Technique Discussion

[AJ]

Freeride is just about having fun, its not about being the first down a hill or being in the lead.
Its not about going as fast as you humanly can, yes steez is involved, its about style, uber-drifting.
Its not racing, its about taking advantage of as much asphault you have on the slope.

[tsmith25]

for cornering lines you need to look at whats before and after the corner as well before picking a line. sometimes a terrible line through one corner might be the right one because of a corner after it or funky pavement. there is no black and white this is how you take a corner.

i guess the reality is that there is no black and white this is how you do it best because it is different almost everytime.

one of the most important skills to develop is your visual skills. you need to work on looking at where you want to go. if you pick points in corners that you aim for that will help a lot. pick a point where you turn in a point where you are as close as possible to the inside at the apex and a point at the exit. no that im typing this i just realized that i need to work on picking an exit point. i do well with the entrance and apex but need to be more precise on the exit.

[Racer128]

So what other techniques do we have? Seems people have a lot less to say here than in the 2 million gear threads

Freeriding again: One of the funnest/most useful things I have learnt recently is the ol' heelside slash turn/ back wheel drift/ standup speed check. I'm not entirely sure of the name, but you bust a hard carve and let the wheels slide out a bit to slow you down. I got fed up of killing my shoes with footbreaking all the time and most of the roads I skate have too much traffic/ not enough room to bust a full pendy on so I like to do slash turns to slow down. I think that learning them has made me skate slower because they are so much fun to do I end up bleeding off all my speed!

I find there seems to be a perfect weight distribution between front and back that lets the board slide, but not too much thats you get chucked off. A bit of foot out to the heel edge, so you can really feel the edge, seems to help too. Oddly, my favourite board for these is running lemon zig zags, a massively grippy wheel, but I find they slide very nicely, even if the hookup is a bit abrupt.


The best way to learn them seems to be trying to carve a bit 'too much', but you need to be in a nice solid position as it can all get a bit unpredictable in a drift. Heelside is definately easier than toeside as well, especially if you over drift and the back comes round too far.

Very good post. I was just practicing stand-ups in on the wet roads yesterday... even when it rains, you can longboard. I use it as an opportunity to practice drifts/slides/speedchecks with out having to get lots of speed (i.e. effectively making the learning curve or a technique safer).

EDIT: I love lemon zig zagz and one of my favorite hills (not very long, but twisty) is about 8 feet wide

[loaded vanguard]

ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride

Then ride alot more. Then dream of riding and get in fights with your girl friend when she says you care about speedboarding more then her. Then agreee, then find a new girlfriend. then ride

hahaha i like this kid. but no really, ride your board all the time and get comfortable with a hill your riding and stuff. but i think the best tip is the outside/inside/outside thing. i used it with all my turns.

[pistol pete]

this might sound somewhat noobish but why do people always bag on others when they see they grab stinkbug? i mean are they just kidding around because its unusual or are there actually advantages in grabinng the board other ways??

[CL]

ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride

This is funny but absolutely true. All the words and technique advice in the world wont help you at all unless you get your ass out there and ride, ride, ride, and practice, practice, practice. P = P...... Practice = Progression.

[bpz]

ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride ride

Then ride alot more. Then dream of riding and get in fights with your girl friend when she says you care about speedboarding more then her. Then agreee, then find a new girlfriend. then ride

+ 1

[T.V.A.R.]

^I agree as well ^ The best way to get better is not to think about it, or specifically practice it, but rather to go to hills that scare the living #### out of you, and ride em' until you've got em' dialed. Don't practice things like speed checks on corners that don't need them. Learn to fly by the seat of your pants and go ride your skateboards fast.

And now, because I like where this is going, I will sticky it for the time being.

[gavmck]

Sure, we could all just ride all the time and that would be great. But I'm at work, killing time until I can go ride at lunch and then after work, so the best thing for me to do (apart from work) is to discuss technique.

I'm not entirely sure about that :

go to hills that scare the living #### out of you, and ride em' until you've got em' dialed. Don't practice things like speed checks on corners that don't need them

Unless you have various techniques to ensure your safety on these scary hills, you will probably get hurt. Would you tell a kid to ride super pipe before he can kickturn or drop in? Telling people to go ride bugs me because that's obvious. If you don't realise that riding will make you better at skating more than anything else, you are obviously a fool.

Now we've got that out the way, back to the topic, technique discussion.

I'll answer pistol pete's question:
The reason behind not grabbing stinkbug is that it is much better for getting your weight off the board, which results in more control and less high siding (falling 'over' the board and down the hill). I used to grab stinkbug, hated non stinkbug when I first tried it, but once you get used to it, it is definately the superior grabbing position. It allows your knees to fold over more, which lets you de-weight from the board.

And in reply to riding in the rain:
Riding in the rain is awesome, I think every slide I have learnt on a longboard, I first learnt in the rain. The more conditions you can ride in and be in control, the better you will be able to use your longboard. Rain riding teaches me new techniques for the dry and dry riding teaches me new skills for the rain. It's the same with rough vs smooth roads, or narrow versus wide. The more terrain you can skate, the more prepared you are for new terrain.

