How do you slow down / stop with rollerblades? I had the reverse experience: any kind of hill, I’m fine on a bike but I always crash on rollerblades. I would love to learn though.
I’ve never really thought about it. I’m not a fancy skater – my skates do have brakes, so my technique isn’t such that I have to plan for never using them.
If I have the width I’ll slalom down hills to bleed speed - even doing little loops up the hill at the turn of each switchback to bleed off speed. If there’s not enough room to slow down, I might bomb though if it’s safe to do so (because that’s why roller blading is so fun, anyway). I might skate on one foot and drag a wheel behind or make my toes point toward each other slightly, just out of parallel - the greater the angle, the more drag the out of alignment wheels produce. I often tend to drag a wheel or use the brake, then spin to stop, before resuming.
There are other techniques for stopping or slowing down, but those are my go to’s.
How do you slow down / stop with rollerblades? I had the reverse experience: any kind of hill, I’m fine on a bike but I always crash on rollerblades. I would love to learn though.
I’ve never really thought about it. I’m not a fancy skater – my skates do have brakes, so my technique isn’t such that I have to plan for never using them.
If I have the width I’ll slalom down hills to bleed speed - even doing little loops up the hill at the turn of each switchback to bleed off speed. If there’s not enough room to slow down, I might bomb though if it’s safe to do so (because that’s why roller blading is so fun, anyway). I might skate on one foot and drag a wheel behind or make my toes point toward each other slightly, just out of parallel - the greater the angle, the more drag the out of alignment wheels produce. I often tend to drag a wheel or use the brake, then spin to stop, before resuming.
There are other techniques for stopping or slowing down, but those are my go to’s.
If there was a sidewalks width path going down a hill with grass on the sides, could you go down it? Or would you have to go another way?
I crashed pretty hard doing that but I didn’t know how to slow down.
I’ll have to get some rollerblades and try those techniques on a road.
In that instance. I’d probably drag a wheel, or use the alignment of my feet to slow myself down, paired with an occasional spin stop.