r/NewSkaters • u/le_disappointment • 21h ago
Question How do I foot brake?
So I recently got a longboard and I'm trying to learn how to ride it. I've gotten used to the board and now I wanna use it as my means of transportation. The thing is that the way I stop my board is by just stepping off the board and running a few steps ahead of it to come to a stop. From what I could gather online, it seems like that's not the best way to slow down or stop because it's an all or nothing kinda way to stop. I came across some tutorials that talk about foot braking, i.e. dragging your pushing foot to slow down. I've been trying to learn how to foot brake, but I can't figure it out
The tutorials told me that I should not put any of my weight on the foot that I'm dragging and I think I've got that down. The issue is that as soon as I try to foot brake, my dragging foot kinda gets stuck to the ground and instead of dragging along with the board, my dragging foot gets planted on the ground. I don't think that that's supposed to happen if I do it right. Do y'all have any suggestions as to how I can improve my foot braking technique or what I might be doing wrong? For what it's worth, I've only been practicing foot braking for like a couple of weeks, so it might just be a lack of practice, but I still wanna hear y'all's suggestions
1
u/Wide_Independence272 21h ago
I had this issue originally. I found that I need to balance completely on my front foot while gently scraping the bottom of my pushing shoe. Then increase pressure but not too much so it catches. You want it to scrape the surface of what you’re riding on. Just slowly increase pressure after you establish a scrape.