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| Q&A: Slalom Pro Mike Maysey (2489 Posts)
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arm movement
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On 3/8/2003
Brady
wrote in from
(66.21.nnn.nnn)
What`s your take on arm movement and how it relates to added drive in your pump Mike?
Examples are...
Chris Chaput, arms flinging like a seagull
Steve Olson (Bulky), very little arm movement
Paul Price, arms swinging low
I like the feel of swinging my arms when just pumpimg the flats and tend to use more of Paul Prices style when doing so but I can`t seem to translate that into a course. Usually my arms go too high as they are countering my off balance movements.
Also Mike, do you use differant arm movements for differant styles of courses..ie; tight vs GS?
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Skating Sunday
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On 3/8/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(128.218.nnn.nnn)
Hey John,
Gary Holl and I were talking earlier this week about meeting tomorrow on this hill over in the Presidio. if you're interested...we'll be there around 9. I can email directions if you're thinking of trying to make it.
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HeelSide
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On 3/8/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(128.218.nnn.nnn)
cbark,
no worries. I'm glad it worked for you. I never do figure 8's on flat. When you turn heelside, concentrate of pushing all your weight into your front and rear heel in one quick burst. When I do this, I try to sort of let my knees loose and allow my body to fall. This action will quickly flex the board and if you lean to your heelside like you would for a turn, I think the board will turn very quickly and you'll get a good drive out of your pump. Once you figure out the quick pump, you can take that to GS and very it based on how wide the cones are and how quickly you want to turn around them based on where the next cone is set.
Another thing to remember when slaloming...turn as early as you can on ever cone. It will set you up better for each turn and you'll be a lot less likely to blow out of the course. This comes from lots of practice...something else you want to do is look down the course as you run it. Use your peripheral (sp?) vision to see the closest cones to you and sight down the course a few cones, depending on how fast you're going, this way you can set up for each turn well in advance by placing your body in the best position. Essentially, what you want to do is make your body go as straight down the fall line as possible while pushing your board through the gates.
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what time place sunday?
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On 3/7/2003
john airey
wrote in from
(63.198.nnn.nnn)
maybe not able to go, but if you are skating with the
general public can you state rough time and location?
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Heel-Side Pump
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On 3/7/2003
cbark
wrote in from
(63.227.nnn.nnn)
Thanks Mike,
Your bit of advice helped me today. By concentrating more on pushing off the front heel, I think my a$$ just followed along for the turn. I practiced running some cones uphill and was powering both turns.
Do you ever do figure 8's on flats? Where I have trouble is trying to do the heel-side arc. I tend to just want to carve a big turn, but am trying to work on pumping it without getting off the line too far. I think I'm missing something with arms.
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LOST
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On 3/7/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(67.121.nnn.nnn)
everybody stands a chance when racing me
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LOST
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On 3/7/2003 C.R.
wrote in from
(63.192.nnn.nnn)
DO YOU THINK CHARLIE RANSOM WELL STAND A CHANCH
WHEN RACING YOU? PLEASE LET ME KNOW, BECAUSE IF NOT ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS ARE SCHATTERED.
YOUR PAL WANTABE.
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Heelside
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On 3/7/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(63.208.nnn.nnn)
Hmmm, well...For me, I tomp my heel on heel side turns. It's on toe side where I turn and get more weight over my front foot and thus the heel raise. All I can suggest is get your weight down and concentrate of throwing it back over you back heel. Sorry, I can't really be more help. All I can say is come out and skate with me sometime and maybe I can help that way. Or catch me at a race and I'll be happy to help.
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the heelside pump
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On 3/7/2003
vasocreta (matt)
wrote in from
(198.4.nnn.nnn)
Mike--
I understand what you are saying. But I have a question about weight. I have noticed that on my heel side turns a majority of my body weight gets directed over my fornt truck, and a massive amount of my weight actually gets taken off of my back truck. Is this suppossed to happen?
I find that I end up scraping off speed on my heel turns, and I am wondering of my weight disribution is the reason.
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SPEED
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On 3/6/2003 C, MONEY BLB
wrote in from
(63.192.nnn.nnn)
AFTER A COUPLE OF MONTHS OFF I'VE GOTTEN VERY ANTSIE
AND READY TO RACE. I HOPE YOU ARE! NOW THE QUESTION IS WELL I GO FAST OR REAL FAST? YOU FIGURE IT OUT!
