9 Best Skateboards For Surf Training (2023)

Skateboarding and surfing are closely related. The feeling of riding a skateboard has a lot in common with that of riding a wave on a surfboard. Surf skateboards – aka surfskates – are a particularly type of skateboards specially designed to emulate surfing.

If you’re a landlocked surfer or if you’re looking to get into surfing, then a surf skateboard is your guy. Which is the best skateboard for surfing? Here are a few of the best skateboards (surfskates) for surfing cross-training:

Surf skateboard brand	Best surf training skateboard
1. Carver surf skates	31″ Kai Lenny Lava
2. Yow surf skates	31″ Coxos
3. Waterborne skateboards	Surf & Rail Adapter
4. Swelltech surf skates	37″ Italo Ferreira Tube
5. Hamboards surf skates	60″ Logger
6. Slide surf skates	30″ Joyful SK Heritage
7. Jucker Hawaii surf skates	31″ Skatesurfer Pono
8. Loaded Carver surf skate	31″ Bolsa
9. Smoothstar surf skates	32.5″ Johanne Defay

There are quite a few surfboard skateboards to choose from. Which should you pick for your needs? The answer depends on the kind of surfing you want to emulate. In this post, I discuss which of these skateboards work best for different surfing styles.

What makes a skateboard good for surfing?

Surf skateboards – aka surfboard skates or skate surfboards – emulate surfing on land through specially designed trucks that are able to turn on a very tight radius, allowing you to perform surf-style maneuvers very much like on a surfboard.

While the front truck is the most important characteristic of a surfskate, the deck typically emulates the shape and feel of a small surfboard, and the wheels are designed to enable surf-style maneuvers on land.

When choosing the best skateboard for surfing, you first need to define your style of surfing. As a surfer myself, I’m familiar with a few different surf styles:

• High-performance shortboard slashing and ripping
• Classic style down-the-line, fluid turns, tube riding
• Longboard style carving, pumping, & boardwalking

On the other hand, surf skateboards can be classified as follows:

• Surf skates designed for easy carving and distance pumping
• Pure surf trainer surfboard skateboards
• Street, park, and pool-oriented surf skates

If you’re into performance shortboard surfing, a pure surf trainer such as Swelltech, Smoothstar, and certain YOW models, can be a good match.

Shorter, street-focused surfskates like certain shorter Carver models with CX trucks can also work well for this type of surfing.

For classic, soulful, down-the-line wave riding, an easy carving board like a mid-sized Carver C7, a Loaded surfskate, or a Landyachtz surfskate can be a good choice.

Longboard-style surfers, on the other hand, can get the best cross-training by choosing surfboard skateboards such as Hamboards or larger Carver (C7) or YOW models.

While they are quite different, all these boards will give you a skateboard surf feel on pavement.

See also:
The ultimate surfskate selector tool
Learn how to ocean surf step by step

Note : the following surf skates are not listed in any particular order, the numbering is only used for structure, not ranking.

1. Best skateboard for surfing: Carver

The oldest and perhaps greatest surf skate brand on the market, Carver pioneered the surf skate market and is still a leader with its high-quality decks and surf trucks.

Carver completes and trucks are relatively pricey, although their Triton line (same trucks, cheaper decks) is more affordable. See my complete Carver Skateboards comparison guide.

So how good are Carver skateboards for surfing? There are two different Carver trucks, the C7 and the CX. All Carver complete skateboards can be bought with either the C7 or a CX truck set. Each of these skateboard trucks offers a completely different surfing experience. Let’s look at both briefly:

C7 Carver skateboards for surf training

Carver skateboards equipped with the C7 are great for classic, fluid, down-the-line surfing. The C7 gives you very fluid turns like on a single fin surfboard. It makes it easy to pull tight turns off the back foot.

It’s also a great truck for riding pool and sliding the rear of your skateboard by putting more weight on your front foot and pushing out the back foot, emulating sliding the fins when surfing.

CX Carver skateboards for surf training

Carver skateboards with the CX truck offer a very different surfing experience compared to the C7. While the C7 has a special geometry and uses a torsion spring for its turning mechanism, the CX has a regular RKP geometry and uses a rubber bushing.

The result is a very snappy riding feel closer to performance shortboard surfing. It’s a great truck for skatepark tricks and vert airs – again comparable to aggressive shortboard surfing maneuvers.

See also my in-depth Carver comparison guide

2. Best skateboard for surfing: YOW

YOW’s (Your Own Wave) skateboards are the top-selling surf skates in Europe. Like the Carver C7, it uses a spring mechanism – albeit a round one. YOW is manufactured by HLC in Northern Spain, in Europe’s largest skateboard factory.

