As a rider starting out, or even one that’s been at it for a while, we all have questions still! As part of the “Ask A Pro Series” we’re going to answer your questions using our connections with the best of the best female riders out there. If you want your question featured for next month, head over to our contact page and ask away!
We received an email from Leonie, and she wants to know: I think this is a question most suitable for a park rider and it is one I’m always confused by when I ask guys because to many of them it seems to come naturally.. and that is “how do you progress to airing out…. HOW do you do it!?” Might seem a bit simple but I’m scared that if I just got up I wont curve round and land straight on my back or something :s
To answer, we got 2013 Simple Session winner Camila Harambour to answer this question.
Hey Leonie!
Airing is actually something quite natural when you feel comfortable enough on your bike, that’s why its hard to explain, but I’ll do my best!!
Usually the first thing you do on a quarter to turn around is a 180. You head to the quarter and jump and do a 180 to come back. The thing is, that for airing you don’t really have to do that. What you first need to do is feel the ramp and actually use it. You don’t need to air over the coping to try this.. what u need to do is go and carve a bit more and when you feel you got to the highest point you wanna do kind of a little bonny hop that will help you keep going like if you where still carving in the ramp. its really hard to explain with words.. but keep in mind that the smoothest is feels the better it will be. Watch some of the guys do it and compare it to the “180” in the quarter and you will realize that one does a smooth turn that follows the curve of the quarter and the other one is a lot sharper and kind of cuts the flow.
Once you manage to do that, keep doing it, keep feeling more and more comfortable on it and once you start going faster you won’t realize that you are actually airing 🙂 Just remember you have to USE the ramp and follow the transition.
You can even try it in a small and mellow ramp, the point is feeling the ramp. Airing is actually easier on a steeper one cause you pretty much don’t have to do anything at all, but that’s only when you are already used to feel different transitions :).
Also remember that the hop is more in you legs rather than in the arms!
A good thing to do that will help you A LOT is learning how to pump.. use pretty much only your legs (like how skaters do) and try to get speed from a ramp without pedaling a lot.
Let me know if this helped you or if you are even more confused now!! hahah 🙂
Have fun!!
Simple Session 2013: Sister Session Highlights from Ride BMX Magazine on Vimeo.
