Technique Discussion

**neuros** · 06-03-2008 07:20 PM

I have to disagree a slight bit, hamsterchucker. There can be a lot of things that a rider will do naturally (like grab stinkbug) that while it's a style developed out of their own learning, being told to try differently can really help their riding.
I know there's no real substitution for going out and riding, but sometimes being told the right or easier way to do something while sitting on your ass is helpful when you recall it while you're skating.

And brooklyn, closeness depends on the speed you're moving, and who you're drafting. When you draft, you'll feel it... it's like a magnetic void of air (and it feels real good).

**Liam Fourie** · 06-05-2008 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by Grizzly

dude you suck balls im 14 and im better than you

Dude? WTF! That is a very valid point!

**243racing** · 06-05-2008 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by brooklynslider

how close to you have to be for a draft to really work
i was racing in prospect park at the rip and i was behind a huge alittle bigger then me
i had a evo while he had i think a sector9
we kicked off and i drafted almost imedietly
for some reason he still got ahead
did i draft too soon or was i not close enought
(its hard to remember but im saying mabye 2-3 feet behind him)

The draft goes back surprisingly far. I can catch my friends' drafts at like 10 feet maybe more.

**Liam Fourie** · 06-05-2008 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by brooklynslider

how close to you have to be for a draft to really work
i was racing in prospect park at the rip and i was behind a huge alittle bigger then me
i had a evo while he had i think a sector9
we kicked off and i drafted almost imedietly
for some reason he still got ahead
did i draft too soon or was i not close enought
(its hard to remember but im saying mabye 2-3 feet behind him)

Try practicing this without a visor on your helmet.. it helps a bit cos when you are in his draft you will feel less wind on your face.. Also it is important to try to be lower than you apponent as this will help alot too. But the faster you are going the further away the draft will stretch.. basically when you have to airbrake not to bump into them you know you are in there draft and the choice is yours when to take 'em! But stay close in corners or you might lose 'em. Don't be afraid to give your man in front a little push too.. but make sure he is not gonna mind you doing so..i'd only try that on straights and not ever going into corners OBVIOUSLY!! eNJOY IT!

**Thunder** · 06-14-2008 11:51 PM

when i was trying mario kart double dash the guy behind me made his move!!

**Lightning** · 06-15-2008 01:02 AM

Hey does anyone have a vid of someone doing "mario kart double dash" on the turns? And I'm talking about the speedboarding one, not the video game.

**Thiago Cavalet** · 06-16-2008 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by justgodown

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

Very very very good..

**SAuCy WOMbat** · 07-03-2008 12:55 AM

when it comes to goin FAST FAST FAST FAST!!! grab two of your skating buddies and create a draft train. u should have the fastest setup/person in the back, link on to each other and get in the most identical tucks as possible, while the person in the back has less drag he should push the front people to higher speeds. Pretty fun to see how effective it is!!

**Dimm** · 07-09-2008 07:45 PM

Okay so me and my brother (who is older than me) are going down a very large hill. Neither of us are very experienced but I have been speedboarding very often while and has mainly been doing some freestyle whatever on the flats. He's the kind of kid that learned a kickflip on his skateboard before he learned how to ride it.

Anyways on with the story... we both have dropped trucks and we're going down this hill something like... 20 mph. Nothing crazy. I get scared easily (I haven't even been longboarding for a year) so I start to footbrake to loose a little speed and carve more. I stop braking and keep going down and then all the sudden to my left he whizzes by me at a good 30mph. I see him up ahead. He starts to get little wobbles and guess what he does? He jumps off the godamn board. He jumps off thinking he can run it off. The amazing thing is that he did run it off. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. My buddy was also there and he was just like "how... did.... you... run... that... off????"

Anyways I footbrake to a gentle stop beside him and after a little while of staring go "why did you jump off?"

And guess what he says... "I was going too fast to footbrake"

I was completely shocked. Too fast to footbrake? I could of killed him for his stupidity.

