# I'm the Scorpion King!!



## LukeRyan (Jan 12, 2012)

For what it's worth, I figured I'd post my first pretty gnarly wipe out on here. I was up at Stratton this past weekend taking my brand new 2012 Lib Tech 157 TRS for its first shred and had never really rode freesrtyle before but started hitting natural rollers and what not. After stomping one after the other and realizing how mildly difficult it was, it built my confidence through the roof. I ended up taking this trail that led to the terrain park, which I didn't know was going to happen. I figured I might as well hit one jump (and the jump wasn't the only thing I hit). I gain some speed, go off the ramp and as soon as I'm in the air, my entire body ends up rotating forward and the first thing to hit the hardpack was my head. If I hadn't been wearing a helmet I would have had to have been carted off of the mountain for sure. Anyway, I got the wind knocked out of me pretty bad and ended up lying there for a good minute to catch my breath. Of course my friends were cracking up and I got up to ride over to them and my friend had told me, "that was a straight up SCORPION!!!!" I guess landing head first is called "scorpioning" in his book??? That was the end of me hitting the park for that day, and the end of my story. :cheeky4:


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## david_z (Dec 14, 2009)

scorpion is a face-first bail that arches your back the wrong way and causes your legs to come over your ass. it looks kind of like a scorpion's stinger. like this:

Harsh Zeach to Scorpion: This is what happens when you longboard


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## LukeRyan (Jan 12, 2012)

david_z said:


> scorpion is a face-first bail that arches your back the wrong way and causes your legs to come over your ass. it looks kind of like a scorpion's stinger. like this:
> 
> Harsh Zeach to Scorpion: This is what happens when you longboard


Well, that is EXACTLY what happened andddddd it sucked major balls!! I'm just grateful that it didn't put me out of commission for more than the 2 minutes I spent lying on the hardpack groaning like a 83 year old senior citizen having an orgasm for the first time in 30 years. I actually hit a natural roller after the bail as to not let it completely shatter my confidence. Should I focus on never leaning forward when getting air at all costs? Any advice to avoid future scorpions when trying to hit jumps?


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

Learn to grab. Go off mild rollers and reach for the centre of your board. Rinse. Repeat.

Grabbing stabilizes you in the air. :thumbsup: You don't have to actually grab and hold, just the motion of bringing your legs up and compressing yourself will help. I feel just wrong when I'm standing straight up while airborn...


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## LukeRyan (Jan 12, 2012)

poutanen said:


> Learn to grab. Go off mild rollers and reach for the centre of your board. Rinse. Repeat.
> 
> Grabbing stabilizes you in the air. :thumbsup: You don't have to actually grab and hold, just the motion of bringing your legs up and compressing yourself will help. I feel just wrong when I'm standing straight up while airborn...


I definitely wasn't standing straight up while airborn. I was ollie'ing off the natural roller, which forces me to bring my knees in, although I wasn't motioning as if I were going for a grab.


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

LukeRyan said:


> I definitely wasn't standing straight up while airborn. I was ollie'ing off the natural roller, which forces me to bring my knees in, although I wasn't motioning as if I were going for a grab.


Not sure I could tell you what you did wrong without actually seeing it, but yes there's a balanced pressure you should have when launching (shouldn't be standing forward or back, but about 50/50 on both legs). And again try to do the grab motions as it'll force you to compress in the air, keeping you stable.

Natural rollers are great to learn on because you can go bigger and bigger with more speed, but at the same time it's easy to abort (just roll over the jump without launching yourself).

The stuff I like to get air off of would almost not get me airborn if I didn't load up and use my own leg strength to launch off the lip. I like this because you always have an abort strategy. Plus you tend to be more balanced in the air if you're the one doing the jumping (versus riding off a launch ramp).

Might not hurt to get a lesson or two on it. I'm all for lessons if you think something's holding you back. I might take a big air lesson this year. I used to hit massive stuff all the time but I'm getting older and the launch ramps start to scare me now! lol


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