Soooooooo, I have a super duper indoor skatepark at the bottom of my road. For Christmas I brought myself a BMX. I’ve spent lots of time down there with my 8yo son just rolling and pumping around & I love it. I am pretty ok with my wheels on the floor, but any airtime experienced is totally out of my comfort zone. MTB wise I’d never session a jump spot & the only time I’d air is if there was a drop off in the flow of the trail, probably maxing out at 2′.
I’ve been practicing carving the bowls etc and turning the bike in the air at the top of the narrowed carve to get me pointing down in a tighter arc. From what I’ve seen, there appears to be two methods: 1) carving the bowl and popping out for air at the top & 2) the shoot vertically up, 180′ in the air and shoot straight back down. I’m guessing I need to work on No. 1?
So far I’m focussing on tight carve turns at the bowl lip, looking at where my front wheel needs to land (on the transition I guess), and having my handlebars pointing in the right direction.
Should I be doing anything else???? Any gems of advice appreciated.
Oh – one other thing – HOW MUCH FUN IS IT JUST PUMPING YOUR WAY ROUND A BOWL TRYING TO WALL RIDE!!!!! Not a pedal turned and totally breathless!
I’m not in any rush to do this and I’m not too fussed if I never do, but… there is an urge for some airtime in the bowls!
Cheers all.
PS: at 42 I don’t bounce well.

If its on vert you don’t need to do anything different to a carve apart from go faster and don’t hang up. If its not vert you have to pull up a bit bit only a bit otherwise you’ll get out of shape.

Please explain in simpleton terms pull up, am I pulling the bike towards me a nadge in order to clear the coping or something else?

Sit and watch the lads who are doing it smoothly and try to emulate, watch their body position and how they turn the bike! Also make sure you are fully padded up and a FF helmet!
Best o luck

Vert = the lip of the quater is actualy vertical, so in theory all you have to do is keep riding as you would if there was something under the wheels and the bike will meet the ground perfectly on the way down. If it’s not quite vertical then you’d need to pump more at the top to push yourself back into the quater/bowl.

That’s the theory, I can’t do it enither!

You want to start low down before you worry about clearing the coping.
You can get the movement dialled essentially as the transition starts. Keep doing it, keep pushing the height, a month, maybe two.. This;

Getting air is the easy bit.

Landing is where it gets trickier. 🙂

But on a serious note, when I used to ride BMX I built up to airing out of quarters and minis by getting used to carving and then airing 180s below the coping. Once you’re confident doing that it’s just a case of gently increasing the speed and taking off a little higher.

Essentially its a similar action to a bunnyhop, roll your front wheel then back wheel off the coping and pull up/back on the bars / pedals. Pump the transition for more height/speed. The steeper the bowl/quarter the less you need to pull back and vice-versa. Try and avoid hanging up your front wheel or its a trip to the dentist. very mellow quarters are harder to air, so go for something steeper to learn on, although Vert is easiest it also has the highest penalty for mistakes so somewhere in-between is ideal.

On a big quarter pipe with a decent vert section I could pump/hop off the surface of the ramp turn 180 and land ok, no way could I ever get the bottle to jump out of a quarter/half pipe tho. too worried about hooking up.

My mate used to practice by riding up so the rear wheel was just below the coping and almost pivoting on that, then after a few goes progressing to the full jump out.

long time ago (during the mid-late 90s bmx “revival”) now tho, can’t see myself having another go.

Bigger transitions can seem scarier but are safer as you’ll land further up on a steeper angle and slide more rather than stopping dead. Falling off a tighter quarter you can hit the flat bottom pretty easily, which hurts alot, especially if you land on your teeth.

Bigger transitions can seem scarier but are safer

This was my uneducated gut feeling.

Bigger transitions can seem scarier but are safer as you’ll land further up on a steeper angle and slide more rather than stopping dead.
Yep, thats why Mat Hoffman has hardly suffered any injuries. Oh wait… 😀

There is no danger of me going as Big as Hoffman…