hills

[Ok]

hopefully this isn’t a redundant topic.

fairly rudimentary, but i just never learned to properly cruise hills. trying to incorporate walking into my life more, why not walk up a hill and skate down?

being me, i am of course looking at gear selections (longer, wider).

rode out of some speed wobbles last night that i was pretty sure were going to chuck me. had to foot drag up until the point of no return, shamefully.

the setup, if that matters, is 8.125 shorter wb/length 56 radial fulls and 5.6 ventures. the loose trucks kit probably wasn’t helping.

the only tips i remember were gerwer saying something like make yourself heavy/hard to pickup.

any and all tips greatly appreciated

[Frank and Fred]

sounds like you already know what you are doing. the only thing i do is bomb a hill in segments. but now that i think of it i don't think that helps make a hill overall more predictable.

part of hillbombing is the unknown, right? the intangible line or something like that...

fuck the rules though, power slides are fun.

i've been doing the same thing for more exercise. walk up, skate down. i live next to an extinct volcano with hills all around it. mostly mellow but one side has some serious bombs. 97s make the power slides more controlled.

[Ok]

sounds like you already know what you are doing. the only thing i do is bomb a hill in segments. but now that i think of it i don't think that helps make a hill overall more predictable.

part of hillbombing is the unknown, right? the intangible line or something like that...

fuck the rules though, power slides are fun.

i've been doing the same thing for more exercise. walk up, skate down. i live next to an extinct volcano with hills all around it. mostly mellow but one side has some serious bombs. 97s make the power slides more controlled.

i’m definitely scheming a wider longer setup: the first time i skated a hill on a 14.75 wheelbase i was like ‘ooohhhhh that’s why these boards are longer’.

size over formula? what’s the most important characteristic in your opinion?

want to try dragons, because the roads are very very old. not sure if i can handle the difference in feel.

segments make sense.

i’ve heard back foot on the top two back bolts, helps keep the wobbles down. unsure if true.

[Frank and Fred]

I have the 58mm Conical Full 97s. They have just enough bite and stability to make hill bombing feel a little bit safer. Jeff Carlyle. inspired me.

I've always wondered why these SF bombers raise their hands above their heads when they get cookin. What's the thinking there.

[cucktard]

This and vert would be the only times i recommend wearing a helmet. The way you fall at these higher speeds is different than ‘regular’ skating. The chances of fucking up your noggin are way higher.

[Ok]

helmet makes sense.
i think the hands up is that your hands are closer to your head if it all goes wrong.

i tried 56 radial full 99s last night
56 97a classics tonight
both went faster than i wanted to go.

buying a longer skateboard asap.

walking back up is really pleasant

[Sativa Lung]

I do hands up when I get cookin sometimes, I always do it to keep my weight as centered as possible when I feel a wobble coming on. Not much different than doing it on a manny.

Tips for bombing - move to SF or Pittsburgh so you won't be able to go anywhere in the city without dealing with a gigantic hill. Necessity is yo mamas invention and all that.

In all seriousness - loose trucks are your enemy. They wobble easier and even your wheel going over a good sided crack or piece of debris can be enough to pitch you straight into wheelbite. This is a situation where stability is objectively more important than turning radius after all. I tighten my back truck at least half a turn or so before I do anything that I'm not totally comfortable with. I'm not doing Gx shit but I have gotten up in the 30 mph neighborhood according to one of those gps speedo apps.

You don't need huge soft wheels and you probably don't want them at first, they make it smoother but they also get you into "this is too fast, I'm in over my head" territory a lot easier which you definitely want to avoid until you're confident. To build confidence I just worked my way up and like someone else said I'll sometimes do it in sections or cut in partway down if the pavement or traffic situation is sketchy.

Know your destination (travel in straight lines as much as possible), don't fuck around with intersections, and learn how to land on the meaty parts when you do inevitably go for a dive. Other than that, hang on and enjoy the ride. Nothing quite like how your legs wobble at the bottom of a really good one and that high sticks with you for a while. Shits like an ice bath for your limbic system.

[231st Street]

Hillbombing is the thing that keeps me skating.  Yes its dangerous. Yes its stupid.  Yes it runs through your head at night.

Tips:

- 97a spits 56-58 mm range.  For me harder and I may slide out or hit a crack and softer and feels like once your going you can't carve without smashing.  I broke a front tooth skating 78a wheels once so I may be biased to harder wheels.  If I had a choice of soft or 99a spits, id go with the 99s.  Haven't tried Powell dragons yet.

- I like throwing medium bones bushing as bottom bushing and tighten a bit more than for skating a bowl for example.  I refused to do this for years until I got absolutely destroyed due to speed wobbles on a "I'm not touching it" stock indy setup

- Personally I don't like longer wheelbase boards because it makes inverts and slides harder.  14.25, but on the wider side, is the sweet spot for me on hills.  I like at least 8.75+ on hills though. I find the wider  the easier it is to turn sideways to segment the hill as needed.  That said, if you just want to survive longer wheelbase does indeed help.  As would long board type trucks (Bear type trucks- people won't like this comment .  I can't really slide correctly on those sort of trucks and not fun/not what I like to skate as I bomb hills on my normal setup.  But if you really want to charge a hill in a part on a mountain for example that is paved, those sorts of setups can be fun.  Never a longboard, but bear does make some more normal sized trucks that are extra stable but still deep turn.  Again, I prefer normal Indys with maybe one bushing in each changed to bones and a bit tighter

If anyone wants to come bomb some hills in the BX- I'm your guy!

