Alessandro Servadei: snowboard, surf and surfskate instructor ... do you want to introduce yourself and tell something about yourself to those who don't already know you?
I was born in Ravenna 47 years ago and spent most of my life surfing and teaching snowboarding, surfing, and surfskating. I have always surfed, but having grown up in Italy, on the Adriatic, snowboarding has always been a real possibility for me. I did a lot of freeride snowboarding and I spent many winters teaching, until I chose to devote myself completely to surfing.
About 10 years ago I decided to move to Fuerteventura, where I still live today, to be able to dedicate every moment to my passions, surfing and surfskate.
How and when did you think of using a surfskate for surfing training and how did you become the surfskate training guru?
Skating in general has always been my method of training to improve in other table sports, but before the advent of surfskates there were clearly limits. With the advent of surfskate trucks it has become possible to do a bottom turn, and not only. I started to have more and more fun and notice more concrete improvements in the water. This was the spark that sparked a growing interest in me in this training methodology to the point of proposing it and using it in my surf schools as an integrated program to traditional lessons.
In 2013 this training methodology was tested with super positive results by the Italian Winter Sports Federation (FISI) to which, personally, I proposed my surfskate training method for the National Boarder Cross Team that was preparing for the Winter Olympics of Sochi. The program aimed to create new motor patterns for athletes.
Many surfers claim that surfskate actually has nothing to do with surfing, that it is only a commercial gimmick of Carver and company and that the only way to train for surfing is to go overboard. How do you see it?
I also support the theory that the best way to train and get results in surfing is to go as much as possible to the sea, but for those who do not have the possibility and above all cannot have a consistency in surfing at sea, the surfskate is a great Help. This is testified by one of the strongest emerging athletes in Italy, Edoardo Papa, who since his childhood has integrated his surf training with surfskate.
The surfskate is a tool that concretely allows you to train out of the water and learn a maneuver by repeating it dozens of times on the ground, so we can go back into the water and know how to do something that was previously unknown, or correct a posture defect .
But specifically who can benefit from surfskate, and to what extent? Only advanced surfers, who want to improve their posture or practice new maneuvers, or even beginners struggling with foams or the first green waves?
The benefits can be obtained at all levels of surfing from beginner to advanced. Of course, using a concrete and effective method the results will be more tangible.
Those who practice this discipline alone and without cognition often tend to stabilize by repetitiveness the mistakes that they already have during the practice of surfing, strengthening them. It is no coincidence that for every sport there are schools, methods and instructors!
E i longboarder?
For longboarders there are longer surfskates with decks from about 36 ”upwards which serve to simulate the specific longboard technique and of course the teaching teaching will be appropriate to the longboard style.
And what about snowboarders?
As for snowboarders, it is sufficient to apply a different teaching from surfing very similar to that used on ski slopes or powder runs.
In a couple of months a board that I have just made for Outride designed with press points that are used on snowboard will be on the market .... it will be a very versatile surfskate !!!
With just one change of stance I can change the style from snowboard to surf!
Do you think it is enough to take a surfskate and start having fun in the backyard to get benefits in the next surf session?
Clearly the more the surfskate will be used in a technical and conscious way, the more the results of improvement will be high and targeted.
Nothing goes away that even just having fun in the backyard we can obtain improvements on the fluidity of movements and on strengthening the lower limbs.
How important is it to train in a skatepark or in a pool or on any other ramp that can simulate a wave, compared to just flat training?
The next step to the flat are training in waveparks and skateparks and this type of training adds the component of verticality and will make the result of motor sensations closer to the reality of the wave.
In this training method you can introduce the typical lines of wave surfing as the dynamic of the movements will be enriched by the vertical section of the wave.
Who do you want to approach surfskate for the first time, how would you recommend choosing your skate?
I recommend buying the ones I designed !! ... joke !! (They are the surfskate Outride ed.)
The most important thing is to choose the length of the deck according to your height and the width according to the size of your feet. You will have to experience a feeling of comfort in the stance, it must be very close to what you use on wave surfing.
The choice of trucks is very personal as certain tilting models (type C7 by Carver, Yow and Smoothstar) are very soft and unstable. I recommend them to light people and for use on the flat, while for more sustained speeds and radical maneuvers on the structures, the King Pin Reverse (i.e. Carver's CX type trucks) will be easier to use.
And for those who have just bought a surfskate, are there any basic exercises you can recommend to get started on the right foot?
The basic exercise most suitable for anyone's progression is the toe and heel press , i.e. generating speed with the only pressure synchronized first on the toes and then on the heels.
For those wishing to take a few lessons, are there surfskate schools in Italy?
Clearly there are sports associations with certified surfskate instructors that operate on the national territory such as www.surfskatecoaching.com , www.surfyourcity.org , www.northshoremilano.it , www.surfweek.it www.surftrainingfuerteventura.com
Many will be born in the coming months other federal and amateur realities as I am increasingly required to train new surfskate instructors also from surf schools who are realizing that without a well structured teaching, teaching is difficult and not very effective.
To contact Alessandro Servadei surfskatecoaching.com
Pubblicato il 11 aprile 2020 | Blog > Technique: SURFSKATE | KITESURF | SURF