Anyways the point of the story is a little more subtle than how stupid my brother is. Sometimes people aren't using a certain technique because it's their own "style" or what is comfortable for them. Sometimes people just don't know better. So if you see someone doing something you think is a little silly... like a weird tuck or something... tell them nicely that there might be a better way.

***SWEET*** · 07-09-2008 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by rkd350z

I was/ am in to car racing, so I apply some ideas to DH.
For the turn, I use Out-in-out for maximum speed through the corner and using most of space I can use while I turn.

It's a theory that does work for a car... Longboarders are different.
Here is my reason...
A car can go TOO fast on pretty much any corner. So in order to be at the extreme edge of the speed they have to go REAL fast and turn the minimum so they dont loose control. There fore they use this technique.
A skateboard sometimes doesnt go fast enough into most corners.
So different lines are sometimes more appropriate to be the fastest (inside inside inside in some case or inside inside outside.)
The distance to travel being shorter.
Of course in a tight corner where you have to slow down and cant get into at full speed, the normal outside inside outside is the one recommended

**DKcruizer** · 07-09-2008 08:19 PM

im kind of confused on this outside-inside-outside idea. if there is a two-lane road, and you are trying to take a hairpin, do you go all the way to the right on the road, turn, hit the inside of the hairpin, then turn so you are yet again on the far right, just going the opposite direction becausse of the turn? if someone could post a vid, or post a vid and tell me where in the video that is demonstrated, that would be great.

**Thunder** · 07-09-2008 08:23 PM

draft train is fun but what is a good teqnuique for tuck stance can someone post picture?

**TheRosen** · 07-09-2008 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by DKcruizer

im kind of confused on this outside-inside-outside idea. if there is a two-lane road, and you are trying to take a hairpin, do you go all the way to the right on the road, turn, hit the inside of the hairpin, then turn so you are yet again on the far right, just going the opposite direction becausse of the turn? if someone could post a vid, or post a vid and tell me where in the video that is demonstrated, that would be great.

the idea is that youre making a turn a wide as possible. by using the ENTIRE road, you can start your turn gradually before a corner and hold that line. if it is correct you will pass close to the left side of the road and holding your turn you will come back to the right side of the road. lets use a car for an example. at a stop sign a car stops, and then has to turn the wheel drastically to make the turn from so far into the intersection. there there was no stopsign, then the drive would slow down and start his turn earlier and less drastically. and if he was racing and didn't have oncoming traffic the turning radius that produced the fewest gs (perpendicular to the direction of the road) but was tight enough to still make the turn would be taken. try to visualize your driving this scenario. it helps.

sry i dont have a vid. just search for danger bay on youtube and watch the carnage corner. its a good example

**longboardorific** · 07-09-2008 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Dimm

Okay so me and my brother (who is older than me) are going down a very large hill. Neither of us are very experienced but I have been speedboarding very often while and has mainly been doing some freestyle whatever on the flats. He's the kind of kid that learned a kickflip on his skateboard before he learned how to ride it.

Anyways on with the story... we both have dropped trucks and we're going down this hill something like... 20 mph. Nothing crazy. I get scared easily (I haven't even been longboarding for a year) so I start to footbrake to loose a little speed and carve more. I stop braking and keep going down and then all the sudden to my left he whizzes by me at a good 30mph. I see him up ahead. He starts to get little wobbles and guess what he does? He jumps off the godamn board. He jumps off thinking he can run it off. The amazing thing is that he did run it off. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. My buddy was also there and he was just like "how... did.... you... run... that... off????"

Anyways I footbrake to a gentle stop beside him and after a little while of staring go "why did you jump off?"

And guess what he says... "I was going too fast to footbrake"

I was completely shocked. Too fast to footbrake? I could of killed him for his stupidity.

