Longboard how fast

Not knowing how to stop when running at fast speed can greatly affect your ability to go faster. You tend to become hesitant in accelerating when you know that you find it difficult to suddenly stop. This poses a great hindrance to speeding up. Therefore, you should practice the skill of stopping even when running at super-fast speed.

Foot braking, carving and sliding are some of the ways to stop or slow down your board. It would be wise if you practice all these techniques. Wearing the right gear that ensures protection all throughout your longboarding journey is one huge confident booster. When you know that you are less likely to get injured you can confidently speed up. Make sure you wear an aero helmet, along with your knees and elbow pads. Full-face helmets that have fairings are designed to have aerodynamic advantage.

Mastering several techniques for stopping, along with improving your riding style can greatly contribute towards the ability to speed up on a longboard. But, all of these would be deemed useless if your longboard is not up to the task.

So, also consider upgrading your board. Then, go ahead and be the next Pete Connolly! The HobbyKraze is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.

As their Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Riding Boards Menu. You will Be Surprised! The History of Longboarding. How to Make the Longboard Go Faster. Upgrade your bearings. Opt for bigger wheels. Loosen your axle nuts. Avoid twitching sideways. Tame speed wobbles. Learn to stop at high speed. Wear the right gear. Hobby Search. Related Posts. Most people who go this fast probably have a dedicated DH setup and wear helmets and slide gloves. So keep safe and wear protective gear at all times if you choose to go this quick.

For this sort of speed, you start to see majority riders using setups customized for going fast. Their setups will consist of stiff downhill longboards, with lower angle trucks, and bushings based on their weight. They also likely have bigger longboard downhill wheels that allow them to achieve these speeds. As I mentioned earlier, stiff longboards, with low angle trucks, bushings dialed for weight, and sometimes big wheels are best for going this fast.

Take a look at the longboard below for an example of a setup that can handle 40mph speeds with ease. The longboard above belongs to my friend Kyle. Kyle weighs about kg about lbs. The bushings he has chosen work well for his weight, giving him some decent flow and turn, but enough stiffness that he will be stable at 40mph.

Though Kyle does use Paris savants, he can achieve about the same on Cast Paris trucks. Air braking and sliding is the way to go. Sliding is the most common way to stop.

Not many people have gone this fast and you should be proud to call yourself one of the few who have. At this speed, most riders have the basic protective gear slide gloves, helmet and even more choose to wear full-face helmets. When you fall this fast, a lot of things happen quickly and you could easily end up damaging your face.

If you want to stay pretty, a proper longboard full-face helmet is what you need. Back in the 70s and 80s, the speed record was about 50mph. Check out the Signal Hill Speed run if you want to brush up on your downhill speed skating history ….

To go this sort of speed, you see more and more riders utilizing slightly stiffer bushings for a less responsive ride , or split angle setups. A split angle setup is when the angle of the baseplate in front is different from the one in the back. Gear update — Felt comfortable on this thing. Throwing slides at around 80kph.

Crazy how smooth and tame it felt! Feels good cruising around, doesn't feel too stiff at the back and feels smooth over chunder. Loads of momentum, smooth slides, decent slowing power. An over the top real-world example of how split angles behave is the car. The front wheels do most of the turning whilst the back wheels follow it. Split angle plates work similarly. They allow you to decrease how much turning the back truck does by using a lower angle baseplate ….

And by reducing the amount of turning the back truck does you increase the stability of the board and decrease the chances of getting speed wobbles.

But that said, some riders do prefer symmetrical trucks for going fast too. And you might also see some riders using split angles at slower speeds because they enjoy the security of the added stability. Bushings for split angles are different. Because the angle of the back truck is lower, you have more leverage over your bushings. It felt stable and solid at those speeds. Air braking and sliding is probably the safest bet to shave off speed. At that point, you should be able to comfortably slide without the worry of wobbles, or you can then foot brake.

