INLINE SKATING TUTORIAL - THE DOWNHILL SKATING BASICS // VLOG 162

Come here, Deco. Bye. Hola, YouTube. My name is Ricardo Lino and... We are Wheel Addicts. So, today, me and Zane have two news for you. The first news, which is good and bad, is probably one of the last videos that we're going to do with this guy. At least in the next few months, maybe years. Because this guy is moving to the UK. But, before he moves, we're going to make this video. Last time that he downhilled, he was... 15. I'm now 37. Yeah, but it's like when you were 15, when you went downhill, you had no idea what you were doing. So, what I'm going to do today is I'm going to make a downhill basics video. So, if you want to start going downhills, there are some things that you need to know. So, it's right now 6.52am and we're hitting a long hill. It's a really known hill from Cape Town. It's called Signal Hill. It's a long hill, but it's not too steep, not too fast, but fast enough for your first downhill 20 years later. You ready for this? Fuck my life. And, because we're doing something that protection is really, really important, here's the protections that Zane brought with him for his first downhill. I think we're going to fall on our shins. Anyway, talking about protection. The most important thing, the most important rule when you're going downhill is to never do it alone. So, you don't want to go by yourself, you never know what's going to happen. Also, when you're going downhill, usually you want to have a safety car, especially if you're going in an open road like we're going today. So, basically what we're going to do is, there's one guy going down and the other one is driving the car behind. We can also put a camera, but the main reason why we do it, it's for safety. Also, imagine if you're going like down 3 or 4 kilometers downhill, if you need to go uphill every single time, it's important to have someone driving behind you and that will allow you to make more runs. And, let's not forget that if you get super tired, it also gets dangerous. Now, protection-wise, if we're talking about gear, the most important piece of protection that you need when you're going downhill is this. A helmet. And helmets, you can use a few different ones. You can use an open-faced helmet, just like this one, which, it's not the safest, but at the same time, it protects the most important part, which is your head. Of course, you can always fall on your face, but for that, you can use... This is a full-faced helmet. And the reason why you use a full-faced helmet, well, basically there's two. Main reason, it's more safe. As you can see, it's more safe. And other than that, it's also more aerodynamic. And when you go downhill, when you go real fast, every little detail count and every little thing will make you go faster. This is supposed to cut the wind better than an open-faced helmet. Other than that, there's more protections that you need. And the second one, which is really, really important, is the way you protect your hands. You can protect your hands with these. These are like some Inui wrist guards, but you can use any other wrist guards, as long as you feel your wrist is protected and you need this plastic protection or metal or whatever. Or you can also use some downhill-specific protection. This one is made of leather. It has like a sliding puck, which I still don't know how to use it, but it saves me if I go really, really fast. This can save me. Gloves are the second, for some people even more important, but in my opinion, they are the second most important piece of protection that you can use. Other than that, knee pads help, elbow pads help. Some people even use those shorts with foam or whatever you call it. It's called crash pads. Some people even use protections in their back. I guess it's up to what you feel safe and what you feel that you can move with. Now, skate-wise, what do you want to use when you're going downhill? You might have seen that a lot of people use five-wheel skates when they go downhill. Something like this or something like this. The reason why you use the five-wheel skates is longer frame, lower to the ground than if you use like a 3125, and when it's lower to the ground, it's also more stable, and because you have five wheels, you have more grip. Is this the only setup that you can use for downhill? No. I keep saying it depends on the downhill that you're doing. If you're doing something with like not that bendy, like something more like straight, like straight lines, you can use a 3125. If it's a long frame, it's going to be stable enough. Of course, if it's higher, if it's a taller skate, it's not as stable as a lower frame, but it can also give you more speed if you have bigger wheels. But then, if you need to turn, if you need to do any tight turns, that's when you need these. The five wheels will give you a lot more grip, and that grip is going to be needed. So, five wheels, more grip. Four wheels, more grip than three. You can even do it with two if you want, but good luck on those turns. First question usually is, but how do I stop? How do I slow down? So, there's a few different ways to slow down. Easiest way, or the most common way, is carving. So, basically, instead of going in a straight line, if you go something like this guy. If you do something like that, that is going to slow you down. Then, there's also a few other ways to stop, and those are other techniques that you can use from other types of skating. Something like a T-stop. Want to make a T-stop? Yeah, a T-stop is something like this. Check this. That will reduce the speed when you're going down. Let's see what Zane got here. