If you’ve been skating for a while, you’ve probably heard the name of longboarding pumping many times.
It is a fun activity, and you need to do o lot of practice and build up your muscles if you want to be proficient in it because there is no secret recipe that will make you an expert overnight.
Take your longboard carry strap with you and start your practice from now on without wasting time.
For beginners, it may be difficult for doing pumping after a few miles because of a lack of swiftness and the proper strength.
However, you do not need to be sad because, with the help of practice and learning few techniques, you can be a master of it, and then no one can stop you for miles after miles of pumping.
Longboard pumping is famous for a few skateboard tricks such as ghost rides, free hills, and longboard dancing.
Today, I’ll try my best to give all informative information about longboard pumping, like- how to pump, all tips and tricks, and which vital setups you need to follow for it.
For doing longboard pumping, kick pushing is the primary technique. In this case, the riders need to kick back their board without lifting their feet from the board to move the skateboard forward swiftly because kick pushing helps speed up the movement for short and long distances.
Before going to the main topic, let us introduce you to longboard pumping if you are a beginner in this sector.
What is Pumping on a Longboard?
As we learn from above, longboard pumping is famous for a few skateboard tricks. Many riders use it for ghost rides, free hills, and longboard dancing.
Pumping on a longboard can help you to increase your speed on your skateboard.
The long-distance skaters, cruisers, and slalom skateboarders used this technique to improve their skill level. The fun part is they do it without lifting their feet from the board.
How to do it?
It may look ticklish, but once you learn all the methods, you can do it smoothly.
At first, you have to swing, giving much pressure from the left side to the right to pump your longboard.
This method will help you to make the front truck change directions as soon as possible.
By doing this, you can achieve some forward momentum. Also can increase the speed of the longboard.
It is an excellent technique to skate without pushing the board, and most importantly, all long-distance skaters often use it.
What Are Some Things You Need to Keep in Your Mind?
- Always try to keep yourself in rhythm. Do more practice to keep swinging left to right consistently because these tricks will help you build speed and maintain momentum during longboard pumping.
- For good pumping, you can say dig in is very useful. Try to push into every carve of your board.
- Pumping into the longboard is another more efficient thing you need to remember is giving extra pressure on your toes or heels. It will help you to turn the board each carves swiftly.
- The key to achieving every goal is to keep practicing as much as you can without giving up. Once you become a master of it and get comfortable with how you have to turn the board and figure out every primary detail, no one can stop you after that.
What Setup is Best for Pumping on a Longboard?
There are two types of setups you can follow for pumping on a longboard.
- A highly specialized, which professionals used for pumping.
- A non-specialized setup, not precisely for pumping but still decent for it.
The second option is for those who do not want pumping primarily for their board.
The Techniques You Can Follow
- You can Go with Flexible Decks
A flexible deck can give you some solid dig-in options for every carve you want for better pumping.
Not only that you can use it for a bounce-back, up, and out. A flexible deck is best for changing direction quickly.
You can use it to bump up to get a lot of force to get down. Once you get down after bumping up it will be easier to drive each pump smoothly.
Try to use top-mount skateboard decks, they are best for this type of activity.
- Use Bigger Wheels
If you want to be an expert in it, never make a mistake by using small wheels. Always use bigger size wheels while pumping on the longboard that is more huge than 70mm.
Bigger wheels do an excellent job of maintaining their momentum and help to increase the speed during skating. An 85 mm in size deck wheel are one of the accurate tools for you.
Finally, grippy wheels with square lips types of wheels provide to dig into carves. It will not break traction and slipping out when you are giving your best shot.
Lastly, a massive size wheels’ deck will never let you down without losing the speed on each carve while pumping the board.
Avoid using round lips wheels because they can break the traction and decrease the speed.
- Use Best Trucks
For pumping, you can use any truck. You can find several types of trucks in the market. Each comes with different characteristics, and in between them, you have to find out the ideal one for your longboard pumping.
The narrower trucks are better sometimes for pumping, but the stability and speed power are not top-level.
On the other side, some riders use wider trucks that provide a higher top speed but the problem is they push a bit to get some speed. These types of trucks need extra force and drive to turn quickly.
The good news is many professional riders have specialized precision trucks for pumping.
They have been designed only for pumping long-distance and pushing, easy to turn the front and a back which help to increase the speed.
- Soft Bushings
For pumping on the longboard, never miss the chance to use soft bushing. It will help you a lot to achieve your desired speed and perfect turn.
I can assure you soft bushings will help you give perfect lean and turn to your truck every time swiftly. You will get amazed to see how easily you can change direction by using it for the pump.
I recommend you always use super high rebound bushings like the Orangatang Nipples or Venom SHRs and a longboard pumping bushing setup. It can add more bounce in every turn and conserve energy.
Tips to Make the Poor Setup Perfect for Pumping
Everyone wants to add more pumps on their longboard during skating for more speed and turn the truck swiftly.
Here, going to give you a handful of tips to make the existing setup more accurate for pumping.
- Try to use 70mm in size bigger wheels that come with square lips. You can pump your board with it, and another reason is it can maintain momentum.
- Always remember, massive risers allow you to increase the distance between deck and trucks, and not only this thing, but it also gives deeper and tighter turning.
- Use softer bushings for turning the truck.
If you are very enthusiastic about this kind of activity, you will not stop here and do your best to dig deeper to gain more information.
To give you some relief below, we do our best to highlight some other extra vital informative information about it to encourage you more.
- Without wasting further time, start with regular tic-tac steps on your standard skateboards.
At first, start with a kicktail for the front wheel to give life in it. To add extra momentum, you can use your front leg to move the board right and left.
Tic-tac steps are for those who want to learn torso twists and backward motion. Many professional skateboard riders use this step to gain speed during pumping.
- The second step comes after familiarizing with the tic-tac. For pumping skills, always use a shortened longboard because it is an ideal board for it. Shortened longboard provides some impressive turning and soft bushings features. All professional riders use shortened longboards for better performance and to increase their skill level.
- We always recommend you practice with smooth areas. It is because if you fall, you do not feel much pain.
- You will never be able to create any momentum the first time. It is essential to learn all the foot movements with appropriate timing. Once you become acquainted with this, you can easily take control of it.
- In such cases, many riders apply a minimum incline because, for some, the trick works best.
- Always choose around a large circular area for practice. You can get more space to faster momentum during the carves.
- Lastly, select a longboard that comes with a lot of flexibility. A flexible board will help you to get more bounce comfortably during practice.
Conclusion
You will never become a master on longboard pumping within a few days. If you want to become an expert in it, you must have to do a lot of practice.
Once you learn all the tips and techniques, you will feel immense pleasure in the world and get the feeling of flying.
All you need is a proper setup, an ideal longboard carry strap to carry your device with you anywhere, and knowledge of every method to perform pumping.
If you are a fresher here, we feel glad to welcome you to keep your first step as a longboard pumper where you can show your impressive and remarkable experience with us.
The journey will not be easy, but you need to keep your patience and work hard to achieve what you want.
I hope you find our article beneficial and informative.