My name is Mary Allison and I live a pretty awesome life.
I have a wonderful husband, fulfilling job, and have even traveled the world as an elite athlete.
Let me share a few tricks of my trade with you so you can hop, pop, and jump your way wherever you please.
Once you've mastered the pop, then it's time to learn the hop.
Hopping curbs is very useful when encountering an inaccessible sidewalk, friend's house, or you just want to take a shorter route.
Hopping down a curb is much easier than hopping up a curb because you have gravity in your favor.
There are two main ways to hop up and down curbs: facing forward or backward.
I prefer to hop down a curb facing forward because I like to see where I'm going and I think it's safer.
When you approach a curb, pop into the wheelie position.
Find your balance point and then hop down the curb while applying even pressure to your wheels.
It's important to land on your back wheels and then ease your front castors down to the ground.
When descending a curb backwards, roll your back wheels to the edge of the curb.
And lean your weight forward toward your knees.
Slowly ease yourself down the curb. Once your back wheels have reached the ground,
then take a pull backwards to lower your castors and raise your chest.
Once you have mastered sizable curbs, then you can practice hopping down multiple steps.
In order to hop down multiple steps, you must have superior chair control.
Start with a single curb. Focus on hopping down the curb and and landing in a wheelie position
with your castors off of the ground. This skill is critical.
When you are ready to try multiple steps, find a small set of deep steps to practice on.
Slowly pop down one step, pulling back into the step to regain your balance point.
Then pop down and down until you reach the bottom.
If you must descend a larger or more shallow set of stairs and a handrail is available,
you might choose to go down the steps backwards while using the handrail.
Back up to the top of the steps. Place one hand on the handrail, and your other hand on your hand rim.
Lean all of your weight forward toward you knees. And slowly descend one step.
Remember, after you descend one step, you might need to regain your balance and adjust your chair.
Slowly continue to descend the stairs step by step until you reach the bottom.
Make sure that you always remain leaning forward in your chair.
Once you've reached the bottom, you can slowly pull back, lower your castors, and sit back up in your chair.
Hopping up curbs, while not as scary, can be quite difficult depending on the height of the curb.
For smaller curbs or bumps, you can hop over them from a stationary or moving wheelie position.
For more substantial curbs, you might need to get a running start.
Take several hard pushes as you approach the curb. once you get to the curb,
pop up into a high wheelie, and apply a lot of pressure on your back wheels into the curb.
As you hop up the curb, make sure you remain leaning forward so your momentum will carry you to the top.
I have found that it is easier to hop up a curb using air filled tires as opposed to solid tires.
If I'm having a lot of difficulty on a curb, I might deflate my tire slightly.
This will allow by tire to dig into the curb more and make hopping up the curb easier.
If you've tried this method and you still can't get up the curb, see if there is a sturdy, stationary object
nearby. You can use this object to pull yourself up the curb.
This could be a parking meter, door frame, or even a tree.
Just make sure you don't pull yourself out of your chair.
Thanks for watching!
[music]
(off screen) Oh there you go.
See it's that easy! It doesn't take long at all to do that... [laughs]
Waaaaa! (Laughs) Blooper Reel!
I will not make it in the blooper reel. [laughs]
Point forward... do that little dance move where you point.
Oh!
[laughs]
Oh!
Cliff is like MERRR. [laughs]