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is it the best? No. Kills your wheels? Yes. But, it is what it is, and sometimes you don't feel comfortable with other types of stop, such as... Can you do a slide, Zane? That was actually good, huh? It was his first time on the 5x80mm. That's good. Let me just do one. So, now you know what protections to use and how to slow down. There's also another way for you to slow down, which is called the air brake. Basically, you might have seen when people go down, they use an aerodynamic technique, I can say it. It's called the tuck, and the tuck can be done in more... Kind of. There's more than one different tuck. Basically, there's a tuck with both legs, and there's a tuck with one foot in front of the other. You might have seen both of them, but if you're going in that position, it's actually a lot faster than if you just skate normally. So, basically, if you're going in that tuck position, when you just open, when you just stand up and open, something like that, that will make you stop. Zane is going to show it for us. Come on, Zane. Show me the air brake. The air brake? In front of me. Boom, air brake. The thing is, if you're going slow, you don't really feel it. But if you're going real fast, you'll feel a huge difference, because the wind is going to make you reduce speed. That's for sure. Then, now let's go to the tuck. What is the tuck? Tuck is something like an aerodynamic position that you get to go faster. So, you need to think of your body in a way that is going to cut the wind. So, the old tuck, like a lot of people call it, used to be something like this. You put both legs parallel, and then, with your hands, you try to cut the wind. You need to think that your upper body needs to be as parallel to the ground as possible. Because if I'm going to go like this, my chest is going to be air braking. You don't want that. So, it would be something like this. Some people can go lower, and some people say that if you go lower to the ground, you have more control. I guess it depends on everyone. Also, it depends on your flexibility. Not everyone has the same flexibility. Not everyone can do the same with their body. And not everyone feels safe the same way with skates. So, it's up to what you feel comfortable with, but you should know. This is the regular, the old tuck. Something like this. Again, don't forget that this needs to go as parallel as possible to the ground. Now, the new school tuck, which comes from skateboarding, from long boards, whatever, it's something like this. And why do you do it? Well, if you look at my legs, when I do the old tuck, I have two points cutting the wind. Basically, both legs are going to be against the wind, air stopping me. But, if I do the new tuck, the front leg is covering the back one. So, instead of having two windbreaks, or two points braking me with the wind, two windbreaks. How are you doing? Morning. Instead of having two windbreaks, if I do the new tuck, I also have one only. Then, of course, there's also less wheels rolling on the floor that can make me go faster. In my opinion, for me, it's easier to get parallel to the ground with my upper body. But at the same time, it's a lot more tiring and a lot less stable. So, start with the old school tuck, and then the more comfortable you get, then you can get to the new school tuck, if you want to say it. Okay. Now, what can we do? What should we do now? Zayn, what wheels do you think would be the best for downhill? Soft or hard? I reckon it depends on... Harder is going to be a higher rolling speed. And softer is going to be a lower rolling speed. Maybe you'll get a bit more grip. It depends on what you... Yeah, so basically, there's something really important. A lot of times, people think the hardness of the wheels will give you more grip. Not necessarily. It has to do with the compound of the wheels. So, you need to look at the wheel as a whole together of speed, grip, and sliding... Capability. Capability, something like that. So, most of the time, the hardest wheels make it harder for you to slide. And I know that most of the people think that this doesn't make sense. And a lot of people think, yeah, but if it's harder, it's going to be easier to slide. Not necessarily. It has to do more with the compound of the wheel than with the hardness of the wheel. The thing is, usually, with a softer wheel, when you slide, it's more stable. So, the wheel is soft. Yes, it's hitting the wheel. The wheels last less time. But when it slides, it's like smooth, like buttery smooth. If you get like super hard wheels, what happens is that the wheels go like... And that doesn't give you control. You don't want that. So, it's hard to explain. What I can tell you is these wheels work. Both of these. These are the Powerslide Spinner 85. And these ones are the Undercover Chameleon 90mm 