The YOW truck adapter is very loose (looser than the C7), resulting in a riding feel on YOW skateboards closer to shortboard performance surfing. You’re able to perform very tight turns and radical cutbacks like on a shortboard.

The body movement on the YOW is also close to that of a shortboard surfer, originating from your core rather than your leg. Therefore, YOW is positioned as one of the best trainer skateboards for performance surfing.

YOW skateboards are also great for skatepark riding. They are not easy skateboards to start on as they are less stable and require more work to pump and carve over any distance.

They’re great for practicing radical surf maneuvers but are not as well-suited for classic surfing style and down-the-line carving.

See YOW Surf complete surfskates on Amazon

YOW skateboards come with either the S4 version of the truck adapter, which uses a 4mm spring (looser, best for lighter riders) or the S5 version which uses a stiffer, 5mm spring. You can get the YOW adapter standalone and mount it on your existing deck with your existing trucks.

See also: my complete YOW surfskates review

3. Best skateboard for surf training: Waterborne

Waterborne is a smaller but up and coming U.S surfskate brand. Their Surf Adapter surf truck mechanism is a quality challenger to YOW and Smoothstar.

Unlike YOW, Waterborne uses urethane bushings instead of springs. You can mount the Surf Adapter on pretty much any deck and mount your existing trucks on it, turning them into surf trucks.

The Surf Adapter turns your existing setup (deck and trucks) into a pumpable and carvy skateboard, allowing surf-style slides and cutbacks with more control.

The adapter provides a riding experience similar in looseness to YOW but with a more fluid feel due to the bushings (as opposed to springs). The riding on the Waterborne surf adapter is more stable than the YOW or Smoothstar, yet deeper turning than the C7.

Thus, skateboards fitted with the Surf Adapter are great for versatile surf training, somewhere between high-performance shortboard surfing (hard snapbacks and surf slides) and down-the-line carving and fluid surf turns.

Waterborne also recently released complete carbon surf skateboards that come fitted with the Surf Adapter.

Check out the Waterborne Surf Adapter price and reviews on Amazon, or get 15% off using the discount code RIDINGBOARDS on the Waterborne website.

For more about Waterborne, see my review of the best surfskate adapter systems

4. Best skateboard for surfing: Swelltech

Swelltech is a reputable surf skate brand from the U.S (Florida). They offer the most radical and performance-oriented skateboard surf truck on the market.

The Swelltech Truck uses two springs and angled risers to provide unlimited 180º free motion for the trucks. The decks have a very distinctive surfboard-like shape.

Swelltech surf skateboards are completely aimed toward hardcore performance surf training. Only riders with the right surfing motion (initiating from the body core) are usually able to get moving on these boards.

Unlike other surf skateboards, trying to get moving by simply wiggling your feet won’t work as well.

The Swelltech features a 360º turning front truck – even turnier than the YOW S4. Many experienced shortboard surfers see it as the ultimate surf cross-training skateboard, as they’re able to perform tight cutbacks and surf-style rail-to-rail transitions.

If you’re more into classic surfing with mellow carving and big wide curves in the waves, however, you may want to opt for something else.

See my complete Swelltech surfskates review

5. Best skateboard for surfing: Hamboards

Hamboards is a longboard surf-focused skate brand from California. They make very large skateboard decks that look and feel like longboard surfboards. These awesome boards are best described as surfboard skateboards.

Their large, classic surf-shaped decks come fitted with a spring torsion surf truck engineered to provide the closest experience to surfing when used on the large decks.

To sustain the pressure from the large decks in extreme surf-style turns and carves, the HST truck is designed as a 200mm RKP truck with 28º turn on both sides. It has a beefed up hanger and baseplate, thicker pivot cup, and a robust spring torsion mechanism.

Hamboards surfboard skateboards are surpringly agile and tight-turning given their large size. They offer a riding feel close to classic surfing on a longboard or mini-malibu.

These boards are designed for classic surf carving and surfing moves including board walking and hang-fives. If you’re into classic longboard surfing, check out Hamboards models like the Pescadito, Huntington, or Logger.

See the Hamboards Amazon store for surf skateboard models and prices.

6. Best skateboards for surf training: Slide Skateboards

Slide is a line of quality surf skateboards manufactured in Spain by Sancheski, one of Europe’s oldest skateboard factory. The surfskates are powered by a well-performing surf truck.

The complete skateboards sell at very affordable prices compared to other brands.

How good are Slide skateboards for surfing? They are awesome for practicing normal condition, everyday surfing and down-the-line carving on average waves, be it on a single-fin, hybrid, or fishtail surfboard.

Slide skateboards are very push-friendly, being lower riding, and significantly more stable and pumpable than most other surfskates out there.

Thus, for newer surfers, Slide is an excellent surfing cross-trainer board for honing your pumping and carving skills on waves.