[Urtripping]

Honestly, I like to hit short, quick powerslides to keep my confidence in my control up. Yeah, they slow you down a bit, but I never feel like I'm going to slam if I can still hit a fast fs powerslide. I'll do little tail scrape "ollies" for the same reason.

Gerwer was right when he said make yourself heavy. You want the lowest center of gravity possible. I skate loose trucks so it's exhilarating because slamming is such a real possibility. Haven't gone down too hard in a while, but when I do I try to roll rather than run it out.

[Ok]

the scrape ollie’s seem like i’d be asking to slam.

i’ve really been enjoying the walking aspect, giving me space to attempt to chill out. skate down the hill, walk back up.

i’ve taken some really funny looking slams, at the top, because some days i insist on doing a kickflip to start off.

haven’t learned any new skills….had to catch a few foot drags. that’s always a bummer

[whale]

In my city, when I was just starting, there was a local dude famous for knee sliding when bombing hills.

No pads.

[radcunt]

I have the 58mm Conical Full 97s. They have just enough bite and stability to make hill bombing feel a little bit safer. Jeff Carlyle. inspired me.

I've always wondered why these SF bombers raise their hands above their heads when they get cookin. What's the thinking there.

subconciously increasing wind resistance to slow themselves down

[tom]

Work your way up to progressively scarier hills. Don't go for the biggest and steepest hills right away. Get comfortable riding and carving at speed. Sometimes you gotta powerslide and sometimes you gotta drag your foot. Like anything it gets more comfortable the more you do it, and gets more uncomfortable the less you do it. I recently had to bomb some medium-ish sized hills while skating to pick up my car from the mechanic. They had me out of my comfort zone even though they would've been no sweat when I was younger. I get to practically start over myself and relearn to skate hills

[Frank and Fred]

Spent a bit of time on some local hills last week. The hands up technique def seemed to stabilize things for whatever reason.

An elderly lady came out of her house while I was walking back up after a bomb. I thought she was going to get mad but she was super nice and offered me some tips. She said the younger dudes she sees bombing have 'spotters.' She said they also don't have grey beards like me. Maybe, less grey helps?? IDK...

Anyway, Conical Full 58mm 97s felt really nice again. Stage 4s with cold stock bushings also kept things stable. Will be bombing on softies next dry day, b/c the dogs prefer the noise.

[Ok]

so sick thank you for the hype

i can’t get dragons to slide on this really rough asphalt. the ground is chunky, and the softer wheels just grip and stop. so far the most fun wheel has been 56 99 radial fulls, and 56 97 classics are good too.
but. i’ve mostly just been riding one setup, and that has 54 99 classics (f4, same with the rest), 6.1 ventures. go less fast, and that’s good for me now.

i’ll try hands up. i’ve been doing too many speed checks, and foot down sometimes, getting a little more comfortable.
and once again i gotta say: the walking up the hill has been very therapeutic, during difficult times.
as you might expect following statement above, im pretty grey

[Ray C. Usery]

You can carve to slow down. If the street is wide enough you can carve to a stop.

I grew up bombing hills mostly in jr high going to Robert Frost in SFV. I learned the hand over the head thing naturally and I did it for wind drag. Whenever I did a drag ollie it was because I was too scared to jump.


I did a little hill bomb today and tried to power slide and couldn't. I suck at power slides if I don't do them all the time.

I would go for a wider board with wider trucks and as long of a wheel base you can handle. Wheel base helps with the wobbles. It doesn't really matter unless you want to go really fast. I bomb hills with whatever broad I brought all the time.

Watch Pedro's vlogs

[Frank and Fred]

Carves can work to a point. But once you're cooking and especially if the surface is rough, you can start to slide out when you carve with hard wheels. It can be fun to toy with it a little but proceed with caution. The old accidental backside power drifter will wake you up. I carve more on softies and use them to control speed at the beginning of a bomb but there's a point where you just have to point and shoot.

Pedro's videos are great. Agreed.

[Banned from the room]

hopefully this isn’t a redundant topic.

fairly rudimentary, but i just never learned to properly cruise hills. trying to incorporate walking into my life more, why not walk up a hill and skate down?

being me, i am of course looking at gear selections (longer, wider).

rode out of some speed wobbles last night that i was pretty sure were going to chuck me. had to foot drag up until the point of no return, shamefully.

the setup, if that matters, is 8.125 shorter wb/length 56 radial fulls and 5.6 ventures. the loose trucks kit probably wasn’t helping.

the only tips i remember were gerwer saying something like make yourself heavy/hard to pickup.

any and all tips greatly appreciated

There's no shame in dragging a foot.

I find it is harder than squatting it out tho.
i only do that if I'm going to hit someone. Or I'm just ready to stop.

Dragging a foot could lead to missing teeth in the wrong conditions.

Definitely Frank is dead right obviously. He's a fuckin g.

I say FLAT feet low and I squat and kinda lean over it. Like I'm about to do a fast slider kinda. You just don't go and lift back up too soon. Or fast

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtaO4FxAapb/?igsh=b2VneHl2d3RxaHN2

Follow Levi for form tips. He is the top dog in my opinion.

[Ok]

you are the best