Well I got got

[Dingfelder]

6 hours ago, Biped Phil said:

Ow!  Not long ago, I encountered a madman on a OneWheel who told me that the most important thing is to know how to fall.  And the right way to fall is to land on your knee- and elbow-pads, rather than an outstretched arm.  On the other hand, there is a YouTube of another madman explaining that the most important thing is to know how to fall.  And the right way to fall is to retract your head to the far end of your neck, make impact with the shoulder, and roll head-over-heels.  Well?  Well?

I'm a rank beginner at EUC's -- can't even ride one yet -- but from everything I understand from tons of posts I've read here on the forum, the problem is not so much what you do but that you have no time to decide one way or another on a sudden cut-out or some other kinds of falls.

On the other hand, if you DO have time to react, there is no one perfect save from a fall anyway.  It depends entirely on your body positioning and how your momentum is going.  You can indeed roll out of high speed crashes if you know they're coming, though not necessarily injury-free.  But not dead or the like.  However, that will happen only if your body is hurtling through space in a way that favors a roll, and not some other way.

And the bad news is that you'll only do it as well as you've trained ... and more bad news is most people have trained not at all.  So while a seasoned judo player might roll out of a drastic fall, that doesn't mean you will, even if you watch a few videos.  You get out of it what you put into it -- if you're lucky.  And again, even that judo guy will probably be better at rolling out on one side than another.  And he'll be better at one type of fall than another, too.  It's not easy to be great at everything, especially under pressure.

Unfortunately, with no training, you'll probably be good at no falls.  And if you have no time to decide, the issue won't even come up.