Types of Surfskate Trucks

It has not been long ago since no one really knew much about surfskates. And there weren’t many of them available for sale either. But if you decide to buy a surfskate today, you may get lost in the abundant flow of brands and models.

In this post, we’ll tell you about major types of surfskates, more exactly — about types of trucks, the main pieces that can transform a regular skateboard into a surfskate. This review covers the trucks from the manufacturers, who are currently the market leaders.

Carver

Regardless of your skating style, most riders will agree that Carver boards are the best hybrids between a classical skate and a surfskate. Carvers allow both relaxed cruising and fully functional practicing of one’s surf skills. 

Carver features two different trucks:

Carver CX

A CX truck is basically a regular reverse kingpin truck with a slightly modified angle. Riding a board with a CX truck mounted gives you a feel similar to skating a single fin board. CXs are great for carving, free-riding, or pump-track skating. Many riders prefer C7 trucks for trick skating and CX trucks for the rest of the skating styles. CX is more stable and is much easier to skate in a pool.

Carver C7

A C7 truck is more surf-like as compared to CX trucks and is best suited for tight turns. And if mounted onto a short board, the surfskate will be ideal for skating sideways and improving airs in a skatepark.

The truck is adjustable to behave like a twin fin, a quad, or a thruster under your feet. 

Swelltech

The Swelltech truck rotates by 360 degrees. Its main job is full-featured surfing simulation and letting you focus on practicing surfskating. This truck is not for light riding, though: a rider has to work with their entire body ensuring a rail-to-rail transition and proper weight distribution between their front and rear feet, just like riding the wave.

Hence, the truck’s assembly is too unstable to ride in straight lines. And skating by simply pushing a foot away from the ground just won’t work out, too. But as far as surfing goes, this truck is a perfect tool to practice and improve your skills: here, you need to do the same movements the same way as on a surfboard.

Thruster I by SmoothStar

The thruster I turning mechanism by SmoothStar is an adapter mounted between the truck and the board and turns a skate into a surfskate. Skating a Thruster-based board is more like skating a Swelltech than riding a Carver. Still, the sensation is somewhat different. It is rightfully considered by many to be the best in the market of on-land surf practicing. 

Yow

Yow, an adapter manufactured in the Basque Country, is to be placed between the board and the front truck. Yow is considered to be an item intended solely for surf-practicing. 

Learning to skate is easier on Carver than on Yow thought. But if you are already a confident skater and are looking for surfing sensations on land, Yow is what you want. 

The advantage of the Yow adapter is that it allows locking a turning mechanism to reduce a board into a regular skate and ride classically without dismantling the adapter. This is really cool, especially when you have to get home or the bus stop quickly and safely.

Waterborne

The Waterborne surf adapter is purchased separately and differs from the rest of the adapters by its turning mechanism design: it is not spring-based; instead, it uses a polyurethane bushing similar to the one installed in the skateboard truck. And, in all appearances, such a structure allows better speed maintenance and ensures that tough turnings are more smooth and fluid.

A Waterborne surf adapter allows performing surf maneuvers easily while being quite stable when riding in straight lines, unlike Yow, SmoothStar, and Swelltech.

We hope this post helped you understand the difference between trucks by different makers. The choice you make depends on your goals: if your objective is longer rides in straight lines and practicing your surf skills, Carver is the best option. SmoothStar or SwellTech trucks are better for full-scale training to surf, and Yow or Waterborn trucks are recommended if you need something more or less universal.

Ideally, though, it’s the same as owning surfboards: it is good to have several skates and use each particular one in the situations it will best cope with.

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