how easy is it to fall off a luge?

[cheese12365]

so i want to get into luge. how easy is it to fall? and i dont mean hitting something. i mean like wobbles and such? what can cause a fall and how bad can it hurt?

[neuros]

you don't really fall off, but you can get thrown.... and then roll...
wobbles exist, not so much as in standup and like always it's a peace of mind thing, too-loose trucks at wicked speed can do it too.
the worst injury i have from being wob'd off at 60mph is a tear in my pinky.

[chrismcb]

you don't really fall off, but you can get thrown.... and then roll...
wobbles exist, not so much as in standup and like always it's a peace of mind thing, too-loose trucks at wicked speed can do it too.
the worst injury i have from being wob'd off at 60mph is a tear in my pinky.

It is pretty hard to fall off a luge. You can get wobs, and if you don't control them, it can flip you. But chances are you will wreck while turning more often than wobbing out. Generally you can start to slow down when you get the wobs, and you can actually withstand some pretty serious wobs.


How bad can it hurt? I dunno, but you can break bones if you hit something. Just start slow and take it easy. Start with tight trucks, and slowly loosen them. If you start to wob, slow down, and calm down. Wobs generally occur because you have your body too stiff.

[wardlarson]

never luged, but i imagine the lack of vertical drop when falling would reduce injury a lot.

[DPerjar]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. A hell of a lot less leverage during a fall. Basically falling off a luge is kind of like what happens to a skateboarder after he hits the ground, heh.

[GeoffW]

never luged, but i imagine the lack of vertical drop when falling would reduce injury a lot.

Absolutely not. The actual falling off of a speedboard isn't what causes the most injuries and/or pain. It's thinks like road rash, flipping around, crashing into stuff that are going to be where all of the bad things come from.

[swisschez]

Absolutely not. The actual falling off of a speedboard isn't what causes the most injuries and/or pain. It's thinks like road rash, flipping around, crashing into stuff that are going to be where all of the bad things come from.

im callin shenanigans on that claim. if you fall at an awkward angle you can definitely screw something. i.e. my broken scaffoid bone this summer.

in the end tho, its all relative. you cant say that injuries just come from only such & such cause and disregard others. its a whole plethora of causes/events/reactions that determine what happens in a fall. and i would go so far as to say that good and bad luck play the biggest roles.

[chrismcb]

Both standup and lugers race at speeds of 50-70 mph. At this speed, hitting anything can break bones. BUT in my experience a common standup injury is a dislocated shoulder (broken wrists might be next) This comes from extending your hands as you fall. The injury occurs from falling off the board and hitting the ground.

Lugers on the other hand tend to break legs when they hit something. They generally don't get hurt falling off the board (assuming they are wearing protection against rashes)
Unfortunately luge injuries are usually worse than standup injuries. While I think more standup guys get injured, their injuries aren't as servere.

[wardlarson]

well i imagine its like... if you get injured on a luge, its worse than on a standup setup... but its less common.

[swisschez]

video of matt thiede's crash i believe at bonelli a few years ago...

YouTube - Matt & Riley Street Luge crash

[Mr. Lang]

[chrismcb]

well i imagine its like... if you get injured on a luge, its worse than on a standup setup... but its less common.

That is where your skills come into play.
One difference is that if you get hit on a luge you might not crash, but if you get hit on a skateboard chances are you are going down.

Lang made some really good points. Another thing is to never give up. I've seen a lot of people wreck on a luge, because they gave up about half way through the turn, even though they had plenty of time to make the turn.

[Mr. Lang]

so i want to get into luge. how easy is it to fall? and i dont mean hitting something. i mean like wobbles and such? what can cause a fall and how bad can it hurt?

I hope, that I didn't scare you off with my long post.

[cheese12365]

I hope, that I didn't scare you off with my long post.

haha. i appreciate your help. those pics were great. especially at showing the lifting of the legs thing. that was a very useful post.

[phil6x]

it matters,
are you luging ona actual luge board or my friends hyper carve?
lol

[cheese12365]

it matters,
are you luging ona actual luge board or my friends hyper carve?
lol

haha. i am gonna use an actual luge. i have tried on my longboard and i nearly fell.

[Astro Nott]

last week my buddy bailed long boarding at 35 mph... Broke his wrist and elbow from hitting the ground...
This only happened because he didn't know how to fall..
you dont have to be going too fast to get hurt.
If you've done very much snowboarding that is usually really good practice for falling.

don't extend your arms..
Tuck and Roll

[SteveC]

last week my buddy bailed long boarding at 35 mph... Broke his wrist and elbow from hitting the ground...
This only happened because he didn't know how to fall..
you dont have to be going too fast to get hurt.
If you've done very much snowboarding that is usually really good practice for falling.

don't extend your arms..
Tuck and Roll

I 100% agree that you don't have to be going fast to get hurt.
but "tuck and roll" is terrible advice, well - it's certainly too general.

If you're going slow, sure.
Once you've got some reasonable speed happening you're way better off sliding - rolling will smash everything...

[Astro Nott]

ok i can understand that..
guess ive never bailed going more than 30 or so..
theres only a couple hills ive hit taking me to 50mph. Ive never fallen on them.. but the guy who got me into this has..
said he was doing flips and came out with only road rash.
Lucky

[AJ]

the worst injury i have from being wob'd off at 60mph is a tear in my pinky.

Ha! i miss that hill!