Surviving ramps and bowls - a beginner's guide?

[ShimmyFlash]

I was wanting to venture into the neighborhood skateboard park (during school time when there's no one around to see me bail, obviously!), but I was wondering - what is the correct posture to take when coming down a ramp/bowl on quads? ie. How do I not land on my head with any consistency?

[Ball Baron]

I don't know anything about ramps and bowls, BUT... I've taken some sweet hills on my quads ... or a sweet hill, and I found that the best thing to do was to just crouch really low... and don't panic...

but I'm sure other people know more about it than me

[Roxy Rockett]

keep your head up, always look at where you're heading.
bending at the knees helps with balance.. and it keeps you low to the ground for when you need to bail.

[ShimmyFlash]

Thanks, ladies! I received my heel brake today, and once that sucker's on, I'm going to find a quiet moment to discretely try those tips out.

[Cpl Punishment]

keep your head up, always look at where you're heading.
bending at the knees helps with balance.. and it keeps you low to the ground for when you need to bail.

Hey Roxy, fancy meeting you here!

ShimmyFlash, what she said. If you have to bail, best to drop to one knee as soon as you can to avoid a hard fall (you are wearing knee pads, right?). Keep low, as it helps your center of gravity, especially when its changing if you are going down a radiused ramp. Once you get down a ramp once or twice you will begin to feel how you need to do it.

[ShimmyFlash]

Thanks Cpl!

[GRocky]

My advice to you is not to have fear, but not to be too ambitious at the start. You're going to fall down. A lot. And it's going to hurt. So wear pads. The best place to start would be a quarter pipe. Just get used to riding up and down it, or taking the little elevated boxes. It's basic stuff, but you'll get an idea for what it feels like to get into some serious vert. When you feel a bit more comfortable, try dropping in off of the platform. This requires hooking your skates over the edge of the coping and dropping in.

To do this, it's just a matter of leaning in and going down. There's that brief sensation of going down flat on your face, but as you do it more and more, you'll get more comfortable with the feeling of weightlessness. And addicted to it, at that.

When you're ready for the half pipe/bowl, combine these concepts and ride back and forth. After that point, the sky is the limit.

[ShimmyFlash]

Thanks, GRocky. I haven't had the time to go try out any of these awesome tips, but I'm tryin'! I'll post results when I do.

[QuadFlight]

i like to make my way to the skate park at 1 am or there abouts...when noone else is around, usually we have it all to ourselves...the only thing that sucks is sometimes the dew is bad and it gets slippery....otherwise its sweet, theres no distractions, i crank up me mp3 player and go off...not to say im reall good lol...

[RollerGirl]

Hey Shimmy!

All of the above advice is good

Stay relaxed with a low posture and take things in small steps. Since you are local (Vancouver) you should come out with me sometime. It is way easier to start if you have someone to show you the basics.

I brought a bunch of the derby girls to China Creek a couple of weeks ago. We were there at 10:30am on a Saturday morning. There were two little kids but that is all. By noon there were more skaters but we had a lot of fun! China Creek is the best place for your first skate session.

I think I might be doing another group session at Bonsor, China Creek or RDS soon. I will send you an email about the next session.

[ShimmyFlash]

Hi Lisa - I got the email about the last session you had, but I had work that morning (AAAAARGH!). I would LURVE to meet up with you and the girls next time you're out, especially after I saw the after-comments on the TCRG forum.

[RollerGirl]

Well I am planning another one really soon, so I hope you will be able to come out to the next one. The last one was really fun!

What is your schedule like these days? Are weekends bad for you? Usually i try to set this up for a weekend morning, because there are less people at this time.

[ShimmyFlash]

I usually have week-end mornings off, but we've had crazy staffing issues these last few months. Saturday mornings are usually great. Although, isn't TCRG having Saturday practices now?

[GRocky]

Roll with me, my peeps!



Check out those awesome Rollergirl Senseis in action!

[WebSiteBoy]

WOAH!

Is that a... what do you call it.... inner-foot nose grind ? (As in grinding the front truck of the inner-most foot) Or inner foot stall ?

Wicked in any case

We always love to see what people are doing on their skates so keep us posted.

Submit a couple nice shots like that and you win your own roller skater profile page on the next version of our website (coming soon. I know... I keep saying that.. but it's coming believe me) so all of us peeps can keep peepin'

Cheers