than 25". Using a small wheelbase isn't as cool as some people believe and puts you at a disadvantage if you don't know how to handle it properly.

To summarize:

Give the rear some love too

Copy Mischo Erban's tuck (don't lift the rear foot that much dammit!)

Ride small splits, longer wheelbases and heavy boards (if you're a lightweight at least)

Other basic points:

Stay calm

You don't have to be the fastest off the line, focus on you're positioning and then steal that draft

Each team has their own style, they may differ in some ways.

/r/longboarding Thread Parent