Longboarding is a sport similar to skateboarding. It uses a longer board, bigger wheels and sometimes bigger trucks to let the sport of longboarding include speed, freeride, slide and slalom. Longboarding is a lot of fun, and it's arguably easier to pick up as a beginner than skateboarding is. If you have a longboard and a little bit of time on your hands, get out there and start practicing! Before you do, read this handy tutorial.

- Starting Off
Decide what you are looking for in a board. Are you looking for a board to cruise on around town? To hit the skatepark with? Or are you looking to rip down big hills?

Get some protective gear. You may not think it's the coolest way to longboard, but especially when you're practicing, it's a good idea to be padded up. If you're doing more extreme versions of longboarding, getting padded up is essential.

- Longboarding Basics
Practice moving yourself forward. Take your back foot off the board and use the ground as something to push off of. You can go for one big push, or several smaller pushes. Try to keep your body loose as you push off; the stiffer your body is, the harder it will be to keep your balance.

Practice turning, or carving, on your longboard. You'll need to practice turning on your board if you want to ride around. Turning is quite easy. All you have to do is put pressure down on one side of the board, leaning in that direction, and you'll turn:

Don't worry if your board doesn't look like the one in the videos. Getting comfortable with a board takes time and the techniques work for almost any shape and size board. Hard wheels (durometer of at least 86a) break traction easier, making learning to slide easier

Have fun but be careful. Longboarding is a ton of fun, but pushing it too hard can cause serious injury. You never think it'll be you until it actually happens to you. Be mindful of potentially dangerous situations and prepare accordingly or take yourself out of them before it's too late. That being said, have a blast cruising on your new toy