learn to longboard

Okay dudes… after watching the long ‘board meetings’ back home in toronto for the past few years, i’ve gotta say i’ve always been a little jealous.

I know for the ammount of energy expelled that its not really a savings and its not like i would trust myself to actually ride down the crazy hills out here on the mountainous west coast… but my friend jordan has one, and lots of time to practice in the big giant college parking lot. :)

more practical than unicycling… i think.

Today my Lush Makonga arrived! Now to learn how to use it…

...in that, today, when i skated it was for the first time in months, but it still came naturally to me. I’m still a little wobbly, i’m still not an expert, but i have mastered the skill enough to feel like it’s starting to come naturally, like floating on air. i have no doubt that my skill will continue to develop as i skate more, but for now i am happy and feel as if i’ve accomplished something.

Buy my longboard was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I never cared to skateboard or do tricks – for me it was always about going faster (normally on a bike or such).

I bought a gravityboard hyper-carve aloha (http://tinyurl.com/39ubse) and love to ride around and bomb hills with this thing. Plus on campus this is the fastest way around.

Now I’ve been doing this for about a year and this thing is just an extension of my legs and well – a bit of my soul too.

I’m 20 and I had been wanting to skate for years, but my complete lack of self-confidence had up until a few months ago prevented me from trying. However after building up a significant amount of desire I finally bought a board on the internet.

Riding is an amazing feeling. You feel the the energy in the board transfer to your feet, the world comes at you and you’re cruising along at your natural eye level. The board joins your sense of self and your mind begins to sense it as if it were your arm or your leg. You may even feel a sense of self-loss when you finally have to get off of it. Some people even sleep with their boards for awhile. You enter a state of consciousness that’s halfway between your normal state of complex thoughts and ideas and basic survival mode.

My board helped me set myself free. It showed me that I could learn to do something thats not based on facts, something thats completely different than anything I’ve ever done before. It helped me find true happiness. And I’m still not even that good.

If you’ve watched somebody ride a board(any kind) and been totally captivated and awestruck, you’re probably already hooked and don’t even know it.

Try it. You’ll probably like it.

I bought my first longboard (a Sector 9) a week ago. I really love it and as soon as I got it I spent the next 6 hours of daylight I had left on it & just as I was about to go inside for the day, I got a little cocky and tried to kickflip on it, but fucked up and busted my foot really bad. I got it xrayed yesterday & I’m waiting for the results, but in the meantime my foot is black all over with bruises & so swollen it doesn’t fit into any shoes… :(
Plus the worst part is the doc recommended I didn’t skate for two weeks! (I lasted a day before I was back on…)

So that’s my story I guess. I love it so much & can’t wait to get better at it, I’m just going to keep trying. (I’m not the most coordinated person, so this injury will surely not be the last…)

Inspired by Ryan North. I think I will get one from Lush Longboards as soon as I finish my first exams.

Went again this evening and fell off for the first time. At first it didn’t hurt, i landed on my elbow and the heel of my hand but didn’t get scraped, just red for a little while and had some gravel to brush off. My longboard does not like chipsealed pavement. But i kept riding and must admit that i’m doing really well, getting more confident on my pushing off, and turning is very easy, i just need to figure out my rear foot placement. Today i felt heavy and sluggish so my forward foot was kind of planted in place while usually i am more nimble on my feet, so that may have contributed to the problems as well. Now that its been a few hours my back is bothering me, just a little sore, but the real damage is to my board: the nose is pretty scraped up from the sudden stop and my fall. But give me a few more times out and i have a feeling that longboarding is going to be pretty well mastered as far as i’m concerned and i’ll be able to change this goal to I’ve Done This!

Went longboarding again today and found a long gradual hill that was great for carving. At first it was a little bit scary and i realized that i was leaning back (uphill, towards my back leg), but then i adjusted my stance and felt way more comfortable. i didn’t fall off or lose control once and got tired from riding it for so long and then having to go up the next hill. Whew. If i keep doing this, gradually building up to every day, i will get in shape fast and get way better. I had fun until the mosquitoes came out.

The past few weeks have been super busy for me so i hadn’t had the chance to take my board out to the park until today. i took it to the basketball court and practiced pushing off, which i can tell from snowboarding is going to be the hardest part for me to master. But i was soon riding in circles and slowly getting more comfortable. Turning isn’t that hard, turning quickly a bit harder, but i think that i’ll be able to easily master this with a bit more practice. i can’t wait to take my board out again.