86A. They are completely different compounds, but both of them work for sliding. If I would be using some harder wheels, I don't know. Like I said before, it just depends on the compound. So now, let's do our first hills. Let's gear up with protections. Should I do it first or you want to do it first? I think you can do it first. Really important when it comes to speed and aerodynamic is the clothes that you get. Usually, if you have something like super baggy, it's going to be less aerodynamic and make you go slower. So, you might have seen, if you look at real downhill videos or competitions, you'll see people using a lot of these. Something like Lycra, whatever that is. This one is not really Lycra, but it's something that looks like Lycra. Also, some people use leather. Leather is usually really good for aerodynamic and it will also protect you. So, if you use any leather suit, usually you don't need to use knee pads or something like that on top of it. But I guess it depends on you. And today, it's like a chilled hill, so Zane is going to be using jeans. And jeans is actually one of the best options that you can have, especially when you're starting. We're not expecting to fall. When you go downhill, you don't expect to fall. But in case it happens, jeans is one of the best protections if you don't have any leather suit or something like that. These that I got, it might be the worst option. So, it's faster. If I want to go faster, if I take the shorts out and if I just go with that, it's going to be faster than the jeans. But at the same time, for sure not as protective. No. So, let's do this, Zane. Good luck with that. Nice. Let's do this. My legs. That felt amazing. Zane, you good? Yeah, I'll be okay. It's Zane's first day downhill, so he's still a little bit scared. You can see it. As someone who's driving the safety car, the most important thing is to make sure that if there's a car coming behind, we tell them why we are here. So, they need to understand there's a skater in front of us. For Zane, it's important that he keeps this side of the road, the one that I'm driving, because I can give him protection on my side of the road, but if he goes to the other side, then I can't do anything. Obviously, if it's a straight hill, you can actually look and you can see if there's other cars coming. Okay, let's do this. Boom, give me five. Get it. Handbrake. I know. He's going for it. Get it, Zane? So, the thing here is, for me, sometimes it's kind of scary that you go really, really close, but at the speed that he's going, if something goes wrong, he will slide too. If something goes wrong, if for some reason he falls, it's way more efficient for me in the car to stop than for him. So, basically, what happens is I can always stop if I'm paying attention. So, probably filming or doing what I'm doing right now, it's something that you shouldn't be doing. We started skating around seven. Right now it's about 9.30 and traffic is picking up, so it's becoming a lot more dangerous. So, it's time for us to stop. As you might have seen in this whole video, I keep talking about safety because downhill can actually be really, really fun and it's something that you can do for as long as you want. Don't forget, like, helmet, gloves are really, really important. Make sure that you don't do it alone and you have a safety car. It's, like, also really, really important. Try to avoid picking hours of traffic and then also be smart because once your legs start getting tired, it's time to stop. And my legs are fucked up. Yeah, you just... It's really... Especially when it's a long hill, it's a real leg burner. So, you might not see it in the videos, but when you go down long hills, your legs stop responding and if you do it once, two, three times, it's sometimes just... It's hard because here you want to do it, but you really need to stop it. Otherwise, it's not safe anymore. So, that's what we're going to do now. That's it. We're going to end up this video right here. We have the best city in the world right behind this camera right now. We had lots of fun and I think that's the most important thing. So, I hope... Either it's downhill, ramp skating, free skating, whatever you want to call it, the most important thing is that you have fun. There's a few things that you should know on each type of skating that will make it safer and probably have more fun. So, that's it. Do you want to say anything else? I'm just saying like you were saying about... Regardless of what you do, I'm generally an aggressive skater and this is my first time in a long time doing some downhill. It's a lot of fun. All types of skating are enjoyable. So, whatever you do, have fun, guys. That's it. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did enjoy this video, don't forget to give us some thumbs up. If you don't like it, thumbs down. But let us know why. What did we do wrong here? We're trying to make you better at something. So, anyway. If you don't like it, give me thumbs down. But if you did like it, subscribe to the channel. Maybe subscribe to the channel if you don't like it either. Maybe the next one you're going to like. Other than that... Other than that, just never forget why we all started skating. Because it's fun. Cheers, guys.