corner sliding

On 10/2/2001 roger wrote in from 66.51.xxx.xxx:

Heel side and toe side turns are very different. Heel sides are easier too learn because of their similarity to Coleman slides. Both are about gradually turning sharper to intitiate a slide and gradually getting your weight back over the board and regaining traction. Unlike the Coleman slide the board should not go too much sideways otherwise you will loose too much speed. Balancing weight between forward and back wheels and being fluid is critical. Sliding gloves are important, having a hand on the ground gives a lot of stability.

Toe side drifters (regular rights and goofy lefts):

Setup for turn by getting down low and grab front of board with forward/outside hand, just in front of your forward foot (near wheel well). Lean into turn and set trailing/inside hand on ground, put additional weight on toes of rear foot on the edges of the deck, bring rear knee out towards ground - this initiates the slide. Bring knee back in to come out of slide, get back in tuck, and exit turn. Be careful of those fingers, if they are pointed forward and sweaty leather grabs the road, ouch!

Heel side drifters (regular lefts and goofy rights):

Setup for turn by getting low and grab middle of board with trailing/outside hand. Lean into turn and set leading/inside hand on ground, gradually turn sharper to initiate slide, re-center weight back over board to end slide, get back in tuck, and exit turn.

There a lot of different techniques and variations and would expect some flaws in my technique, every day riding I learn something new. Sequence is not exact, on some fast turns I will lean, grab, and touch road all at once (no setup) and quickly go into a slide other times will keep a tuck into a turn and slowly set into a slide. It depends on the turn. Decreasing radius turns are the easiest to learn on because they give you time to setup.

Hope this helps.

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Setting up for a turn

On 2/5/2002 Chris Chaput wrote in from 63.168.xxx.xxx:

If you're doing 50mph and about to hit a turn that can only be carved at 25mph max without sliding you have a few options.

1. Airbrake way ahead of the turn.

2. footdrag ahead of the turn.

3. Throw down a pendulum slide before the turn.

4. Throw down a heavy carving slide into the turn.

You can be easily passed by the sliders and footdraggers if you airbrake. It takes too long to slow down.

The pendulum slide is dangerous to the other riders and isn't as effective as a carving slide but is faster than airbraking and safe for the guy who's doing it. A good quick footdrag may be done quickly enough to keep you close to the good sliders but can be tricky when setting up on an arc before the hard turn. Sliding into a carve is often times the best way to both decelerate and maintain good position throughout the remaining part of the turn. It's not a true pendulum slide but more of a
Coleman-recover-carve combo. Manu has it down to a science and he drops like a rock like in the straights with his mass. He has an odd low aero position that is difficult to draft. As a result, he wins a lot of the races that are long enough to allow for lead changes and that are technical enough to exploit the "slow brakers" techniques. The short little made for tv races are over after the push start.

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why hold the board? (for toe side turns with hand down)

On 8/28/2001 Chris Chaput wrote in from 63.168.xxx.xxx:

A couple of reasons. It puts me in a comfortable kind of "locked" position. You'll notice that my front foot can't slide off to the outside with my hand there. You can also pull the rail over for extra steering. With the pad of the outstretched hand just skimming the surface, you find yourself in a very stable position for carving a clean arc around the turn. I suppose that the arm in tight to the body is also aerodynamic, but that's not the real issue. Since my back foot has its toes on the rail, most of the leverage must come from the front. The final result is forming a tripod with your slide glove, front foot and your back toes.

Unlike the heelside slide, your board can get pretty far away from you and you still have the necessary leverage to keep your body off of the ground. You end up in kind of a push-up position but that's a whole lot better than not leaning in far enough and high siding onto your back and head.

Guys who slide the turns well unweight the board and throw it out ahead of them in a straight line slide to scrub speed, then reel the board back in, get it under them, put their weight back on it and carve the rest of the turn without sliding. It's an artform that is pretty awesome to see done well and at speed.

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toe side turns and slides

On 8/27/2001 Cliff Coleman wrote in from 216.224.xxx.xxx:

hc,

I do toe side turns while sliding but not often. As you mentioned in your post, many find when they don't slide toe side properly they end up on their back. It is impossible to run it out from a toe side slide gone bad. This finds many skaters impacting on their back and head.

To be a great racer on technical courses a rider must be able to slide equally well both heel and toe side! The top Europeans are very good at this.

Chris, you say you need help with your training? My offer to you still stands if you can find the time to come to Berkeley. For over 20 years I have offered to teach anybody that is interested to improve or learn slides. You guys better take me up on this offer before I have to start charging for lessons.

Chris, I don't hate it when people refer to slides as European. You might say I love it the least. The European riders have helped me present this style of riding to the world and I thank them for it. I have met many of them and they are truly my friends.

One more time Chris, Berkeley is ready and waiting, are you? Also, that Drag racer Kludy has been sighted sliding at Barrett Junction with CliffSlider gloves. Kludy, come on back and do some sliding with us again.

Cliff Coleman

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On 6/21/2002 mikez wrote in from 196.2.xxx.xxx:

my sliding corners in general thoughts.

when to slide:

When racing I don't use sliding as a racing technique but an 'in case of emergency' technique.

When you are hitting a corner as fast as you can and the guy in front of you wiggs out and eats it accross your line you slide, I think in almost every race I have been in or heard of(except for one, Rio, and I only heard of it) sliding has been unneccesary. all of this is completely useless for the heavier guys when you consider I am a 6 foot twig who weighs in at a huge total of 65kg's.

Situations that I would use sliding in:

when you screw up while foot braking.

when there is someone hogging the outside entering a corner.

someone falls accross your predicted racing line.

when you enter a corner to hot.

when the back of your board keeps kicking out(either let it slide or get bucked).

passing on a corner just before the finish line or where you are going to stay ahead (ex into a heavy decline).

a corner that goes straight into another corner(ie.where you would not have a chance to footbrake between the corners).

How it's done (the safe way).

a couple of 'mike's pointers'

- stay low: if you're center of gravity is too high you will high side or not have very good control. probvably the most important 'secret' to sliding properly

-put your hand infront of you next to your front wheels not in the middle of your board next to the center of your board: (unless you enjoy sliding straight) I see this mistake a lot at local races learn how to control your direction/which wheels are sliding: I find this is controlled by foot pressure from each leg and where your hand is in comparison to your board/how much pressure is on your board/hand.

learn how to predict how early to slide: when you are entering a hairpin with a circumference of 4 meters and you are going 40mph(just an (extreme) example) you are going to need to start sliding well before the corner or you will eat it.

take an extra special note of the camber of a corner.

Always use the 'apogee' of the corner: I am lead to believe this means, start the corner on the outside, hit the apex and then come onto the outside again, or for short i teach people to take the corner 'OIO 'which stand for Outside Inside Outside, this is the line with the fastest entering and exit speed useing this line it actually scared me how much faster I could enter corners when I first started using it. This is just what I think and do when sliding corners in racing situations, I just reckon this is the fastest way to race for me.