Hi, I recently moved apartment and started skateboarding to work. I have a nickel board, so more for cruising than tricks.
My question is: what’s the best way to slow down and stop on sidewalks?
I’ve watched several YouTube videos about different techniques for slowing down and stopping, but they tended to assume an environment with more room and smooth ground. Where I ride, it’s a sidewalk with cracks and leaves and changing terrain. It is also somewhat hilly so I really need a way to slow down on sustained (not steep though) downhills.
One of the best techniques I found was called pumping, basically the opposite of pushing. This works well on any terrain and on skinny sidewalks. However, it’s really hard on my ankles, and I actually made my right ankle swollen. So I figured I need a better way.
I don’t particularly want to use techniques that scrape my shoes. And I’m not sure powerslides are the best idea on the uneven terrain.
Surely there’s something better than just dismounting? Do I have to ride on the road to do powerslides?
I would greatly appreciate any and all advice!! I’m quite new to this so anything is helpful
Been skating for years, and I usually hang my back toe off and drag it to slow down. If you get a beefier set of shoes to skate in, like Half Cabs, they won’t wear out so quickly. Otherwise you’ll have to strengthen your ankles if they hurt from slowing down by stomping one foot off. Powerslides are fun, but a bit obnoxious to use for every time you need to slow down.
Thank you for the advice. I’ll check out half cabs. Looks like I’ll probably just have to get beefier shoes
What I do is like pushing, but without actually pushing for speed. I’ve never heard it called pumping and I don’t understand how it hurts your ankles? Anyway, with all weight on the front foot, put the back foot on the ground ground somewhere ahead of the toe side of the board. As you ride past it, you can use it to slow down. Don’t scrape it or anything, just take it off the ground when it’s back at your tail and put it down again somewhere further ahead again. If you’re going fast it’ll take a few “pushes” to come to a stop.
Yep, that’s what I meant by pumping. I think my ankle actually hurt from pushing to speed up — I googled it and others had similar issues. My tendons or whatever have gotten stronger now and it’s no longer and issue.
I’ve gotten better at slowing down, mainly because I got much better at carving
Carving is a good way to shed some speed, foot braking basically just put your foot flat on the ground and let it slide across creating friction which will slow you down. Powersliding on a board like that is going to be hard so unless you have done it before I’d try one of the other suggestions
Thanks, I try to carve a bit but I don’t always have a lot of room. Maybe I just need to buy beefy shoes haha
Most of times I brake using my back foot on the ground. Little taps when i’m going slow, and rubbing when i’m fast. When i’m too fast i slide, but it’s hard to do (like speed checks on a snowboard) you need quite a bit of speed with soft wheels. Hard wheels it’s easy, just powerslide. Hit me if you need more details.