Beginner's Guide To Longboarding with Taylor Jensen

Written by Anna Farrey

BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LONGBOARDING

EPISODE 3: THE CROSS STEP

Welcome to Episode 3 of Beginner's Guide To Longboarding with Taylor Jensen: The Cross Step.

If you've ever heard longboarding compared to dancing on a wave, much of that comes down to the cross step. As 4x World Longboard Champion Taylor Jensen (@taylorjensentj) puts it, "Cross stepping is the most functional part of longboarding. It's how we get from tail to nose."

In this episode, Taylor breaks down why the cross step is the foundation of longboarding, how it helps you maintain trim, speed, and control, and the simple techniques that will make your surfing smoother, more connected, and more efficient.

Unlike shortboards and mid-lengths, longboards provide enough canvas to move freely up and down the board. It's that constant movement—maintaining pressure, trim, and flow—that gives longboarding its distinctive rhythm and is the reason it's so often described as "dancing" on a wave.

Beginner's Guide to Longboarding

Episode 2: The Right Board

Welcome to Episode 2 of Beginner's Guide To Longboarding with Taylor Jensen, The Right Board.

One of the biggest factors in progressing as a longboarder is choosing the right board. In this episode, 4x World Longboard Champion Taylor Jensen heads to Surf Ride to break down the key differences between traditional, high-performance, and hybrid longboards, explaining how each design changes the way a board glides, trims and turns.

Whether you're buying your first longboard or looking to expand your quiver, understanding how rocker, bottom contour, outline, volume, and fin setup influence performance will help you choose a board that matches your ability, your local waves, and the style of surfing you want to pursue.

From traditional longboards like the Singleton and TJ Hull Rider, to high-performance models like the TJ Pro and TJ Pro V, and versatile hybrids like The Gem and Special T, Taylor explains why there's no single "best" longboard, only the right board for the conditions and the surfer.

Beginner's Guide to Longboarding

Episode 1: Longboarding 101

Welcome to the first episode of Beginner's Guide To Longboarding with Taylor Jensen (@taylorjensentj), Longboarding 101. In this series, the 4x World Longboard Champion breaks down the basics of longboarding and helps you understand early surf culture and how we got to where we are today.

In Episode 1, we meet up with Taylor at home in Oceanside and learn a bit about his background that led him to his four World Titles, then head south for a mini-masterclass on early surfboard design with one of the best surf historians out there, Eric "Bird" Huffman at Bird's Surf Shed (@birdssurfshed). Bird's shop houses his personal collection of over 1200 boards, and is a visual representation that shows how 70 years of history shaped the boards we ride today. Bird's archives show how TJ's modern longboard designs are very much based on the past, built on decades of experimentation.

The Gem

The Gem designed by Dan Mann is Taylor's 'one board in the trunk' option for longboarders who want both trim and turns—an intriguing intersection of shortboard style concaves with a longboard style outline, with the same fin placements that Taylor likes on all of his boards.

The Special T

The Special T designed by Dan Mann is Taylor's traditional longboard model, taking cues from the past. Designed for California beach breaks and softer waves, this shape is a great balance of ease-of-wave-catching and ease-of-ride, that offers a traditional feel with more performance underfoot.

The Singleton

The Singleton by Stu Kenson and Taylor Jensen is a modern nose rider that features a wide single concave nose and a tucked hard edge square tail, allowing you to hang 10' like a pro without compromising on the agility and ease of owning a lighter longboard. The wide point adds stability on the tip while that tucked hard edge in the tail makes accelerating off the bottom and cutting back easy.

The TJ Hull Rider

The TJ Hull Rider by Dan Mann is an all-around longboard that takes inspiration from the past, with modern performance. It's easy to ride, easy to paddle, and super fun, has incredible stability and a gentle hull bottom. The shape features a teardrop concave cut into the nose, flatter entry rocker, and a downturned rail and hard edge for speed and performance.

The TJ Pro V

The TJ Pro V designed by Dan Mann is Taylor's performance longboard designed to excel in everyday conditions. Tweaked from the TJ Pro, this shape has a lower rocker profile to make paddling and skating across soft, flat sections easy, and a wider nose for more stability on the tip. The squash tail and added spiral vee out the tail allows for more release and makes it easier to lean into tighter turns and feel loose underfoot.

The TJ Pro

The TJ Pro by Dan Mann was Taylor's go-to performance shape for competition before the WSL reverted back to more traditional criteria. It's got slightly aggressive bottom contours and some kick in the tail, this shape will go vertical while still maximizing the fun of cruising on a longer board.