[Racer128]

This is funny but absolutely true. All the words and technique advice in the world wont help you at all unless you get your ass out there and ride, ride, ride, and practice, practice, practice. P = P...... Practice =PERMANENT.

had to fix that. If you practice the wrong stuff, you will progress in the wrong way. Then it will be very hard to reverse your negative progress.

[Racer128]

^I agree as well ^ The best way to get better is not to think about it, or specifically practice it, but rather to go to hills that scare the living #### out of you, and ride em' until you've got em' dialed. Don't practice things like speed checks on corners that don't need them. Learn to fly by the seat of your pants and go ride your skateboards fast.

And now, because I like where this is going, I will sticky it for the time being.

If you are somewhat experienced, that is the to go. I was trying a speedcheck the other day and highsided. when I got up (out of the bushes), I thought to myself, "That hill didn't need a speedcheck, I was going way to slow to do one." If you are a noob, and don't know how to bail yourself out of a bad situation, DO NOT TRY THIS. Going to a super hard hill will just get you injured. I tried it when I was first starting, 4yrs ago, and opened up my chin and knocked myself out. Now, if there isn't any traffic (it goes into a parking lot), that hill is a piece of cake.

EDIT: I didn't see gavmck's post, but I completely agree with what he said.

[Racer128]

this might sound somewhat noobish but why do people always bag on others when they see they grab stinkbug? i mean are they just kidding around because its unusual or are there actually advantages in grabinng the board other ways??

What "other ways" do you grab rail? When I was learning to DH, I used to get scared and grab the board by the wheel wells, holding on for dear life, but i don't think that is a superior technique...

[gavmck]

Time for some more technique discussion!

I just got back from my lunchtime skate, which was one of the funnest sessions I've had in a while! Found ourselves a nice little hairpin corner (few and far between round these parts ooh arrr) and learnt how to drift round it heelside!

Some things I noticed:
- If you come into the corner with too much speed it is very easy to over drift and kill all your speed
- Grabbing nearer the front of the board seems to produce a more predictable drift and looses less speed.
- Make sure those knees get folded over just like when doing tech sliding or colemans otherwise the chance of high siding or hooking up to early seem greatly increased.
- There seems to be a 'sweet spot' between turning and sliding that takes you round the corner. Too much either way and you're gonna fall off.
- Super stoked!

[Racer128]

Time for some more technique discussion!

I just got back from my lunchtime skate, which was one of the funnest sessions I've had in a while! Found ourselves a nice little hairpin corner (few and far between round these parts ooh arrr) and learnt how to drift round it heelside!

Some things I noticed:
- If you come into the corner with too much speed it is very easy to over drift and kill all your speed
- Grabbing nearer the front of the board seems to produce a more predictable drift and looses less speed.
- Make sure those knees get folded over just like when doing tech sliding or colemans otherwise the chance of high siding or hooking up to early seem greatly increased.
- There seems to be a 'sweet spot' between turning and sliding that takes you round the corner. Too much either way and you're gonna fall off.
- Super stoked!

There also seems to be a 'sweet spot' for safety slides and speedchecks. Very helpful to go practice over and over again and find that sweet spot!!!!!

[cbgoding]

...and generally maintaining the steez whilst going down a hill?

I don't think you're allowed to say "whilst" immediately after "steez". It's too abrupt of a formality shift.

Anyways, I find myself grabbing rail with my right hand behind my right foot and deweighting the board with my left hand for heelside turns and grabbing rail with my left hand IN FRONT of my left foot in toesides. Is that...normal? Toesides have ALWAYS felt sketchy for me. In snowboarding, street skating, and now DH. it just feels scary. Guess I need to practice more?

[Blub]

I need some tips on cornering toeside, as you can see. (and before i start sorry for the BIG pics, please say if they are too big, ill fix it if its terrible for u.)

Well, for toeside. Look at my photos here, what is happening? Im hi siding. Why does this happen? Can anyone shed some light? I've read something that this happens when your right arm is too far back. or something.

Also, something ive read on the 'fish; when toesiding, if you want drift you can place your left (when regular) hand behind your front foot. And when you want more grip you can place your left hand in front of your front foot. True?

[AJ]

Get lower while still having most of your body over the board, and dont apply too much pressure on your slide hand, just let it touch the ground and be there when you need it, try to control the slide with you, your feet on your board.

When you over-drift like what seems to have happened in the picture, dont try to correct too much, by releasing all your body's ''lean in'' cause thats what makes you high-side.

Low and over the board, its key.

[Racer128]

Get lower while still having most of your body over the board, and dont apply too much pressure on your slide hand, just let it touch the ground and be there when you need it, try to control the slide with you, your feet on your board.

When you over-drift like what seems to have happened in the picture, dont try to correct too much, by releasing all your body's ''lean in'' cause thats what makes you high-side.

Low and over the board, its key.

It's the 'sweet spot' again... used to happen to me on safety slides, not anymore, I got it DIALED!!!!

[Racer128]

anything else? any more suggestions?

[bpz]

Go Skate