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Heel-Side Pump
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On 3/6/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(67.121.nnn.nnn)
Cbark,
When you pump heel-side be sure to get your butt down. You have to imagine you're going around a cone and your sticking that thing right up your what? This will help you put your weight where it needs to be when pushing off your heels. One other thing...this works for me, imagine yourself skating like this. Toe-side turns, push off your back tow and on heel-side turns, push off your front heel. If this doesn't help, let me know and I'll think about it some more to try and come up with a remedy.
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Heel-Side Pump
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On 3/6/2003
cbark
wrote in from
(12.254.nnn.nnn)
Hey Mike,
How can I improve my heel-side pump? I can pump around in a tight toe-side circle and accellerate, but am pretty sluggish trying to reverse direction and go around heel-side. I can do some baby pumps, but nothing that generates power like my toe-side turns.
Thanks for your input.
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snowboarding
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On 3/4/2003
george g.
wrote in from
(162.42.nnn.nnn)
Hi Mike, couple of things to run by you. I spent all day on the slopes 17 inches fresh powder on a 6 foot base. pretty good stuff. they had a slalom race, which i didn't make but i could run some of the gates. in fresh powder snowboarding feels a lot like surfing. snowboarding does not feel the same as slalom on concrete. i will give it this, i feel i am gaining some new thought to my rear foot input. much of snowboarding is going from edge to edge on your rear foot. i am looking forward to really getting into some cones with as much power as i can on my rear leg? slalom skateboarding has caused me to change my front foot positioning to my toe being more forward angle. i do feel very controlled in hard packed conditions, much more than last season so i can see how some of it translates. plus the fact that it is a similar motion for miles at altitude it is good training. the other thing i found that i learned here is the up and down motion changing the center of gravity and slowing down. it works on snow too.
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GGP
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On 3/4/2003 Henry J
wrote in from
(12.148.nnn.nnn)
Just a random little post here...
Last June I flew out to visit a friend in the San Mateo and I had the opportunity to slalom at GGP. That was the second time I had slalomed with real cones. It was so much fun.. although I got turned around and skated the wrong way for a while in the park. But people were like, "Cool Man!" when they saw me skating on one board and holding another. San Fransisco is so cool- Definitely where I want to end up living after college.
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GGP Course
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On 3/3/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(67.121.nnn.nnn)
John,
I would classify that course as a slalom course. It had element of tight and hybrid. That hill is flatter than most of the races FCR put on. You gotta try some slalom on a real hill. There's one over in the Presidio that flat out rocks for fast hybrid and GS. The Paso hill is steeper and a bit faster than GGP. Better surface though. It will certainly be faster at Paso than GGP.
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what kindof course was that GGP setting?
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On 3/3/2003
john airey
wrote in from
(63.113.nnn.nnn)
I've only skated GGP twice, different cone setting each
time. I liked the second one better for what that is worth.
(I am a novice slalomer).
I only made the two tight cones after the first
set of offsets 1/3 times I think in my few runs.
some questions for you that others might like to know too:
is that a (hybrid) slalom or GS course? is it
steeper or flatter than most FCR courses? how does it
compare to the paso robles spa hill?
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Sponsors
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On 3/3/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(205.184.nnn.nnn)
Thanks David...SOBE and Red Bull both turned me away. As did CLIF Bar and Spy Optics....oh and Oakley turned me down too. Oh well, whatever...I'm still gonna skate and have fun. I don't need those guys to have a good time.
GGP was fun...
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sponsers
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On 3/2/2003
david
wrote in from
(192.211.nnn.nnn)
hey mike, congrads on the pro designed sponser, i know you were trying to get some sponsers, whatever happened to SOBE, they ever say anything?
wish i could be skatin GGP right now with you guys
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GGP time
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On 3/2/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(205.184.nnn.nnn)
Sully, come on out at around 10 am. Jonathan says he'll be out there then as well. Place your BETS!!!
See you at the park.
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Hillclimb at The 3rd Gathering
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On 3/1/2003
The 3rd Gathering
wrote in from
(68.49.nnn.nnn)
That's right, all of you serious pump-aholics... the Hillclimb event at the annual Gatherings in Gaithersburg, Maryland (May 3 AND 4, 2003 - See Contest Calendar) is probably the most serious test of physical conditioning, strength, willpower and pumping skill on slalom skateboarding's annual calendar, although, admittedly, it is not truly a slalom race.
The whole venue for The Gatherings is a large oval-ish road around a park area, that is warped up in one "corner". The result is two hills diverging from one point, that are actually the same road looping down, around, around again, and back up to the top of the area where it rejoins itself. The hill on the short "side" of the oval (aka "The Back Hill") is steepish and curves away quickly to the left to a flat spot (site of the Ncdsa.com Cyber Slalom Cup) that is the lower, long "side" of the oval. The whole lower curve at the other end of the oval is fairly useless except in the Hillclimb event. Rounding this lower end of the oval leaves one looking back up the other long "side" of the oval, which is a long, gentler, relatively straight hill (aka "The Main Hill") climbing back to the starting place. Here's a fairly nice satellite view of The Gathering Site. The high point is in the lower right-hand corner.