Performance surfers may find the Slide not turny enough for extreme deep carves and surf-style slides.

Slide skateboards are also stable enough for comfortable distance commuting through pushing and pumping, while still surfy enough to practice basic wave riding skills.

The Slide surf skates are also very suitable for pool riding – another great way to improve your basic wave surfing, fluid carving and pumping technique.

The riding feel they offer has similarities with a CX Carver board, stable enough for pushing and distance pumping – albeit perhaps not as tight turning as the CX.

See Slide surfkate reviews and prices on Amazon

7. Best skateboard for surfing: Jucker Hawaii

Jucker Hawaii surf skateboards are powered by the Rugged surf truck. Like the Slide, the Rugged is not a surf adapter but a complete surf truck, comparable in geometry to the Carver CX though much more affordable.

Jucker Hawaii surf skateboards let you perform quick and sharp turns like on a regular surfboard, as well as pump your board easily from a standstill and pick up speed through surf-style carving.

Similar to the Slide, these skateboards don’t lose too much stability at speed – much less than performance surfing trucks like Smoothstar, Swelltech, and even YOW.

The Jucker/Rugged can also be used for distance pumping, especially with a harder front bushing. This again puts the Jucker Hawaii surf skateboards in the same surfing style as the Slide and Carver CX – i.e. fluid carving and down-the-line surfing.

See my full review of Juckers Hawaii skateboards

8. Best skateboard for surf training: Loaded Carver

Loaded and Carver have joined forces to create a great surfskate, the Loaded Carver Bolsa.

This board not only rocks for surf training, but also works wonder for “surf commuting”, freestyle, street/bowl/park, even some freeride.

The Bolsa brings together the best of carving, pumping, surf emulation, and freestyle. It oozes quality and performance with its the high-tech Loaded deck, Orangatang wheels, and Carver trucks – among the best surf trucks.

The Bolsa is a great surf trainer albeit one you can also freestyle and freeride on. While hardcore surfers may feel the Loaded-style curves (wheel flares, concave) reduce freedom of movement a bit for a pure surf-like experience, if you also love to pump, carve, slide, and hop, you’ll love the foot hugging feel.

See also my in-depth review of the Bolsa surfskate.

9. Best skateboard for surf training: Smoothstar

Smoothstar is a leading surf skateboards brand in Australia and Japan. They offer complete skateboards that build upon their surf truck adapter.

Like the C7 and Yow, their swing adapter is a (straight) spring mechanism. Note that Smoothstar only sells the Thruster adapter as part of a complete.

Smoothstar surf skateboards are best-suited for shortboard performance surfing cross-training. The riding feel is very similar to YOW.

The internal spring and bearings combine to enable surf-like rail-to-rail transitions, tight turns, and radical surf tricks. Smoothstar focuses on pure shortboard surfing functionality and is used by Australia surf trainers.

Like YOW, Smoothstar offers a very loose riding feel and tight carving which works well for performance surf training.

On the flip slide, Smoothstar skateboards are relatively unstable and harder to begin on. Similar to YOW, they are great skateboards for a specific style of surfing but not as good for more classic surfing styles.

Does skateboarding help with surfing?

Skateboarding on a surfskate truly helps with your surfing. From personal experience, each surfskate session noticeably improves my carving and pumping ability in the waves and helps make my turns sharper and snappier, especially when riding a shorter, performance surfskate.

Training on a longboard surfskate, on the other hand, allows me to hone those drawn out classic surf curves when the waves are mushy or blown out. I can truly feel the difference once I get on my surfboard or longboard if I have been riding my surfskates.

Is surfing like skateboarding?

Surfing and skateboarding have a lot in common – skateboarding was actually born out of surfing to begin with. Stance and weight shifting in turns, for example, are very similar. Many surf maneuvers are found in skateboarding e.g. carving, tail slides, bottom and top turns, 360s, aerials and others.

Surfing and surf skating are even more similar in style as they both involve radical carves and pumping down the line and are mostly back foot driven. Surfskate is where surfing and skateboarding intersect the most with the closest riding feel.

See Is surfing harder than skateboarding? to learn more.

Final words

Most surf skateboards, through their tight-turning and hard carving surf trucks, are great cross-trainers for some type of surfing. The range of surf skates on the market is broad.

Some surf skateboards cater to high-performance, radical surf style. Others are great for practicing mellow, fluid surfing techniques and classic wave carving.

Other surf skates offer a riding experience similar to ocean longboard surfing.

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Photo credits:
– Featured image courtesy of Carver Skateboards
– “Hong Kong Skater” (surf skate lineup) courtesy of Henry Li
– Product shots courtesy of Carver, YOW, Waterborne, Swelltech, Smoothstar, Jucker Hawaii, Slide, Hamboards