Livingston B

Feet impact with ground will cause a torque because they aren't the center of mass for humans.

Yeah its more about impact wrt to injury. One Wheel cutoffs tended to vector riders into the ground, so lost of broken collarbones even at slow speeds. I brought up the simplistic approach because reducing the energy a rider has to bleed off in a crash is a blanket mitigation the OP could consider at least as he regains confidence in his equipment. All else equal you just have more margin. Not a doctor or particularly knowledgable about biomechanics, but I did google an old report on a study that look at collarbone cracking based on angle of attack. It can take more when force is perpendicular vs shallow, 375J at 5degrees but 10K at perpendicular, due to collagen fibers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bone-resilience-depends-o/. I assume the force from your spill was a pretty high angle relative to collarbone, so your collagen fibers were working for you, but just too much force to handle.

I don't go over 20mph, because I can control that variable and not much else. Kinetic energy = 1/2mv^2 after all, so 3.2KJ at 20mph vs 13K at 40mph for me at 180lbs. The severity of injury as a function of speed stats are also sobering. Easy for me to say of course because I've never been a speed junkie and can't relate to the thrills. I can see 20mph being "why bother" territory for many.

For sure. I have that helmet and have come close to pulling the trigger on a Lightmode kit, but the price is just beyond my impulse buy limit.

Sensible gear + stance paint an overall dorky picture. Sadly, just as smoking is cool aesthetically, so is being undergeared on an EUC (kinda). The coolness ship has sailed for me anyway, so I embrace the dorky fun.

The fact that you didn't beg for money in a zero-at-the-point of service system is not strong evidence of your moral amazingness. You may very well be morally amazing, but we'd need a better contrast than the one you provided.

Not to get too picky, because I agree with your sentiment, but thanks to corporate capture, GoFundMe is our NHS.

Can't believe he didn't name his video something more click-baity: "I ACCIDENTALLY TOOK A FREEWAY DEATH RIDE" or something.

You're not talking about physics, so much as driver vigilance. You probably have a point with respect to vigilance being higher when carving. I take Tishawn seriously when he says he becomes 'one with the wheel.' He's probably in a flow state. Still, not everyone reaches that place and I'm sure a lot of the wiggle waggle is just fun and fashion, a desire to make a dorky endeavor look somewhat cool.

It's OK because New York. No city in the world is more up its own a**.

The term "tryhard" comes to mind.

Bird kinda eff'd up that level of obscurity in CA. They got a state law passed, fined-tuned to their business needs: no helmets, more roads access, and a top speed of 15 MPH (about as fast as their shit mobiles can go). The helmet part seems particularly indefensible, but that's how the system, uh, works.

1. Security by obscurity is not a plan I'd bank on. The nicheness of the hobby makes it more vulnerable, not less. One loud grieving family vs an industry that provides very little domestic employment and no lobbying/political contributions. It's a no-brainer for a politician.

The father of the kid he's about to buzz on the right should've laid him out. Everyone praises the skills of these kinds of riders, but sorry I don't see EUC riding as an activity with a particularly high skill ceiling, and this myth that there's a huge divide between the NYC riders and the dad/zombies gives those people unwarranted status.

I'm 2.5 weeks into my first wheel. Taking to heart the comparison with learning to ride a bike has helped the most, keeping me from getting discouraged and too focused on conscious technique*. I knew if I made sure to practice multiple times daily, even in short spurts, it'd eventually click. Last week it finally did and I'm happily out f the frustrating part of the learning curve and into the fun region. As you said, it's all about trial and error. *Remembering to turn into the fall has helped a lot as far as technique goes.