top end technique

kayakr · top end technique

ok, what are the tricks to go faster when you're topping out with nice trail conditions? I tend to stop tipping the board and more focus on:
- weaving the nose back and forth with the front leg and minimal board lean, feels like bouncing off the bushings
- arm movements of various sorts
- straight legs and twisting the torso
- bouncing up and down on the board quickly with very slight steering (just for joy or does it actually keep me moving? not sure)
- shoulder first / minimize air resistance

Anything I'm missing?

edp_swakakin · Re: top end technique

pavedwave

Your 1st and 4th points, bouncing with slight steering definitely keeps you moving, if not accelerating. The amount of bounce or flex you need to drive into the board also indicates how much decline the trail's offering.

< tangent > This is probably the least understood part of the dynamics of the so-called "flat" trail -- when a trail section is truly flat, the width of each turn you need to crank your trucks increases. On the trail I ride most, there are certain sections where it seriously appears flat, but "for some mysterious reason" is a fast, blazingly smooth part of the trail. Well, after hundreds of rides and GPS stats on that trail, its pretty clear that places that seem to offer an advantage in speed, usually do because they have a very subtle, although visually undetectable decline. < / tangent >

The point of all that being, in the pursuit of the personal "Mile" that a few of us have been pumping rather than pushing, once you get up to the start line at your top end speed, you spend the next 4 minutes basically trying to do exactly what you're talking about here! Maintaining your top end on a flat course.

The technique I find most useful is alternating between small, subtle snaps off the deck just slightly forward of the board's center of camber, then stepping slightly back and driving off the rear a few pumps, and returning to forward of center again. It's not wiggling -- it's a driving motion. I keep the upper body "chopping wood" a bit, but with a hatchet, not an axe. They're not really outstretched arm movements like you might see in tight slalom. I find the upper body movement useful only to a certain degree, beyond which it becomes wasted motion.

So "pure flatland" aside -- on those parts of the trail where you actually do suspect that some decline is giving you an advantage, it's a lot like racing down a slalom hill. Newbies starting out in slalom will first just learn to carve through the cones and manage gravity, which is normal. But once they get comfortable simply making the course clean, they start figuring out how other guys are making it through the course a lot faster.

And that's the whole trick to downhill pumping, driving a little bit of power out of each turn, even though you've already gone past the top end speed you could possibly achieve were the course flat. It's to snap out of each turn slightly, then "coast" just a little to set up for the next snap. But the snaps are really subtle, and the motion in between is as minimal as possible. I learned so much just watching Jason Mitchell the last few years at the Hood River giant slalom hill. Even flying down the fastest parts of the course, he'll slip in a few small pumps between the cones that are spaced out 20 feet or more, where most of the other racers are strictly bombing and tucking.

The only other thing I can think to add to your list relates to the shoulder first thing. Especially when a strong headwind kicks up, I get low, bend the knees a little more than usual, and drive the pumps with a little more exaggerated upper body movement, keeping the arms locked like rocking a baby, and following the waves of the leading shoulder. It's kind of a forward moving, powering motion that I only do for shorter spurts, because although it does accelerate, it also eats up a bit of energy to maintain a "crouching" stance like that. But in a headwind, it adds a little aerodynamic advantage, and using the weight of the upper body to drive each pump a little more aggressively.

Words, words, time to go pump Smile

Love this topic, thanks for bringing it up!

kayakr · chopping wood

yeah, I get what you mean about the chopping wood. When doing that I usually narrow the stance towards the front of the board and then sync arms for the hatchet chop.

Also, I get the quick motion idea, frequently I'll go towards one side pumps where the pump is a quick flick and the recovery a wide gentle turn back. At faster speeds the arm motions turn into punches, flicks so small circles instread of big.

top end technique

Re: top end technique

chopping wood