Face plants

[meepmeepmayer]

1 hour ago, travsformation said:

--End of Wall of Text no. 2--

I agree. Falls happen so fast (and faceplants anyway) that you can't really do anything. And sliding to a stop certainly seems healthier than rolling to a stop Ideally, you don't land too hard on your wrist guards (shoulder injury!) because they should easily slide away forwards after the impact, so you just hit the ground with your entire front side at the same time like a dead fish thrown onto the pavement.

The knee tip is great. I was told that too when I bought my (skateboarding) knee pads. Unfortunately, that doesn't work in the usual superman scenario from an obstacle at higher speeds.

[Unventor]

19 hours ago, Smoother said:

Plenty of warning... to not get into trouble in the first place; it's the only dark spot in a sea of grey asphalt.  As I have said before on face plan threads, watch out for changes in color in your riding surface, especially dark spots.  I'm glad @phatmike didn't re-injure himself, or he might have called it quits.

@Ande I'm sure you are aware the wheel did not do this, not paying attention (as phatmike admits due to filming) is the cause here.  Have I done the same thing? Hell yeah! No finger pointing here without three pointing right back at me.  Also please be aware that at least 80% of the time a pop like that is save-able.  I've hit a full blown speed bump I didn't see  and wobbled and flappeed my way out of it.  But I was riding fairly slowly.

EDIT I wonder if the fat tyre of a Z6/8/10 would have reacted so violently to that narrow hole; probably not.

I am pretty sure many have done the same thing. In beginning you are cautious and then when you start to get the hang of EUC riding you get over confident, something catches your attention and at that moment something unexpected happens, gravel/sand on the tarmac or a pothole or muddy water pool , patch of ice. and you all of a sudden find how fast things go bad. 

Like you said @Smoother. I have done this too. not only once.. I try my best to be focused. This is also why I don't go faster than 40-42ish kmh as mu rookie skills simply can't keep up and that makes it stressful to go faster, for me at least. This is my limitation that I have come to terms with. Do not go faster than your can handle and process.

This is also why I like to ride a little time after it rained when ground is almost dried up. as it shows where water finds it resting place as dark patches. as a reminder to not go there if possible. 

[Scatcat]

11 hours ago, LanghamP said:

Parkour class emphasized this point of keeping elbows high. They just went round and round this point, because the high elbow encourages rolling.

I did have opportunity to use this in a few faceplants including one at around 14-18 mph, and I will say if you can get the ground side elbow up and roll it out then despite it being terrifying there's not much impact forces, but I did suffer weeks long road rash. I didn't even get bruised.

I believe the idea of using wrist guards to arrest your forward motion, as in doing a push up, is very very badly thought out by most riders because of the energy involved. While I agree wearing a helmet and wristguards is important, I think the method of splatting on the ground with hands out and hoping you slide it out on your belly is ludicrously dangerous.

As an example, jump in the air and land just on your hands; you're likely not strong enough to stop your head from following into the ground. And a 20 mph crash has many times more energy to dissipate, and that is not possible with your arms. Broken wrist or broken collarbone, pick your poison.

Therefore, in a high speed EUC faceplant, you really have only one choice. You have to use your wrist and elbow to roll while keeping your head off the ground, with your wrist and elbow guards protecting you from frictional damage. Now in a motorcycle crash you can get your knees under you, and that is a comfortable way of crashing, but these EUC crashes always seem to start with your head below your waist. Unless an EUC rider crashes around a corner or catches his footpad, I'd bet almost all EUC faceplants don't involve the knees at all. How can they, when the crash has already started with the head below the waist?

This is the Parkour roll, appropriately named the safety roll.

 

Oh, I've rolled from skateboards and even bikes quite a few times. But as noted by @travsformation, it is by no means a risk free strategy. First of all, rolling the "wrong" way is a sure way to get REALLY hurt. And if you're going to do it, you better train with full gear to make sure you can go through with it without problems - and to create the muscle memory needed.

I've even rolled out of an involuntary exit from my EUC. But in that case the fall was already asymmetrical, so gliding was no longer a valid option. But more than that, apart from being asymmetrical, that fall was not very typical. I hit a curb I didn't see (it was under a puddle) diagonally, and the EUC turned left along with the curb, while my body only followed half and half. So the momentum of my body was sideways, and less down than horizontal. This gave me just enough room to start a roll over my shoulder before hitting the ground. And so I rose with no more injury than a small bruise from where my foot hit the EUC on exit.

I've had three forward falls, all of which ended up as per my sketch. I all three the upper body was below the lower body as I hit the ground, but pushing my knees down made me fall on arms and knees together. In all three the momentum downwards was at least that of the momentum forwards - basically imitating a jack-knife in geometry. In all three the hands hit milliseconds before the elbows, which is why I am very grateful I have the gliding pucks on the wrist guards. In all three the impact has been kind of elastic, with the gliding pucks hitting first then the elbows and knees, then kind of a body spring feel as my muscles held against the downward force. Then stop, as the glide ended, followed by me lying down and making sure every bone in my body was still in one piece. I hit my helmet in the last one, the only time I've done so, but no worse that I didn't even reflect on it before removing the helmet and inspecting the damage.

Had I tried to roll in the last crash, I would probably have ended up in hospital. I was already below the level where I could initiate a roll before even realizing I was falling. Only muscle memory saved me from going nose first into the ground.

[Ande]

4 hours ago, travsformation said:

 

P.S.  @Ande Sorry for side-tracking your thread...some of us have a knack for doing that. I hope that at least the info provided is helpful enough to compensate for our scatter-brained, side-tracking posting habits

 

No worries, lol. I’m finding much food for thought even amongst the meanderings 😉

[Scatcat]

On 1/25/2019 at 4:28 PM, Ande said:

No worries, lol. I’m finding much food for thought even amongst the meanderings 😉

Yes, we're experts on side-tracking threads. It's what we do before breakfast, what trolling we do after eating doesn't bear description.  

[Scatcat]

On 1/25/2019 at 1:59 PM, Scatcat said:

[...]

Had I tried to roll in the last crash, I would probably have ended up in hospital. I was already below the level where I could initiate a roll before even realizing I was falling. Only muscle memory saved me from going nose first into the ground.

Actually, had I tried to roll in the last one, I'm not even sure it would have stopped with just a fracture. Had I hit shoulder and helmet in the way over a roll, my neck would have been in danger, and if not my neck I would have had to test the MIPS functionality in the helmet, because the sideways hit would sure as hell have rotated my head.