Picking the right surfskate brand is a challenge.
A board that doesn’t fit your riding style will be frustrating.
Once you narrow down the brand that fits you, check how to choose a surfskate. We cover deck shape, wheelbase, and wheel characteristics.
Let’s go over each popular surfskate brand, starting with…
Carver Skateboards
HQ: Venice, California
Year Founded: 1996
Trucks: C7, CX & C5
Carver Skateboards is the pioneer of the modern surfskate scene. Most surfskate systems are inspired from Carver trucks.
Carver is a bit more versatile than other brands, making them solid for beginners. I’ll ride my Carver if I want to get into surfy carves, but still feel comfortable taking it more than a few blocks.
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YOW Surf
HQ: Basque Country, Spain
Year Founded: 2014
Trucks: Meraki & Legasee
YOW Surf is the brainchild of HLC Distribution. The Meraki surf adapter lets you carve deep and pump from a standstill. It feels natural to pump, gain speed and perform cut-backs. Their Legasee truck is a bushing-based, more stable cruiser design.
Waterborne
HQ: Costa Mesa, California
Year Founded: 2016
Instead of making it spring-based,
Smoothstar
HQ: NSW, Australia
Year Founded: 2004
Recommended for lowkey, technical surf training. It’s not a surfskate to ride more than a few blocks because of their adapter’s sensitivity.
Like Carver and Slide, Smoothstar uses an adjustable tension spring. As a result, riding feels consistent and smooth when carving.
Slide
HQ: Irún, Spain
Year Founded: 2008
The brainchild of the Sancheski company.
Slide’s adapter uses an adjustable spring, like Carver and Smoothstar. You can adjust the spring by turning the nut.
Slide is a good option if you want a surfskate that won’t break the bank and is beginner-friendly. It’s more mellow compared to most of the other surf pivoting adapters.
Curfboard
HQ: Munich, Germany
Year Founded: 2016
Curfboard created a swiveling design, which offers an insane amount of pivot. It swivels back and forth like the handles on a bicycle.
They are very easy to pump from a standstill. It almost reminds me of the motion of a ripstick/ripsurf.
Hamboards
HQ: Huntington Beach, California
Year Founded: 2012
Hamboards takes a different approach, with a spring-based truck in both the front and back.
Their boards carve rail-to-rail aggressively making it harder to generate speed from pumping.
They are best used on lowkey downhill slopes for consistent momentum. Or on flat roads using their land paddles.
SwellTech
One of the most extreme approaches to the spring-based surfskate adapters. Their design allows their adapter to rotate 360 degrees.
SwellTech isn’t for beginners. It can jackknife if you don’t have the proper technique. Some claim it is the closest feeling to surfing on land. The learning curve for SwellTech is the steepest.
