The cure to speed wobbles

[Lukasz]

keep your midsection loose, and your legs locked. Get low and try to stay relaxed. The more you freak out, the more chance you have of dying. Wear protection, keeps you safe if you bail, and gives you more confidence.

[Maxx]

I deal with wobbles by telling myself "No I am not going to fall, how dare I even consider such a thing. I'm too good for that" Of course I'm not, everyone falls but it's all in the confidence level. Tell yourself that you are 100% certain you will arrive at the bottom of the hill. And if you happen to be falling, well that's where instincts, pads/gloves, and a helmet come in handy.

[threefingerflick]

This works because you live in florida.

hahaaa yeah dude!!!! ive probably never even been over 30!!!!!

[enemy combatant]

Jumping off of the board onto grass and running it out or rolling are the two best options imo

So wrong...

[B_Dubya_B]

This thread is full of terrible advice.

1. rolling out at speed is a good way to break every bone in your body.

-if you are bombing, you should have slide gloves and a helmet. when you bail, slide it out. get low, spread out like a star fish, use your shoes if you have no knee pads.
-if you think you can roll it out/run it out, find a real hill and taste some real speed. aint no one running out a ####up at 60 km/h

2. locking your self up at speed when you are wobbling is a great way to eat ####.

your board is oscillating, by fixing your position, you start to oscillate too. guess what happens next?

-get low, lean forward, relax by acknowledging that the wobbles are there because you are nervous and no other reason. keep your weight on your front, bend your knees, loosen up. also make sure your back truck is never looser than your front.

if you are still wobbling, you might need to get more comfortable with speed. if you make it out alive, try starting a little closer to the bottom until you are used to it.

[aloysius]

Man that is terrible advice. Jumping off your board, either into grass, dirt, or street is just asking for pain. Just because grass wont give you rash like the road does, doesnt mean it cant hurt you. I broke my left elbow two weeks into skating by jumping into grass at about 15mph to avoid going into a major intersection. Had I known how to footbrake, it wouldnt have happened....

My answer to your question is to stop pushing yourself so hard. If youve bailed hard 5 times due to wobbling out...your doing it wrong. Wobbles are always a sure sign of going beyond your comfort zone. Im not saying you need to be boring and only skate what is comfortable, but pushing yourself in small increments at a time is crucial to a long, successful life of skating. Otherwise, your gonna end up breaking a few too many bones.
__________________

QFT

Don't think about it. Once you build up strength it will not happen anymore.

QTF!!!

Don't get in over your head unless you have a deathwish, seriously, if you're confused about what's going on at speed then you shouldn't be doin' speed. All the kooks on sf can't give you a meaningful solution to your wobbles. I see originals in your sig.....

[Nerd de Burque]

speed wobbles just show that you want to be on the pavement more than you want to be on the board

reverse that and ride it out

[scottr89]

So i have had speed wobbles about 5 times in my life all leading to epic crashes.
Once you have speed wobbles is there anything you can do to ride them out.
And if your going to fall for sure what do you do?
Jump and faceplant?

Just have a few pints before hand and everything will be just fine

[scottr89]

So i have had speed wobbles about 5 times in my life all leading to epic crashes.
Once you have speed wobbles is there anything you can do to ride them out.
And if your going to fall for sure what do you do?
Jump and faceplant?

No........ i am not being serious. But now i am
Its all in your head man, i know ur probably going right now
Just stop worrying when your bombing, just let it happen and go with the flow and everything will be alrite.

[isk]

ive never had wobbles. i have extended my limits very gradually though, mostly due to lack of safe roads.

[Ogre]

It's like most things in life.. over come them if they pose a problem. Luckily I haven't experienced wobs in decades.. Just relax and ride it out like your're going 10 mph.

[SLAB City Jake]

I think the difference between the good advice and the poor advice has been highlighted pretty well in this thread so far.

I've definitely eaten it really, really badly from death wobs, but only once. I quickly figured out that standing up and being stiff only exacerbates the situation. Relaxing and proper weighting help mitigate the wobs, but like everyone has said confidence is the best medicine. Confidence comes from skating more, try and skate bushings much softer than what you normally ride, even if you're just carving and cruising. When you switch back to the setup you like for speed it really helps, for me at least.

For example. My DH board has kaha's with 90a venom barrels boardside/87a venom barrels roadside. However, on my 'freeride' board I'll put some 78a venom barrels boardside/81 venom elims roadside and skate that for a bit. When I hop back on the avenger it's smooth, stable sailing. Just some ankle strengthening disguised as skating

peace

[Bookworm]

I think the difference between the good advice and the poor advice has been highlighted pretty well in this thread so far.

I've definitely eaten it really, really badly from death wobs, but only once. I quickly figured out that standing up and being stiff only exacerbates the situation. Relaxing and proper weighting help mitigate the wobs, but like everyone has said confidence is the best medicine. Confidence comes from skating more, try and skate bushings much softer than what you normally ride, even if you're just carving and cruising. When you switch back to the setup you like for speed it really helps, for me at least.

For example. My DH board has kaha's with 90a venom barrels boardside/87a venom barrels roadside. However, on my 'freeride' board I'll put some 78a venom barrels boardside/81 venom elims roadside and skate that for a bit. When I hop back on the avenger it's smooth, stable sailing. Just some ankle strengthening disguised as skating

peace

or to put it in one word: SLALOM!!!!!!!

I can turn a circle about the same size as my evo is long on my TS board, makes DH feel like slo-mo.

[aloysius]

~or~ LDPush

my ankles are so strong from the miles that if for some reason wobbles occur it isn't scary, just lame.

[Beeks]

Let's just quote the original post really quick....

if your going to fall for sure what do you do?

Now that that's out of the way,

So wrong...

how do you figure?

[Bookworm]

[N. "Bowl" Pedrosa]

no slop on your trucks is obvious!
What I do is to try to weight my front foot just behind the inner bolts and lock my backfoot pointing downhill, this way it get's no or little influence on the back truck leaning, as it has little leverage... and with a stable back you can be safe and just do some very gentle carves... If I got into heavy wobles I would keep carving lightly the whole way down...
but again, that's just me

[AngryGumball]

The last time (and only time) I had gotten the annoying wobbles, I managed to ride it out. I had only seen wobbles happen before so I was quite scared, ready to find the nearest lawn to bail out on. No open yards, I just relaxed the shoulders, leaned slightly over the front truck and stayed as still as I could. Eventually the board lost momentum as the road leveled out, slowing down, thus leaving me to a happy ending of riding it out.

I was on a short/steep hill on a 29-inch mini with super loose trucks, and wasn't fully aware of carving yet otherwise I would have done that. Lastly, to add, the wobbles did not happen out of fear, I was enjoying the speed that I suddenly picked up until the wobbles kicked in.

So my advice (which isn't much) is not do loose trucks on a mini on a steep hill unless you're carving...and to relax the body, avoid sudden carves.

[Raif]

whenever I think of speed wobbles. sure enough, I get them. I just gradually build courage rather than bombing a hill for the first time full out and hope my testicles increase in mass and fortitude by the time I hit bottom.


also dewedge your rear truck if you think you need to, it helped me when i was learning on my pinner.

[Fuznubz]

its different for everybody, some like to lock up their joints to stabilize the board and others go loosie goosie and let their legs take the wobble out of the board..... it comes with practice, and always keeping your mind clear and calm. when i bail i try to roll, rolling gets rid of the friction that rips you to pieces here i did not roll when i wobbled out and slid:


Falling at lookout. A short story....

i was following my friend down a hill, and he got the wobbles, and he just f*ckin diverolled off, didnt even get a scratch, it was hella sick XD