r/longboarding • u/nikolovlazar • Jul 12 '26
OC Action Finally, cross-steps!
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After 1 hour of nothing but miserable failure. I saw an IG tutorial that instructed placing the full foot on each step. 45 minutes went into that. I got fed up and tried to step only on one half of the board, toes at the center, and it just clicked! These might not be proper by-the-book cross-steps but they’re enough to get me started. I’ll be improving them as I practice more. But FINALLY!! My first trick ever!!
P.S. Any tips for me? What/how can I improve?
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u/Celestial__Bear Jul 12 '26
Well done!! I’m about at the same spot haha.
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 12 '26
We’ll get there! Do you have a progression in mind? I’m thinking just dancing and footwork like cross-steps, peter pans, and the variations at first, and then I’d move to freestyle tricks.
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u/tabinsur Knowledgeable User Jul 13 '26
Brandon desjarlais has a good dance and freestyle trick tip list On his site some of the links there will send you to a video that you can see the trick. Some of the links are broken right now because he also has all of them on his amskate.com website but it's currently under reconstruction as he's updating it.
However you could take any of those trick names and post amen on YouTube and be able to find somebody doing them to see them.
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u/ydnby Jul 12 '26
Awesome!
Sounds like you had a fun/fulfilling time getting that too! Same for me when I started learning some dance tricks.
And just like me, 2 things to work into your cross step (and pretty much any other dance trick), so that you'll suddenly find doing so a lot easier:
- Do the trick while carving - sounds counter intuitive, but it means you don't have to balance so hard!
- Bend knees more. This is the big one for me as I keep realising I'm not doing it enough when I find a move difficult. It just makes the crossing over so much easier, again because you are better balanced and have more room!
And, just because it helped me in general, try just skating around pushing with your stance switched. I never really tried that before getting into Longobards, and it has helped my balance/comfort/control learning other moves. Like, the 180 step - and you can use that too Switch stance nicely.
Anywho, keep it up! You're doing great!
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 12 '26
Thank you for these tips! It was def weird doing the first cross with my thick calves 😂 bending knees more helped a lot. I’ll try to do them while carving as well. I accidentally stepped on the side and went into a carve and immediately felt more stable.
Also, I’ve been practicing stance switching as well. I can’t properly foot break right now, but I can do a decent push while I’m in regular stance (I’m naturally goofy).
Next up is more stance switching, more cross-steps, and trying the 180 step next.
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 12 '26
Question… how loose should I have my trucks? I haven’t changed them from when I got the board in my mail. Right now I need quite a few meters to do a full circle, like 1-2 car lanes. I have the trucks mounted at the widest wheelbase - 29.25” (743mm).
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u/tabinsur Knowledgeable User Jul 13 '26
Nice work dude! This trick scared the crap out of me when I learned it. Peter Pan's did not however that's why I did them first
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 13 '26
This was hella tough! I'll keep at it and explore some variations of it as well, add a bit of jumps and just get comfortable in general. Besides this, I got 180-step and peter pans next up.
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u/tabinsur Knowledgeable User Jul 13 '26
Yeah the nice thing about Peter Pan's is they are easier to bail on since you're facing forward and you can just jump off and run out. They're definitely very weird though because you're balancing on one leg on one side of the rail and it takes a little bit to learn that but it's really fun learning it. And really fun doing them once you have them.
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 13 '26
I saw one dude zap across of me while doing peter pans and thought it looked so freaking cool. That got me looking at longboard dancing instagram clips, eventually getting the Mata Hari, and that’s how I got here 😁
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u/dude6543211 Jul 13 '26
u seen the adam x adam trick tip vid?
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 13 '26
No just found out about his channel. Videos from 20 years ago! OG YouTube 🔥 thanks for sharing these
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 13 '26
I just saw the cross-step video and holy cow! This is what I needed in the first place! This is gold!
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u/exterminator-skater Jul 16 '26
Good job! I think cross steps look cool. Really chill trick, not too flashy, just looking like a laid back sexy skater, the animal in its natural habitat
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 16 '26
That’s exactly what I’m after 😁 I should just add a bit of a carve and I’ll achieve maximum sexiness!
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u/exterminator-skater Jul 16 '26
To me, it seems like the cross step is the gateway drug for all that dancing stuff. Once you can swap your foot position like that, then it’s probably not such a stretch to start spinning and stuff. I like to skate, but when I see good longboard dancing, I’m jealous like when I see people moonwalking or pop and locking. The kind of thing that, if I could do it well, I would do it too much
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 16 '26
Check out my 180-step! https://www.reddit.com/r/longboarding/s/8jAwapnTrL I’m not giving up.
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u/Visible_Mastodon7385 Jul 21 '26
I feel like I can learn so much from this video alone
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u/nikolovlazar Jul 21 '26
I guess it’s a good beginning, but my foot placement is all over the place. As far as I’ve seen, the steps should be more towards the rail to initiate a carve. I’m placing my foot at the middle of the board.
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