THE
SKATERS
EDGE
Where do you go from here? Blender finds himself in an aerial predicament high above Upland's Combi.
Most of us are aware of all the equipment
advancements that have been made over
the years in the sport of skateboarding. As
in anything else we come in contact with,
an improvement in equipment more times
than not leads to an improvement in perfor-
mance levels. For example, I started out on
a steel wheeled skiskate, graduating to a
Black Knight skateboard, then a homemade
with Rollersport Stokers, on to a Hobie with
Bennett trucks and Roadrider twos, etc.,
etc. I tried to try out almost every product
that came out on the market during these
"formative" years of my skateboarding life
and I still try and check out everything new
in the industry just to stay on top of things. I
made it a habit to try and ride the best
equipment available so I could concentrate
on my skating alone. I now ride wheels and
trucks that I feel are the best, along with a
deck designed to my personal tastes, and
my skating has never been better. I tried to
stick to an obvious conclusion I made: the
better the equipment I rode, the higher the
performance level of my skating.
Now this striving to be on the best equip-
ment wasn't limited to just what I was rid-
ing. It also carried over to the safety equip
ment that I was using. In the early years of
my skating, the only safety equipment I re-
ally needed was a pair of Levis and some
tennis shoes. For the ability level I had at
the time this safety equipment was just fine.
Come to think of it, there wasn't anything
else available at the time, unlike what is
available for beginners of today. As I pro-
gressed a bit and began to fall a little more
and a little harder, I purchased a set of
nylon/cotton wrestling pads that slipped
over the joint to be protected. These
worked fine for a while, cutting down drasti-
cally on the scrapes and bruises, but I pro-
gressed further and noticed I started to
bounce twice on my falls. The first bounce
removing the pad from my knee and the
14
second bounce removing some skin from
my body. I then purchased some pads de-
signed specifically for skateboarding, sort
of an advanced wrestling pad which
worked much better than the others, but I
still occasionally suffered from the two
bounce syndrome. My next purchase was
a pair of pads that borrowed the plastic cup
technology of motorcycle equipment and
incorporated into a pad designed for skate-
boarding. The plastic cup on these pads al-
lowed the fall to be dispersed over an area
because of the slight sliding on the skating
surface that resulted. Rather than the knee
or elbow hitting the surface and taking the
full brunt of the fall, it slid over an area of
about one foot and eased the impact. This
style padding was many times an improve-
ment over the older pads but they still
tended to slide off on severe falls or rough
surfaces.
Now up until this point, all the pads I had
used were designed to be used with certain
bailing techniques, either the run out tech-
nique or the run out/roll out combination.
The performance levels at that time didn't
demand anything else from the safety
equipment being manufactured. But the
demand soon changed. I put the exact
point of this change as when Bobby Valdez
brought the sport "upsidedown" with his in-
vert maneuver, commonly known as the
handplant. What this maneuver, and the
many others that followed, demanded was
a pad that incorporated both styles of
equipment available, a combination of the
soft full wrap wrestling style and the plastic
cup, velcro strap style of padding. A pad so
well cushioned, reinforced, and form fitting
that it allowed for full on-knee sliding that
did not end up with the pad being torn off
the knee. This modern piece of equipment
is known as the Rector Protector line of
safety equipment.
This pad made way for a new style of
bailing out of bad situations, simply known
as knee sliding. This technique, I feel, is
one of the most significant turning points in
skateboarding, allowing skaters to go for
almost any move imaginable and safely
slide it out if they weren't successful. This
technique drastically reduced many in-
juries related to falling, mainly wrist and
ankle injuries. You could now safely distri-
bute some of the impact of your fall off of
your wrists and ankles and onto your well
protected knees. Where I was once a die-
hard run-out bailing advocate, I quickly
realized in order to advance my skating I
needed to learn this style of bailing. After I
did this I noticed I became fatigued less
quickly and avoided a lot of soreness in my
legs and ankles associated with running
out my falls.
So how do you exactly learn this style of
falling? The best way is to closely watch
someone who has this type of falling wired
and simply try it yourself. Try it on the grass.
or a piece of rug, riding. If you can't do any
of the above, I will attempt to spell out the
technique for those who would like to incor-
porate it in their skating.
1) Equipment You must have safety.
equipment with heavy duty plastic cups
firmly attached and sufficient padding for a
comfortable fall. The pads must also fit
firmly around the knees and elbows so they
won't slide off on impact. I also strongly
suggest the use of wrist guards with a plas-
tic sliding/supporting brace in the palm
area.
2) When you feel the need to bail out of
a situation or you're simply falling off your
board, the first thing you want to do is clear
your board from your body, relax, and try to
shift your weight so as to stay as close to
the transition as possible, because the
longer you slide, the more dispersed your
fall will become.
3) Try and keep your weight centered
and controlled over the bailing area and if
you can get your feet under you, take a
couple of quick steps before easing down
onto your knees.
4) At this point you can either lean back
a little and sit on your heels, while sliding on
your knees and toes, or you can utilize the
plastic wrist supports on your wrist braces
and turn the fall into a four point sliding
position.
5) The main difficulty to overcome is try-
ing to contort your body after a fall to get in
position to knee slide. You can overcome
this by simply practicing falling in order to
get used to breaking your impact with a
couple of steps and easing down to your
knees. The main thing to remember is to
stay relaxed throughout the slide.
As you become skilled in this technique
of bailing you will notice an increase in
wear on your safety equipment, mainly the
plastic cup on the pad. Replacement caps
are available and they simply attach over
the old caps. I suggest you purchase a pair
of extra caps when you originally buy the
pads and put them on immediately. I've
noticed pads last longer when this is done.
Good luck in trying to master this technique
and when you do, I'm sure you'll notice an
increase in the level of your skating. Take
care and skate safe.
Bob Denike
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