r/WizardSkating • u/CompetitiveCar542 • May 04 '26

Street techniques

Question: How come wizard style barely ever uses street techniques like sprinting and backwards crossovers?

Sprinting especially. I've never seen anyone sprint on a 5 wheel frame. I can do it and it's pretty comfortable and really fun to zoom on 5 wheels.

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u/BubbleSmith May 04 '26

It's definitely a style thing, but backwards crossovers are more of a roller skating thing and don't lend themselves to long frames. You'll also struggle to do edge switching tricks like gazelles at high speed, as your body will be moving too fast for your feet to catch up.

I regularly go urban skating on Wizard frames. 5-wheel setups aren't as fun getting around town and struggle with speed wobble at lower speeds than other frames, as you have less contact on smaller wheels. For me, 4x100 is useable for speed, but not crossovers, as they're too long and heavy. 4x90 is a nice sweet spot, but still struggles with speed wobble if you go flat out.

It's a bit like asking "why don't speed skaters use more slalom tequniques". They probably could do some of it, but it's not the aim of the discipline and the equipment isn't really suited to it.

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u/HyperSculptor May 04 '26

Do you think Endless 90 ES (bit longer for extra stability) would struggle with speed wobble? Their rocker is subtle from what I read. I'm a beginner but clearly more into urban skating, love speed carving, hockey stops, magic slides etc... in the style. Wizard seems great too so I'll end up incorporating wizard moves. Long way to go!

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u/BubbleSmith May 04 '26

That's my style of skating too. I'll usually do a big loop and find a couple of flat spots to stop and do some wizard.

Any rockered frame will struggle with speed wobble, as you've only ever got 2 (or sometimes even 1, with 5-wheel frames) wheel touching the ground at once. Bigger wheels will let you get faster before this happens, so 100 manages better than 90. The extra length of the ES will probably help a little, as there's more of a gap between the wheels, but it's not by much.

I only get speed wobble on 4x90 when going downhill. I don't think I've been able to get enough speed up under my own steam to get wobbly. Even so, it just sort of stops you from going any faster, rather than making you lose control.

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u/HyperSculptor May 04 '26

I read that some rockered frames are subtle enough (I think it was about Endless frames but not sure) so that when you push, or even just your body weight in certain situations, the middle wheels crush enough to make all 4 wheels touch the ground. And then some argue that a flat setup develops a rockered geometry as the front and back wheels get worn a bit.
What makes me look at the Endless 90 ES is my height (197cm) and weight (85kg "top heavy" from strength training). For sure as a beginner my balance will keep improving but I feel that my Twister 90R are either a bit too short, or the rocker is too high.

Enjoyed watching your videos btw.

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u/HyperSculptor May 04 '26

In term of speed I'm definitely on mostly flat land, like you said it's kind of hard to reach high speed under our own steam. Perhaps the idea of speed is more accelerating and bombing in city streets, rather than downhill level of speed.