Cross Academy basic variations
B ack Crollie
First attempt, slightly wild
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The back crollie I described on the previous page was actually the second attempt for this shoot, and it was very clean and under control throughout the routine. I think it's worth putting in a separate page showing the first attempt I made of the back crollie. It shows a common mistake that happens when landing jumps one footed. It also shows a good recovery and how to make a wild landing look stylish. It shows the "loose truck" side of Cross Academy skating.
This frame shows the foot position for the snap pretty well. My foot hangs off the tail tip slightly This makes the board fly up hard when you snap the tail down, and gives the jump/walk motion a good vertical start.
Already in these two frames there is a difference from the other example. As I start to walk up, I don't turn my shoulders that much. I keep my back sideways, which means I'm going to have to use my feet more to do the back cross. It will make a difference in the control of the landing.
As I come down to land the jump, I keep my front foot in contact with the board. That's good. What I did wrong is I didn't turn my foot in and point it down the board toward the tail. Notice I'm bringing it down straight across the board. It's a subtle mistake, but pointing your foot straight across a skateboard makes it really hard to stand on one foot in balance.
My new front toe comes down to complete the back cross step. Since my original front foot is planted across the board, the feet aren't very parallel. It makes it so I have to reach my new front toe around my leg more. Compared to the previous example, I have to work harder to get my feet to do a complete back cross, and my balance gets thrown off as a result.
I've now got a pretty solid back cross position on the landing, but my weight is thrown forward, toward the tail. Keeping my head up more might have helped. As I've mentioned elsewhere on this site, skaters have a tendancy to look at the board too much, and I do it as well. The trick you can use is to tilt your eyes down toward the board, not your head.
My feet are in a T position on the front part of the board. Compare this landing stance with the more parallel diagonal foot position on the previous example. I swing my arms clockwise and up to correct for my weight going forward. This forces the board to turn right, or toeside, toward the camera.
Here I use some wild over the head arm styling. I like to keep my fingers extended, but other styles still look good. Brad Edwards curls his fingers under. Wingnut has his fingers less spread apart. The thing you don't want to do is flop your wrists, which Wingnut calls "kitty cat paws." That looks bad and on an arm swing, you'll get less power.
If you practice your matador arm waving and gestures enough, you can use it to correct and it still looks pretty good. Even though I'm in the middle of a wild arm gesturing recovery, I'm in control enough to shift my weight back to start the uncross step onto the nose, keeping the flow of the trick going while under pressure to recover. I try not to let losing my balance stop the walking movement. Mistakes when corrected with style are part of the fun.
I pick up my back foot into the uncross step, moving it toward the nose. I straighten out the turn. I like to use real loose trucks, with play in the kingpin and bushings. Loose trucks mean you are going to have more improvisation as the board reacts to a reasonably strong bit of body language, such as this mistake.
I set my trucks up so a deep turn goes just short of "wheel bite." Personally I don't like boards with cutaway for the wheels, I'd rather deal with occasional bite to get the extra board space. The wide board makes for more options of where to put your feet when walking around and landing tricks.
While stepping back I brush my foot close to the planted leg. Barely brushing or keeping the feet close together improves your stability while walking.
I set my new front foot down on the nose. I'm now in the backwards, feet parallel hang one heel stance. My arms are now more in control and I settle into a more relaxed posture.
Settling into the nose stance puts some weight on the toeside rail, and the toeside turn is recommencing as I roll out of the frame. More demonstration of the loose truck approach to longboarding.
