Boardslide

The boardslide is the first big step up on rails: instead of sliding with the board parallel to the rail, you turn it 90° and slide with the rail under the middle of the board, perpendicular to it. It looks hard, but with the right approach it comes surprisingly fast.

How to Do It

1. Approach the rail from the frontside (the rail will be on your left if you’re regular, on your right if you’re goofy), at moderate speed.
2. Just before the rail, do a small ollie and start turning your hips 90° frontside: the nose of the board points past the rail.
3. Land with the middle of the board on the rail, perpendicular to it. The board is now turned 90°.
4. Slide along the rail in this position: weight centered (neither on the nose nor on the tail), base flat, knees soft.
5. At the end, counter-rotate 90° (turning back the way you came in) to ride out in your original direction; if you keep rotating another 90° the same way, you ride out fakie. Land soft.

Common Mistakes

• Turning less than 90°: a half rotation puts you on the rail at the wrong angle, and a fall is almost certain. Commit to the full rotation.
• Weight on your heels: in a boardslide your weight has to stay neutral. Load your heels and the board slides off the rail toward you.
• Exiting without turning: if you come off the boardslide without straightening the board, the landing gets messy. Set up the exit rotation early.

Progression

The frontside boardslide is just the first of many. Try the Backside Boardslide, the opposite version, or step up the difficulty with the Lipslide, a different approach that tests how well you read the rail.