Yet another "how do you do this" thread...
 

Skidding and skipping. Before someone posts the Fixed Gear 101 article, I have read it. I understand what to do, but how do you unweight the rear wheel while your feet are moving that fast?

just kinda jump. it's hard to explain in words. in my experience, one day you just get it. and then you ruin your back tire in less than a thousand miles. now i skid only if cute chicks are around.:)

Shift your weight forward as far as you can.

Unweighting you rear wheel is not necessary for skipping.

skidding - crotch to the stem, lean forward, lock your legs.
skipping - its actually a little hop. with my front foot at about 2 oclock, i do a little forward hop and push down with my back foot. its alot like the mottion you make when you are skipping on the ground.

to skiP: when your cranks are horizontal, tug up with your leading foot and push down with your back foot. you should be out of the saddle. hopefully, this will cause you to do a tiny little skid. that's a skip. sort of. once you get more coordinated, you'll get the feel for hopping/unweighting and whatnot, until you can skip every rotation, and it will sort of look like skipping on the ground, like 128 mentioned.

yeah, to clarify - To unweight the rear wheel, you need to lean forward. That will help you skid. To skip, you need to figure out how to hop.

Do you guys actually spin the crank backwards a bit during the hop to do a skip? I can hop my rear wheel a foot high if I want to, but can't really figure out how to lock it once it touches ground. Of course, both my hub and my crank would fall apart if I really tried, so this is just pointless curiosity.

don't wait until your cranks are horizontal to try and skip. basically, skip up and down the sidewalk like ya did when you were a kid and remember how that feels. then, get on your bike. when one foot (left was first for me, but i can do both now) is at 6 o'clock, start to hop/skip like you did on the ground. push up off of that foot and pull up with the other. it's the same motion as skipping on the ground

when i skip, i don't actually hop. that is to say, my rear wheel doesn't have to leave the ground. it has in the past, and sometimes it does, but for me that's not the goal, nor is locking it. a few skips in succession are enough to slow me as much as i need to.

practice on wet streets. can't emphasize that enough.

skidding: you need to pull the lever attached to your rear brake.
sipping: as a 7 year old girl, and she'll show you how to do it.