Odd behavior when decrementing a CCSprite velocity

Question

My CCSprite subclass has two float properties called, velX and velY to keep track of the velocity of my player. When it gets swiped in the game layer, I figure out the vector direction of the swipe and start the player moving that way. In the -update:(ccTime)dt method of my game layer, I call [player update:(ccTime)dt (I know, same name) and that method in the CCSprite class has this code.

// move
    self.position = ccp(self.position.x + self.velX * dt, self.position.y + self.velY * dt);
    // do edge checking

// decelerate
    #define kDeceleration .95
    NSLog(@">velX = %1.1f, velY = %1.1f, fabs(velX) = %1.1f, fabs(velY) = %1.1f", self.velX, self.velY, fabs(velX), fabs(velY));
    self.velX *= kDeceleration;
    if (fabs(self.velX < 1.0)) self.velX = 0.0;
    self.velY *= kDeceleration;
    if (fabs(self.velY < 1.0)) self.velY = 0.0;

This gets called every time the game layer calls update and passes in the same time increment that the game loop uses.

It works great if I swipe in a positive direction, but if either of the swipe components are negative (left or down) then they go straight to zero. If I take out the conditionals, everything works, I just figured that multiplying by zero should be cheaper than constantly multiplying by very small decimals.

I must be using the fabs() function incorrectly...

EDIT: Some sample output from two swipes, one positive in both axes, and one negative in both.

>velX = 21.8, velY = 20.6, fabs(velX) = 21.8, fabs(velY) = 20.6
>velX = 20.7, velY = 19.6, fabs(velX) = 20.7, fabs(velY) = 19.6
>velX = 19.7, velY = 18.6, fabs(velX) = 19.7, fabs(velY) = 18.6
>velX = 18.7, velY = 17.7, fabs(velX) = 18.7, fabs(velY) = 17.7
>velX = 17.8, velY = 16.8, fabs(velX) = 17.8, fabs(velY) = 16.8

>velX = -23.0, velY = -19.3, fabs(velX) = 23.0, fabs(velY) = 19.3
>velX = 0.0, velY = 0.0, fabs(velX) = 0.0, fabs(velY) = 0.0
>velX = 0.0, velY = 0.0, fabs(velX) = 0.0, fabs(velY) = 0.0
>velX = 0.0, velY = 0.0, fabs(velX) = 0.0, fabs(velY) = 0.0
>velX = 0.0, velY = 0.0, fabs(velX) = 0.0, fabs(velY) = 0.0

Answer 1

I believe this block is a syntax typo:

self.velX *= kDeceleration;
if (fabs(self.velX < 1.0)) self.velX = 0.0;
self.velY *= kDeceleration;
if (fabs(self.velY < 1.0)) self.velY = 0.0;

It should be this instead:

self.velX *= kDeceleration;
if (fabs(self.velX) < 1.0) self.velX = 0.0;
self.velY *= kDeceleration;
if (fabs(self.velY) < 1.0) self.velY = 0.0;

You need to close the fabs parentheses before the comparison operator

p/s: it's okay, everyone does this kind of mistake all the time :)