Hello everyone.
It has been a long time, too long since I updated this post but more than ever I want all of you to be safe and have fun. This year (spring/summer) I found a group of insanely ambitious and dedicated skaters (downhill) and had the opportunity to learn so much. Some of them are within the top 500 riders on our planet. So 3-4 sessions a week, countless bruises and road rash was constant. One day though we got reminded how lethal the combination of an open road, 50km/h and even a stellar rider can be. Sadly we lost a friend within our local downhill group, a rider, a true ball of humour and fun. He died doing what we all share a passion for, skating. It was a hard hit, not easy to digest. It made us rethink a lot of stuff about safety, rider’s etiquette and how we organise our rides. We had meetings about safety, discussions with first aid specialists and formulated a new rule book. More and more boards are coming to the market that exceed speeds of 45/km h/h, also more poeple are building faster and faster boards. So I think it is easier than ever to draw comparison between downhill and esk8 than ever. The closer you come to downhill the more problems you inherit from it.
I am neither the best skater nor the best teacher. I am not trying to impose anything on anyone. Happy to concede anything you deem false, but I want to try to give my best to share my experience and the things I learned. Even if it prevents only one serious accident I would be extremely happy.
Alright lets jump right back into it I still had 2 unfinished points, as well as suggestions from you guys.
3.5.) how to handle loss of control
3.6.) general overview of your movement
3.7.) various tuning tips for your set up.
3.8.) falling
3.9.) stopping / sliding.
4.0.) presence of mind / thinking while riding.
3.5.) How to handle loss of control
No mater the speed you are going, what is key is being able to act, not only react. For that you need presence of mind. If you go into panic mode you can either be lucky, get hurt or make it a lot worse than it had to be. My idea here is, all of us go into panic mode if too many unfamiliar circumstances come together. E.g: A road you don’t know, a speed you are not familiar with, weather conditions or stress factors such as vehicles, a lot of people looking, a free animal or a loss of connection to your remote (no brakes). So we have to get familiar and more experienced. Again stressing the importance of riding a normal skateboard once in a while, try stuff out. Run into a grass patch and try to catch your fall. Provoke wobbles at lower speeds and learn to ride them out. Fully gear up and go ride on wet ground or for true adrenalin seekers wet leaves. You can simulate the situation you are most uncomfortable with or are the most afraid of. It is so important to do it. It allows you to control the surroundings (have someone with you you). So fall, get back up rinse and repeat. In a safe and controlled environment ofc. You will learn your own recipe, your own series of motions to counter certain events. The more you educate yourself and the more you practice the better you will handle oh shit moments. (e.g.: a free-runner jumping 8-10 meters down, without being hurt due practice and technique versus us who would probably be banged up even at 3-5 meters).
Since your skate is the only thing allowing you to control your speed, direction and turning you should never part with your board during those moments. As soon as you let go or try to run off, you surrender every possibility of controlling the outcome.
I could try to word out countering speed wobbles, catching yourself when your wheels block up etc. But if those things occur you have to react with your muscle memory, there is no way around it. You need to practice, practice, practice… I think you get my point.
If you have an esk8 group for regular rides or friends that skate. Maybe get into the habit to go gravity skating every third group ride. Learn to carve at higher speeds, try to drift, slide and footbrake. It is so much fun and gives you so much safety and security. Also it is a good reality check for everyone. I imagine most of you are comfortable topping out your board, so 45km/h it is. Now go on a normal board and go 45km/h. Most of you will shit their pants and that is a GOOD thing. You just realised that you are way over your limits. The scenario has happened that your esk8 became a regular longboard due multiple failures. This is something I sometimes struggle to comprehend. Why would anyone go faster than he can reliably, safely and quickly stop his board on his own. When discussing this with freeriders/downhillers they made jokes about Darwin awards etc. Even though it is harsh it rings true somewhat…
3.6.) general overview of your movement.
As long as you are cruising along, having a chat with your squad, your movement in general doesn’t mater much. Now lets say you are riding very aggressively. Fast acceleration and deceleration, now it is important to have a stable core. During acceleration it is even more important to not let the force move your whole body weight backwards. I would make the argument, that there is an ideal weight distribution for controlling your skateboard. Of course that changes if you change up the task you and your body want to do together. Nonetheless think about it as preset settings your body can take on to best tackle the movement ahead. You want to go full throttle, then prepare your body for it. YOU dictate where your weight is and where your hips are facing. You cannot expect to plant yourself on your deck hit the throttle and hope for the best. The same goes for turns, de-acceleration and carving. We don’t have a steering wheel or a bicycle handlebar. So it is fairly obvious that your weight distribution aside from granting you stability is your tool of control when it is comes to skating. Allowing the board to influence you so much that it is basically taking over control is sketchy. Be aware of what is going to happen, where your journey is taking you. Since we are fairly slow compared to other disciplines you have so much time to adjust foot placement, centre of gravity, speed and weight distribution. Again you do you at 20km/h but don’t fool yourself into thinking that the same effort should be made at 45+.
At the beginning it will feel like work. The more you ride the board and not the other way around, you will realise that it is actually more relaxing for your muscles, your back and knees if you allow your body to prepare for any forces before he has to overcompensate. Also, this is more obvious if you go gravity skating. Different speeds, different tasks require other motions. (you wouldn’t just put on foot on the street while riding and hope to footbrake and not face plant for example).
TLDR: Be active, you are riding a skateboard. You shouldn’t be chauffeured around.
3.7.) Tuning tips for your setup.
If you made it this fare you seem generally interested in improving anything really. I said before that the rider is more important than the equipment, still there are a few things I haven’t seen suggested yet on here.
