DAY ONE!

[sidebox]

My gently used OW showed up today at work with the UPS guy. I spent the afternoon rolling through the offices and warehouse. I wasn't able to get my speed up so I felt a little apprehensive about being able to easily carve turns. That changed when I took it outside after work. This thing is the best purchase I've ever made. I got the hang of it within a few minutes. It is definitely more like snowboarding than any other board sport.

I rode it up a long hill to a park and started to ride through a big meadow -Bam- that's when I realized offroading is definitely more challenging than smooth concrete. I ate grass at least 4 times before deciding to ride on the concrete trails. At this point my confidence was way too high, and I started to open it up while whipping around the big curves. By now the sun was starting to settle, and the shadows were getting long. As I rode past a big tree, I failed to see the huge root jutting through the concrete, across the roadway and fully in the shadow of the tree trunk. I got some pretty serious air and did my best to run out the crash. nope. I took two strides and crashed down with my hands up above my head and my palms getting some pretty fun road rash. I popped back up thinking "not bad, just some scratches, all good". Then I realize that my left arm is numb. Turns out it is straight up and my elbow is bent out at a funny angle. Definitely dislocated. I considered asking a stranger sitting on a bench nearby to pop it back in, but I also realized that I probably wouldn't pop some random dude's arm back in to the socket. I ended up leaning my arm against the backrest of a bench and using my bodyweight to pop that sucker back in place. After that, I was good to go and rode my board home to top off my charge.

I'm still picking gravel out of my palms and my arm has popped out of the socket two more times tonight, but this it was so worth it. I can't wait to commute every day on this bad boy and to get a little more comfortable off-roading.

That was longer than I wanted... TLDR: First day with OW is fucking awesome! Dislocated my shoulder and tore up my palms, but it was so worth it! ... though I'm still picking gravel out of my hands.

-- and a short vid of my new favorite riding spot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAGCwDgsPA

Thanks to everyone for the advice and help in getting a OW as quickly as possible! The only thing I'll say is that it would be nice if there was an audible warning when the battery starts to run down.

[Polle]

Hahaha, I like your style :smiley:
Good that you can laugh at your own misery...
Happy riding!

[forzabucks]

Great story and glad the apple watch survived, but I gotta ask, what did your better half say after these events?

As for popping your own shoulder back in place, all I can respond with is:

[sidebox]

@forzabucks hahaha. Someone called me Riggs shortly after. Great reference.

I definitely got lucky avoiding watch damage. I did what any sane person does on the first day of purchasing something their spouse calls a deathtrap: I tried to cover it up. She definitely noticed something was off though, and proceeded to ask me to do harder and harder tasks until I copped to it. I think she realizes that there is no way I am going to be kept of the OW, so she put up a cursory argument, but that didn't last long.

[veryous]

This is definitely why I wear wrist guards. Great story though and way to man the hell up. Not sure if I could pull that off.

[MichaelW]

Wrist guards are a good thing... I never ride without them. I am thinking about doing a post called "Newbies" where I cover the mistakes that people make in the first week or so... I crashed a bit in the beginning (Once pretty bad but I had pads on thank god) but I think I would have been hurt less if I had talked to someone who had made mistakes already... @sidebox @veryous

[veryous]

@michaelw probably a good idea, something like "New people, read this first before you kill hurt yourself guide".

Protective gear should be worn (crap I'm getting old sounding)

1. Make sure you never lift your foot off the sensor.
2. Make sure you haven't inadvertently put the sensor on your back foot. (unless you're weird like jglide)
3. Dismount by either jumping off or raising your heel.
   a) If jumping, do not leave your sensor covering foot on the board longer than your back foot unless you want to do the splits and break your watch like my friend did.
4. Smaller advancements in turning, acceleration and braking will teach you the limits of the board though most of us admittedly go balls out at first then find the ground. haha
5. Lateral stability is more you than the board.
6. Speed makes balancing easier just like the gyroscopic effect on a bicycle.
7. Careful going uphill and accelerating too hard too fast.
8. Cracks and sidewalks can be one your biggest enemies.
9. Tire pressure is a big thing, adjust to your liking. Firm for more distance but less stability off road just like a car.
10. blah

[A. Sant]

Great stuff..keep it coming. For us nubes waiting for their boards this is GOLD!