Some riders, like those in the video below, just opt to slide instead. If you have enough control as a rider, it is a viable option too. Finally getting to the most exciting part of this article. A lot of what a rider chooses to use boils down to personal preference and experience. And there is sometimes such diversity between what different riders ride that it can feel confusing to understand sometimes hehe. Their setups do follow a rule of thumb, but every single thing has been customized and tweaked to fit their preferences, quirks, body types, shoes, how tight they want the board to feel, etc.

I could go on! You could tell a lot about a person by how they set up their board …. And whilst all the setups below have been immaculately set up and thoroughly tested at many speeds, it was the riders doing most of the work. Going this fast and joining the 3 digit club is no joke. It requires a decent amount of skill and most riders will likely never go this fast.

Most skaters who hit this speed are likely very experienced with years of skating under their belt. To go this fast, they likely have big DH wheels like Kegels, Magnums, Cueis, or Seismic Alphas to help them reach these sorts of speeds. Speeds like this are easily hit on the IDF race circuit. Races like Kozakov, Newtons, Killington, Peyragudes, etc. That said, some riders choose to skate open roads this quick. The riders who do choose to skate open roads like this do take several safety precautions so they can skate fast safely.

The riders use walkie talkies to ensure that the hill is clear of vehicles and is safe to skate. A post shared by Kalil Hammouri kalil. Buut, Troy Yardwaste explains what it feels like to go over kph in this post radical documentary here , about 2. Riders typically have precision trucks along with the basic downhill skateboard gear that I mentioned above.

There are many uses for longboards. Longboards do, in fact, go faster than skateboards. The reasoning comes down to their hardware.

Longboards have larger and softer wheels than skateboards, which adds stability allows you to go over gravel and cracks in the road easier. Additionally, their bearings are usually higher quality to allow for high speeds. Skateboards are great for getting around short distances. They are easy to strap to a backpack as well as use public transportation.

Generally, it takes more effort to push off with a skateboard. The wheels are harder and smaller, so you will have more resistance from that. This can explain one of the reasons that longboards can go faster than skateboards. Longboarding speed typically ranges from 6 mph when cruising, to mph when downhill riding. If you carve down a hill, depending on how steep the hill is, your speed may go up to anywhere between 30 and 50 mph.

More advanced riders engaging in downhill racing push their speed in the 50s range, up to 65 mph for the most serious. These speeds may seem unimpressive when driving a car, but become much scarier when you think about someone standing on a small wood deck mounted on urethane wheels. Extreme downhill riders are able to reach speeds in the 80s and even 90s mph range. You may think lighter means faster, but in longboard racing, a heavier rider with experience actually has an advantage in straight lines.

Between two riders using the same tuck position, the heavier rider is usually faster on a straight track. The longboard weight is not a big determining factor in speed — although lighter riders sometimes choose heavier boards to partially make up for their disadvantage against bigger riders.

A fundamental aspect of speed riding is your tucking technique aka the tuck. Your tuck is a key determinant of how fast you can go on your longboard. The best tuck for minimizing your frontal profile when riding at high speed is to tuck your back knee behind your front knee while leaning into your front thigh, with your arms tucked behing your back.

Mastering your tuck is important if your goal is to ride faster downhill on your longboard. Wearing an elongated helmet and a good leather speed suit will also help reduce air friction and improve speed in addition to saving your life.

How fast can get on your longboard when not riding slopes? The speed you can achieve depends on two things : your pushing skills and your pumping skills. To gain decent initial speed you need to perform an effective push.

The secret to an efficient push lies in a stable body position : as your lower foot drops to the floor to push off, your back should remain straight and your shoulders and hips should keep facing forward no rotation. After the initial impulse, you need to start pumping to maintain and build up speed. Pumping is a fantastic technique that involves shifting your weight from one rail edge of your board to the other, making successive turns, impulsing power and speed to your longboard in each turn.

If you master pumping, you can go relatively fast on your longboard through successive body weight shifts, without setting foot on the ground, be it on flat land or very mild slopes. Click here to learn about the carving riding style. How fast you can go on your longboard is closely ties to how quickly and reliably you can stop.

Thus braking is an essential aspect of riding fast on a longboard.