3.8.) Falling
Got asked to cover this multiple times. Well, going back to what I said above. You need muscle memory and practice. How do I get practice in falling you may ask ? Go gravity skating, get yourself a nice Longboard setup (A quality set up that I would comfortably take over 50+ km/h doesn’t need to be expensive, feel free to ask if you need suggestions.) then put on your gear which should include helmet, sliding gloves, elbow- and knee-guards. If you have a bad back or don’t mind trading being uncool for safety get a back protector. Nothing is steez or cool or wicked about pushing your limits without protection. Then hit your local hill, if you push yourself you will fall anyway. Soon you will realise that there isn’t only riding or face planting. Remember though, trying out new stuff means to have a low centre of gravity, falls don’t hurt as much, you can react faster and it is easier. Whatever you do, never try to run it of, never ever. Do not get separated from your board.
Good tip, get some leather pieces and glue them on your ass. Yes you heard right glue leather on your behind (on the pants of course). So if you fall try to use your puck your feet on the board and your behind as your main things to counter the impact and limit road rash. Trust me having half of your ass covered in rash with gravel inside it makes for a terrible visit to the ER and a real joy sitting in your office chair at work.
The faster you go the more falling looks sort of like breakdancing or push ups. You want to catch your fall with your gloves so your arms. Never with straight arms, catch your weight as you would from a push up with bent arms. If you can stay on the side of your shoes ( there needs to be a serious amount of friction to eat trough your shoes) and basically hold that push up until you stopped. If you are thinking well I don’t ride with gloves, ehm this thread is about high speed skating or exercising your ability as a rider. So you either are near topping out your board 40-50km/h or you are conquering new territory and you don’t wear gloves (preferentially with hard pucks) emmm whyyy man ? You wont find anyone beginners or skilled riders in any longboard subgenre that has to do with speed not wear pucks. It is just common sense really and also necessary for intermediate riding for corners added safety or stability and during hands down slides.
Example from a fall of mine, had more “impressive” safes but this is clearly visible what I am doing and how fast your recovery is. And shows if you are riding stupid and your head is elsewhere and you are to fast for your wheels you end up falling.
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3.9.) stopping/sliding
So this will definitely be a video, once it will be dry here. Do I need to learn to footbrake you may ask yourself ? Of course you do. I mean if it to steep for your brakes, they fail or you are gravity skating. Nothing you learn should be done fast before you can reliably brake. Now do I need to be able to slide you may ask yourself. Well this is a jiffy. I would say yes and probably get ridiculed for saying this, so I will settle for the following. If you want to further explore skating, have fun doing it and want to broaden your horizon go for it brother. It is fun, super effective for an emergency stop and gives you so much security. Also in the process of learning to slide you will gain so much.
I allways tried to get my fellow esk8ters here in Switzerland to join me for a slide session. So let me give you an example of what @Virginator benefited from it, since he was the most recent one. He came with his gravity set up, proper protective gear and we went up the hill with the funicular. We started with some starting exercises that are useful for the beginning of your slide, in which you learn to make a turn in the opposite direction of your slide to prep your body and make the centrifugal force help you in the following turn to release the slide. Sounds super technical but feels intuitive to almost anyone once tried. I realised that he only pushed mongo back up. So I immediately wanted to see his foot-braking. Well everyone who exclusively mongo pushes will have a harder time to footbrake as a beginner since your back foot instead of your front foot got 100ths of repetition in balancing on one foot. But with a few pointers and tips and some repetition he got the hang of it at a comfortable speed. Then we went onto bigger things, sliding. First turning around a fixed point circular in a pre learnt position we practised together while standing still. After 2 tries he was stopping by basically going in a super tight cycle coming to a full stop. Now we worked on weight distribution, actually putting weight on your puck on the street and the feeling of sitting down outside of your board ( we did Coleman first). I went for a ride down and came back, he was still at it, practising. Later in the evening more riders joined, one of which is one of the old brigade. With decades of experience, he is not the fastest or anything but one of the best teachers I have ever seen. So same evening, the dude was sliding. Making us and himself smile. What really hit me is that he would have never ever thought he would ever be comfortable to throw down the whole drop until the sliding spot in weeks. But he did it on the same day, no sweat. He was surprised how much more safe and in control he felt doing anything on a board after that. So all I am saying is that it will give you so much confidence, security and fun while learning. And as soon as you can reliably slide, you leap in progress. It opens up so many possibilities for you.
4.) presence of mind / thinking.
This is actually a big point in safety. Most of us do it instinctively but tend to get lazy with years of repetition. What do I mean with presence of mind.
It is realising the conditions you are riding in :wet, leaves on the ground, crowded, near a park, speed limit etc.
Being aware of your skill and lack off: do not join busy morning streets for your commute as a beginner for example. Realising the driver has no idea is there and outs in the turn signal.Actively judge the surroundings around you, realise what is a risk to you and assume the worst of those risks. You have not a single inch of aluminium, airbags or anything alike around you. So your safety features aside from you skill is your “presence of mind” so think, actively don’t go into autopilot on an esk8. You will learn that little kids, dogs and cars react in the most stupid and absurd way and can become dangerous if not paid attention to.
This is so obvious that some actually manage to overlook this. We all get lazy, I mean a fell on my face going over wet leaves at 40+ on a turn. Of course I saw the leaves, new they were wet but I just wasn’t thinking.
PS: For videos, I got so many hours of footage but don’t want to just spam it on here. So, I thought, that you guys decide what the videos will be about. Category’s such as falling, emergency stop,foot braking, griping corners come to mind. Reader’s choice so to say.