Anyways the point of the story is a little more subtle than how stupid my brother is. Sometimes people aren't using a certain technique because it's their own "style" or what is comfortable for them. Sometimes people just don't know better. So if you see someone doing something you think is a little silly... like a weird tuck or something... tell them nicely that there might be a better way.

ive found you can jump off alot faster than you can run. its fun, but scary as ####. when you foot lands you just jump then fly in the air for a while

**I_Eated_It** · 07-09-2008 11:52 PM

foot breaking is of upmost importance when your learning. i almost died my first day longboarding on my brand spankin new S9 bomb hills. Stock of corse. My friend took me down this hill. he was the one that got me into longboarding. we were only goin about 30kph i would say. 40kph absolute tops. but for your first day thats really freakin fast. i think most of us can say the same thing. hell i didnt even have slide gloves then, only your good ole skate bucket. anyways were "bombin" down this hill. i bracket "bombin" cuz at the time #### it was fast. so were goin down and i have no idea how to stop. and what do you know theres an intersection. my buddie foot breaks and tells me to slow down. then realising he didnt teach me how to stop. he starts yellin "OH ####..... I DIDNT TEACH YOU HOW TO STOP!!!" i was pritty much ####ed. so i had 2 options. rip through a busy intersection and hope that i get the light. or run off my board. so i ran off my board. couldent keep up. tucked and rolled a few times. then chased after my board so it wouldent get run over. needless to say it was an epic first day of longboarding. but it didnt phase me. i put alotta time into learning how to footbreak, coleman slide, and pendulum. all three of which are extremely important and can SAVE LIVES. another thing we all should keep in mind is loose trucks save lives. if you cant dodge that minivan bookin it in reverse outta that next driveway. your ####ed. enough said. Stupid hurts, wear your gear!

**TheRosen** · 07-10-2008 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by I_Eated_It

Stupid hurts, wear your gear!

good post as a whole but you should always wear your helmet, it can and will save your life.
saved mine and many others. read 'fellow downhiller in the hospital,' cry, and wear a helmet.

**I_Eated_It** · 07-12-2008 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by TheRosen

good post as a whole but you should always wear your helmet, it can and will save your life.
saved mine and many others. read 'fellow downhiller in the hospital,' cry, and wear a helmet.

i completely agree. wearing a helment longboarding shouldnt take any thought. you should just always wear it reguardless. you have one brain and i dono about you but id like to keep mine, and workin! i really dont wana be a vegetable lookin out the bedroom window for the rest of my life.

**Rayman75MM** · 07-14-2008 06:22 PM

Can anyone explain the technique of speedchecking, either toe side or heel side, people keep saying its easier heel side, but I find it easier to toe side, but then again, I cant do it, I keep stopping to fast, and im doing it like a coleman slide, so any advice would be awesome.

**kaplac** · 07-14-2008 09:16 PM

I don't do a lot of speedboarding. Infact what I do probably doesn't even constitute speedboarding.

But looking around at a lot of speedboarding videos and pictures as well as from the people of the fish.

It seems like a good technique for an (american?) tuck is by having your front foot angled to a 45, and the back foot on the toes, with the ball and heel in line with the center of the board. (this board has some good photos) Then the back knee should be located behind the front leg's calf. Hips should be aligned facing forwards, and the back should be as parallel to the ground as possible, with the arms following suit with the back.

With the tuck you're trying to expose the least amount of body from a forwards view. The only parts that should be exposed are the shoulders, head, and front leg.

Here's a photo... (courtesy of eastside longboards)

Please feel free to correct me if anything I said is wrong.

**longboardorific** · 07-14-2008 10:49 PM

Originally Posted by I_Eated_It

i completely agree. wearing a helment longboarding shouldnt take any thought. you should just always wear it reguardless. you have one brain and i dono about you but id like to keep mine, and workin! i really dont wana be a vegetable lookin out the bedroom window for the rest of my life.

very true, i might not be able to think right now if i didnt wear my helmet