Noob, sliding, wheels !?

[Esby]

Sooooo......
Absolute newbie, didn't even skate my youth !
Learning list was simple:
1 learn to stay on board
2 learn to turn
3 learn to stop.

No. 3 is doing my head in.
I knew sliding/Coleman would be difficult, but lord almighty!!?!?
I was expecting my wheels to budge to some degree, and the difficult would be in controlling how much, direction, timing etc
But I simply cannot get the darn things to slide 1 measly millimetre!!

So is it ALL me?
Board is a Lush Symbian.
According to the previous owner, wheels are Cult Classics 70mm..... and a little googling tells me the are 80A.
From what I've read, these should be ok for sliding, but I'm wondering if the best for a complete beginner?

Cheers for any tips....

[pete]

never slid a longboard, but i'd guess that in 90% of cases people probably aren't going fast enough. maybe find a nice bit of smooth crete and try a little more speed :/

[Jory]

80a is pretty grippy, most popsicle board skaters will be on 99 or 101a.

You will need a tonne of speed, smooth concrete and a lot of body English.

[Fen]

I have a Lush longboard with Cult Ism wheels. They are 88a and promoted as having good sliding formula. You do have to go at some speed though. I don't ride it that much, but sometimes use it as a commute board.

[Esby]

Hmm, so I see 2 problems then.
First and most obvious is speed!
Now I'm not going downhill zoomin and anytime soon, quite happy just lolling lazily around for now .. and with the comments above, maybe I'm better off just chilling out with foot breaking for now.

Second thing I note, is 'smooth crete'.
There is absolutely no 'smooth' anything around here, just whole heaps of poorly maintained tarmac, abandoned car parks etc..
So if I have to be choosey, then another reason why I might want to forget sliding for a while.

All in all, I'm thinking that sliding as a stop tactic.. might not be as such a 'necessary' priority as I thought.
Just need to get cooler at footbraking !?

[HarryR]

At low speed foot braking is the way to go. The next stage for low to moderate speed is running off the board. Just don't do this if the board is going faster than you can run or you'll end up going arse over tit. Doing this on to grass is a good way to practice. If you're going faster than you can run, that's where the sliding comes into play. You need carve into the turn, lower your center of gravity and lean into it. If the board is going faster than you can run and you can't slide then your fucked

[Fen]

Hmm, so I see 2 problems then.
First and most obvious is speed!
Now I'm not going downhill zoomin and anytime soon, quite happy just lolling lazily around for now .. and with the comments above, maybe I'm better off just chilling out with foot breaking for now.

Second thing I note, is 'smooth crete'.
There is absolutely no 'smooth' anything around here, just whole heaps of poorly maintained tarmac, abandoned car parks etc..
So if I have to be choosey, then another reason why I might want to forget sliding for a while.

All in all, I'm thinking that sliding as a stop tactic.. might not be as such a 'necessary' priority as I thought.
Just need to get cooler at footbraking !?

No pain no gain in skateboarding. You just got to work on it. Hard wheels are easier to slide but if you are riding big softer long board wheels then you need speed and technique. The easiest slide (I think) to start is backside bert slides. Hands on the floor and push the board round 180.