One good turn sets up another.....

[Marty Agather]

I realize that this is the equivalent of asking each of you to describe how you eat, because for most of you this will be so elemental that you may not be aware of how you are actually doing it. But in the interest of plumbing the depths of your experience, would you please tell those of us newbies:

How do you turn your skateboard?

Do you lead with the front truck and then steer thru the cone with the back?

Do you shift your weight during the turn?

How about absorption and extension? Do you sink into initiation and then extend thru the finish?

Anything else that helps precision and maintains speed?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Keep 'em turning,

Marty

[Eric Brammer]

O.K., I'll bite. I was waiting, kinda hoping JG or CMC would speak up 1st..

Marty, you read like you're a PSIA instructor whose confused about just how these Slalom-type-boards work. If that (or something similar) is your background, then you'll love the body mechanics, nevermind the vehichular mechanics(whole 'nother matter), involved in creating good turns on a Slalom skateboard. I'll just list answers to save space+time.

1] Lean steering. Bank the board left(like a speedboat or airplane,or,surfboard)it goes left, right leaning goes right. Hint;don't lean with the upper body, use the ankles-knees-hips to guide your turns.

2]Slalom boards purposely tend towards more active or responsive steering from the front truck, with a less aggressive steer-to-lean ratio at the rear wheels. Cars steer like this, forklifts don't.

3]Yup.

4a] Yes, that's used, as it is in walking, surfing, or bowling.
4b]Sink? Um, no.Unless you're trying to really absorb energy (ie,slow down some). It's more of a flexing, and the body's mass is still quite active in feeding weight through muscle tension to the board's deck. Extension does usually occur to add body mass thrust to the last 1/3 or so of the turn.

5]Hmm, let's see. Precision would be bearing quality, lubrication, and fit on the axles, as well as use of high quality soft, high rebound urethanes in wheels and truck bushings,pintle and spherical joints in the trucks, wedged lifters between trucks and the deck, also decks made of such materials as fiberglass, hardwoods in either vertical or horizontal laminates, carbon fiber, bamboo, high-density urethane foam, kevlar, aramid, Bowtuff{TM}, concavity, camber and kicktail shaping; take your pick.
Speed, refer to wheels, bearings, truck set-up, deck camber, deck rigidity, deck flex, slope of hill and tailwind.

[Marty Agather]

Eric,

Thanks for your reply. Perhaps my question was a bit over the top (under the bottom??) in that it is pretty basic. It's not that I can't turn my board, I've got that part down at least to the point where I can consistently spear cones. Since I'm trying to change my style from parallel to modified, I'm struggling with speed edge to edge and weight fore-aft.

I do have some ski racing and instructing past, so those analogies come first to my mind.

When I was talking weight shift, I meant front to back. Mostly, I think practice is in order.

Thanks, Marty

[Tod Oles]

Marty,

At the risk of sounding a bit nebulous....My level of racing raised the instant
I quit just going along for the ride atop my skateboard and started to TAKE the thing with me...I started riding better just through that change of attitude. Your style will adapt
as you think more agressively...

Also, looking ahead has a big affect on whether you're just reacting to the "next" gate or
instinctually averaging the fall line and keeping your CG as centered to the entire string
if you keep your eyes trained down course a bit more...

I too also changed my style early on from modified to a more euro raised heel type of thing....Although I do go back and forth depending....It's fun to see the sections inside
a course that each style can exploit....

Have fun and keep practicing!!

Tod

[Eric Brammer]

I have this thing with PSIA, goes back to an Examiner telling me I wasn't 'skiing correctly' on my snowboard. I've been snowboarding since '78, so...

What you want to NOT do is the classic "Comma" turn. Think instead of how the wheels track, as the front will take a wider line than the rear (if your wedges are set-up correctly). So, if you're clipping cones head-on, wait a heartbeat, Then turn. If you're brushing cones aside (see where they land, use trajectory to backtrack cone's placement), then look at truck axle width, deck width, and foot placement (stickin' the toes out will bop cones). If your cones fly away more to the side than forward, it's either something at the back-half of the boards (rear wheel,foot) tipping the cone, OR, you're not going FAST enough.

In pumping, don't put your weight 50/50. but rather feed front pressure to initiate steering, both feet to 'plant' the board flex (Wes E, w/solid wood decks can ignore this part) at turn apex, and heavy on the rear to finish. DO NOT LIFT the front foot at turn's end! Bad, that.
Let your hips lead the feet by a half-heartbeat to initiate, let them be a half-heartbeat behind at turn's end. Drive the hands Forward and Up to re-center between turns.

And, yup, Practice. The tar dosen't change much. The course you run can be of infinite configurations. So, play with varying the course in width, then length distances between the cones. Use a ratio of five feet down-course (or more) to every foot of offset to the side. You probably can't make a 1-2/3 foot offset in a five-foot distance, so don't try for awhile. You can probably make a one-foot offset every 6 to 7 feet.

JG, my man, Speak Up! Put some wisdom up here, instead of my babbling..

[John Gilmour]

I turn my skateboard by first preparing to move my center of mass first (2 inches in from the navel ) for long radius turns. Then lining up my body in advance and finally steering teh deck through lean using pressure on teh front foot first 60/40 nad then changing the presure to like 55/45 as the turn progresses. IfI am trying to scrub speed in a wide turn without skidding I'll go 45/55 and slightly oversteer the rear.

If I want to dump speed abruptly I will de-weight hte rear for a sec. induce a skid and then feather it with hte back foot until i dump enough speed (this is done very fast).

You can only drop as fast as gravity so when going straight- drop your weight like a stone- then rise throughout the turn for more pressure if you need to ...or stay low.

Your body is part of the suspension that keeps the wheels in contact with the road. A flex board can help with this. A wooden baord effectivelyhas the stiffest suspension which means your body must really be perfectly smooth in absorbing bumps for grip. If you really know how to pressurize a flex baord I think they are an advantage in a course.

Anything that is really tight and non technical on a smooth surface is well handled with no flex because you really don't need the suspension vs the response time.

You can maintain speed better if you try not to move your center of mass far across the hill and instead extend your body keeping yoru center of mass closest to the "average center" of the course.

Being aero helps as well.

Also figure out your max pumping speednad note it for each slope and surface. If you can't pump faster...go into a tuck, or if you need to conserve energy do that too.

Good Luck-