There are basically two big groups of surf skates.
There are pure surf trainers, which often have a spring system in the trucks.
Second, there are surf skates with traditional bushings, but the kingpin hole is oval so that there is more travel, also the bushings have higher rebound and the front truck is reversed.
I ride the second type a good bit. It’s pretty versatile. The only really big difference in riding style is that you have more maneuverability through a turn. That means that your turns are bigger with all 4 wheels connected to the surface. (Mostly it just requires finding wider lines in bowls, and planning to carve out where you kick turn.)
I ride my normal trucks super loose and on high risers anyway and come from the big swinging tic tac era so the mechanics aren’t that much different in that sense.
If you can’t pump or tic tac for forward speed, there might be a bigger learning curve
. Overall, they’re fun because they’re hard to fall off of because they’re heavy and limiting which is good for getting over the head trip that comes from weird slams on your regular board.
Fwiw, I think I can “surf” ace af1s about as well as Carver trucks, and gain speed quicker. If you know how to pump around in a circle without tacking or lifting your front wheels off the ground, you know how to surf skate.
I don’t surf, so I can’t compare the mechanics to riding a surfboard. Dudes seem to use the other type to practice snap backs and hard turns. I ride mine as a rehabilitation fuck around thing, like how people are with polorizers.
As to quality. The carver c5 trucks are very well made. They’re heavy and overbuilt. I think it would be easier to damage an ace or an Indy, tbh.