i’m not that great at rolling hops, but i was working on them yesterday while riding down a hill. near the bottom of the hill, i went to jump over the curb to get to the sidewalk. i was going really fast (less than 15mph) on my 20" and turned 90 deg. right before i jumped which made my tire compress. it felt like a bomb went off under the tire and i shot up like 3 feet (my tire would have easily cleared the hood of the car in front of me). that is like twice as high as i had ever been on my uni, but i didn’t land it. so my question is 2 fold: has anyone else expirienced this? and if so, is this kind of hopping controllable? i’m going to work on this some more today, but it seems like it would take incredible amounts of energy to keep it under control
This doesn’t sound like a good idea, this 90 degree turn at high speed. It doesn’t make for smooth riding, and it will rob you of the forward momentum you’ll need to land a big rolling hop. Tire compression is the key to higher hops; what you need to practice is making that compression happen just before you take off. Think of it as stomping on the pedals, even though you’re already pedalling.
M’lud, I draw the Court’s attention to the case of Kirk-vs-Scott in which it was decided that Ye cannae change the laws of physics.
Whatever you did, it sounds like it’s worth pursuing. If you were indeed close to 15mph on a 20", please consider that very fast. 17.5 was the fastest I ever managed on a 24" wheel, and that was after years of effort!
But to know how your hop worked, you’ll really need to get out and see if you can repeat it. If you really leaned back and did a 90 degree short-stoppy thing, that might have created a catapult effect. But even then, I don’t see lots of height coming from that. So it must have been a combination of things.
For best results, get a video camera, put it on a tripod, and try to repeat it over and over. Then post the best one for us to comment on.
If you can figure out the technique, I’m sure a successful landing can be added.
Now let’s sput Commander Scott and Einstein in the same room for an argument. Optionally you can throw in the writer who postulates the faster-than-light drive they’re probably talking about… 
ok, so i wasted a few hours today trying to pull it off again. i was probably only going about 8-9mph. i can kindof get the same effect at slower speeds (1-3mph) by performing a reaction turn and bouncing, but it’s no where near as high. i’m gonna keep trying and i’ll be recording the next time i go out, but for now i think i was just going too fast and speed wobbled and ended up putting all that momentum into my tire compression while i was trying to jump and just busted it. as meastro said, it definatly does not make for smooth riding, or maybe i discovered how to activate the warp drive on my torker.