How to get up after a fall
Getting up on skates only looks clumsy when you try to come straight back onto both feet. The wheels roll off in different directions and it usually ends in a second fall. There is a simple, repeatable way around it – always come up through a kneeling position.
Look around first
While you are down you are low, and other people on the path may simply not see you. Before you start getting up, glance around and check that nobody is heading towards you. If you fell in the middle of a path or on a bend, don’t stand up there – crawl a few metres to the edge on your hands and knees and get up at the side.
Getting up after a fall
After a fall it is best to roll onto a kneeling position, so that you can support yourself on both your hands and your knees before you start to rise:
- Stay on your knees, but bring your torso up to an upright position.
- Raise one knee to a ninety degree position.
- Rest both hands on the raised knee.
- Keeping your hands on the raised knee and your back straight, start to lift yourself slowly.
- As you come up, straighten the other leg and stand.
- Settle into the basic position with your hands on your hips and move off when you are ready!
The whole movement works because as long as one knee stays on the ground you have three points of contact and nothing can slide away from you. The skate you are standing on should sit flat on all of its wheels, not up on the toes.
Easier at a wall or railing
If the kneeling method feels too hard at first, look for something solid: a wall, a lamp post, a bench or a railing. Move up close to it, crawling on your hands and knees if you need to, take hold with both hands and rise by shifting your weight onto your arms rather than onto the wheels. A bench is the most convenient of the four, because you can sit on it first and arrange your feet in your own time.
On a slope, turn your skates across it
On even the gentlest gradient your skates will start rolling the moment you transfer your weight onto them. Before you stand, place both feet across the slope, at right angles to the direction it falls – that way the wheels have no way to run downhill. The same trick works on smooth concrete and in a car park with a slight incline, where it is easy not to notice the slope at all.
Before you set off again
Brush the sand and grit off your hands and wheels. Grit working its way into the bearings can lock a wheel while you are moving, and that means another fall. Check as well that no wheel has worked loose in a heavy fall and that your pads are back where they belong.
If the fall was a nasty one, don’t set off at full speed straight away. Skate a few dozen metres calmly and make sure everything is working as it should. How to fall so that these situations end as gently as possible is covered in our piece on falling technique.