My biggest issue is lowering my butt when it's time to put my hands down. I also have trouble kicking the board out. I get super scared my first reaction is always to jump off. I'm really tiny and I feel like a feather in speed. Do y'all think being small is an advantage? How do I solidify my weight if it's not?
Always down to make skater friends. iG: @coolasslo
@Coolasslo Jo your weight being lower on a scale will effect how you skate at a faster level a few years from now but wont have much effect yet besides how you will have to choose your bushings and wheels.
What deck and wheels are u on?
Which slide are you trying to do with your butt more down? I'm guessing a toeside with both gloves down but let me know. If you want to do that you have to lean pretty far up the hill to avoid the higher stance that you are talking about. If you do your slides that way it's just about having enough speed and carving up fast enough and that's pretty much it. If you go down and don't slide you either need more speed or a faster carve.
I took a peek at those Instagram clips you posted. First thing that I noticed, your feet are too perpendicular to the deck.
For generally riding downhill, you want your feet closer to straight than sideways. Maybe 30* turned on the front, back foot will pivot based on turning left or right.
For turning toeside, you'll want your chest to be touching your knee (or thereabout). You will grab rail in front of your front foot with your front hand, then your back hand will reach forward to around where the front toeside wheel is. You start the toeside slide by pushing your legs straight down from this position.
For heelside, it's a bit hard to get in the stance if you're not rolling/turning. You squat over your front foot, back foot is near 90*, and you sort of fold the back knee towards your front knee. Front hand will reach down towards your front heelside wheel.
If you want to practice this in a relatively chill way, parking garages are good for practicing putting a hand down while turning. You shouldn't be going fast enough to worry about sliding out accidentally, but the momentum makes it easier to understand how to turn like this.
There's a good video on the landyachtz channel of people learning the basic hands down slides. I'd recommend watching that, they did a good job of noticing and correcting beginner mistakes.
Another general point: riding down hills is all about your front foot weight. Your weight should be like 70/30, trying to steer with your front foot. Having too much weight on the back is unstable.
