Street Luge : Getting Started

Street luge is an extreme sport which involves hurtling down a large steep hill at up to 60+mph lying on a little board on wheels. You are just a couple of inches away form the pavement and trying to steer this over-sized skateboard around the bends. The chances of hitting an object or hole in the road and flipping over are pretty high. Sound like your cup of tea and want to know more about getting involved? Then read on…

Step one
Watch some street luge events first hand. After this you may decide that you are not as insane as you thought you were and will take up knitting instead. If this doesn’t put you off try and chat to some of the riders to make sure they are not all insane or nearly paralysed. Try and catch the X games.

Step two
Part of this sport is building your own street luge, you can find plans for this on the internet and some of the riders should be able to give you some tips and pointers. You need to research this carefully to make you luge go as fast as possible for increased adrenalin rush.

Step three
Safety…not a word commonly associated with street luge. Ideally you could do with being wrapped in a mile of bubble wrap, but that would not be aerodynamic. So, firstly, if you want to live get a decent motorcycle helmet with a face shield. You should also be wearing leathers, ideally an all in one motorcycle suit, if not, a jacket and trousers. Pad yourself out with all you can find, old skateboard pads, hockey pads and motorcycle equipment, the more the better. If you want to use your hands again get some good gloves and you will need some very sturdy boots as these are your brakes, if you wear through them be prepared to have your feet tickled…

Step four
You are ready for you first run, start with a prayer and make sure your will is up to date. Take it steady while you learn to control the luge, see if you can get other riders to go with you and help you with a few pointers.

Step five
Practice as much as your injuries will allow and look out for advertised events that you can compete in, when an event comes up try and travel with other riders, make friends and exchange tip and techniques, you can pick up ideas for improving your luge and equipment.

Step six
When you have entered and few events you should have built up a collection of other luge loonies as friends and you can continue to improve your knowledge about the sport and make your luge the fastest. Before long you will be helping new maniacs enter and enjoy the life of the luge…

By: Steve Batchelor

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Steve Batchelor is a Extreme Sports enthusiast and the webmaster at www.extremesportguides.com where you can find some great information on many different extreme sports. He also recommends infogoldmine for more info on extreme sports as well as many other subjects.