[J-Glide]

@sidebox I hope you keep writing your experiences on here. Your stories are very entertaining! 😀

[sidebox]

@J-Glide haha. I will definitely share anything interesting that comes up in my OW journeys. Anyone else constantly get asked if they invented it? That is by far the first question for me. I'm starting to consider just saying "yes." and cruising off.

[kbern]

@sidebox congrats on your new ride. You've got balls! haha... yeah, for me, a variant of that... the first question I get asked (about 90% of the time) is "Did you make that yourself?" Haha. The design is a bit "home-madey", but I think that's what makes this so industrial-strength compared to some of those "toy", plasticy, gyro-wheeled thingies out there.

[DocBlock]

All the time. Did you make that? How much was it? Where can I get one? Is it hard to learn/ride? Does it have a motor? Be prepared for the info seekers jumping in front of you to stop for extended conversations and check out all the onlookers secretly recording you on their phones.

[MichaelW]

My beginners guide!

Here is my take after about a month and a half of making pretty much every mistake...

1. Cracks or Large flaws in the pavement must me taken with caution! Slow grade raise are mostly ok once you get the hang of them. I even go over large speed bumps now... Example of what to avoid (pic below). Most of my falls start with the thought... "hmmmm... Yeah I can probably make it... lol... Nope!

Here is an example of something that is no big deal to hit at 5-8 miles per hour.

2. Don't lift or adjust your foot off the blue sensor while riding. Once you get better at it you can slide it carefully and slightly but you never want to lift your foot off while riding. The board will stop and you will do a flying face plant...

3. Always put the same foot on the blue sensor. Left foot if your regular and right if your goofy foot. This protects against the board flying when you dismount.

4. Experement with tire pressure. My neighborhood has lots of flaws in the pavement. For that reason I like to run my pressure really low. Around 11.5 pounds and sometimes as low as 9.5. Normal is typically about 16 pounds and people that love speed and have places go quickly, seem to go up to 22 pounds. Again firm for long distance and speed. Soft for off road and bumpy conditions.

5. Careful when you are going uphill or leaning/execrating too fast!

6. Baby steps are best when dealing with turning, braking, acceleration and tricks of any sort. Beginners will often get too cocky too fast and that often leads to your ass on the pavement.

7. Dismounts are done best by simply jumping off with both feet or my personal favorite, raising my sensor foot to the side slightly... Pic of my favorite way below

When jumping or dismounting don't leave your sensor foot on the board longer than your back foot unless you want to do the splits and pull a groin.

8. Lateral stability is more you than the board.

9. Speed makes balancing easier.

10. When letting someone try out your board give them your helmet and remind them that you are not responsible of they fall off for any reason. I would suggest holding people with your arm out for a bit while they get used to it. I don't let kids under 15 ride as I have had a few bad experiences...

11. If you run the board super low on power it will start to give you heavy pushback. Which means the breaks will slowly begin to start to fail on you. This is scary and I do what I can to avoid it. Keep a watchful eye on your app for battery power.

12. Driving through grass and dirt is awesome but is more fun when it is somewhat smooth terrain. The bumpier it gets the slower you must go or you will likely end up on your ass.

13. Last but not least, wear a helmet, wrist, knee guards and elbow guards. Most important are helmet and wrist guards.

Hope that helps! Members: Please feel free to add in case I missed anything.

[MichaelW]

By the way... thanks for your initial post @veryous it was a great help in writing my post for Beginners Guide (real world). Peace.

[lardnicus]

Great tips! I would add that if you are riding over an obstacle (for example, the big crack pictured, a speed-bump or the ramp from road to curb sometimes) none of these are a problem if you take it with a bit of speed and do a little jump without taking your feet off the board. Basically, your aim is to take your weight off the board so the board can cruise over without your weight.

[kbern]

@lardnicus I've noticed while watching video playbacks that when going over obstacles like that, the nose tends to dip on the "landing" (at least for me), so I try and concentrate on keeping more weight on my back foot as I go over, so that I don't nose-dive