The Hillclimb event begins at the high point of the oval and competitors may push as far as a point well down "The Back Hill". From that point on they will bomb the hill and begin pumping (usually) somewhere on the lower, flatter straightaway (uppermost in the satellite image). Pumping around the lower end of the site, competitors then pump as far up "The Main Hill" as possible.
Each Hillclimb competitor has a dedicated spotter in the climbing section of the event course. If a competitor loses all forward momentum during the climb, that rider's dedicated spotter will place a tape marker with the racer's number at the spot marking the heel of the first foot the rider sets on the pavement. This tape marker indicates the high point for that competitor's climb.
In the event the competitor completes the entire circuit, climbing "The Main Hill" all the way back to the Starting Point, that competitor either wins the event, is alone, or becomes a member of the Finalist Group.
At the first Gathering, in 2001, only one person, Chris Chaput, topped The Main Hill, making him the winner of the event.
In 2002, at The 2nd Gathering, Chaput was joined at the top of the Main Hill by Terence Kirby, creating our first Hillclimb Finalist Group, for which the next test is considerably more difficult.
In the event that more than one competitor tops The Main Hill, creating a Finalist Group, those competitors will face the same course, but in reverse. To date, no Hillclimb competitor (or any other skateboarder, for that matter) has completed the Hillclimb circuit in the clockwise direction, pumping their board all the way to he top of The Back Hill.
Chris Chaput became the repeat winner of The Gathering's Hillclimb at The 2nd Gathering, by pumping further up The Back Hill than Terence Kirby. Chris' highpoint on The Back Hill was not permanently marked or otherwise noted in the event records, so there is no standing "record" for the event. At The 3rd Gathering, the Hillclimb winner's "summit" will be permanently, but discreetly, marked on the pavement for reference in future years.
While The Gatherings' Hillclimb events are not slalom events, per se, I hope they represent, along with the Ncdsa.com Cyber Slalom Cup, The Bear, Dave Hackett's park slalom and the Bahne-Cadillac Slalomcross, the wide variety of opportunities presented by the concept of racing skateboards. I believe that is this very variety that offers the best chance of long-term survival and growth for slalom racing and all other forms of skatebaord racing.
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4/2 @ GGP
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On 3/1/2003 sully
wrote in from
(66.81.nnn.nnn)
What time?
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GGP
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On 3/1/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(205.184.nnn.nnn)
I'm planning on skating GGP tomorrow...yeah
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ggp?
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On 2/28/2003
john airey
wrote in from
(63.113.nnn.nnn)
mike, are you doing GGP this weekend?
I think I will stay out of the water for march and let
one of my many little injuries heal. but then I can
skate a bit more maybe.
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Twisting Pump
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On 2/28/2003
Mike Maysey
wrote in from
(67.121.nnn.nnn)
Stevie,
I think the best thing for you to do is whatever feels right. However, I know from my experience, that once I got faster I began to feel like my back end was trying to come around on me. That's when I de-tuned the rear truck as Gilmour suggested. I skated for quite a while with a flat riser in the back for extra turning and a fairly loose back truck...it works well at slower speeds...but I can almost guarantee you that once you get faster the back end will start trying to outrun the front of your board.
I run my front truck fairly loose and the back fairly tight. Loose back trucks will eventually kill you at speed...lose traction, slide, eat blacktop.
Your twisting pump sounds like Ransom's style...and he's one of the best.
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twisting pump / turniness
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On 2/28/2003
Stevie
wrote in from
(67.120.nnn.nnn)
I'm still a newcomer to cones. When I run cones I've been advised to work on my side to side motion, keeping my body facing forward as much as possible. Still, when I get out there and free pump accross open terrain, my natural inclination in building up speed is to twist my torso really hard. I can get going really fast that way. The faster I go, the quicker I can crank out little accelerating turns. I'm trying to get the power and drive of my free pumping into the hard side to side forward orientation of cone running. It's not yet natural for me. I've de-turned my rear trucks liek everyone advises but it seems to take out some of the twisting pump that I natural want to go faster. I'm feeling like I should go ahead and stay with the looser back end and do what feels natural but I'm being told that I need to stay with the more forward moving, less turny back end and try to get used to it. What am I missing?
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