Oh yeah!!!!
Now I really just want to longboard all summer long…
Carving the Mountains
by Juan Rayos
Night Longboarding
My son and I went longboarding tonight. I say “tonight” because it was dark by the time we got to the trail we ride. We knew it would be dark and went prepared. I purchased a set of three Brinkmann 5 LED Headlights from Home Depot. These were super cheap ($16.00) and came with batteries. I took the head straps off and used a Velcro strap - the kind you’d use to wrap cables together with - and strapped the light to our helmets through the front vent holes. I then took another Velcro strap (where would we be without Velcro?) and pulled it through the back vent holes in my helmet and attached a tail light from my mountain biking days. Cheap, easy and safe(r).
Longboarding at night is a blast. First, the trail was practically empty except for a couple of bikers and a lone runner (that my son almost ran into since he was dressed in black and had no illumination whatsoever). Second, it was quiet. So quiet you could hear the local four-legged residence of the trail getting ready for the night hunt. Third, it was a perfect way to wind down from a day and spend some time with my son.Which is always a great thing.
Next up: the cold. Longboarding this Winter. Stay tuned.
My new longboard arrived today. Please allow me to introduce you to my Bustin Boards “Maestro” - complete with Bear Grizzly 184mm trucks, Orangatang 4President 70mm 80a wheels, and Bones Super Red bearings.
If you’re looking for a new longboard, do yourself a favor and check out Bustin Boards. Super easy web site that allows you to customize every aspect of your board (colors, graphics, grip tape, hardware, etc.). It arrived from Brooklyn, NY in 19 days in perfect condition via UPS. The signature of the builder and the numbering (#5827) is a sweet personalized touch.
Stay tuned for my posting(s) on the ride! If you see an old(ish) guy out riding a killer looking longboard with a huge smile on his face - that’d be me. Say “hi” and maybe I’ll let you take it for a spin.
Longboarding
So I started to longboard this spring. I’ve always been interested/amazed by skateboarding - did a little in college but wasn’t very good. I rode behind everyone mostly. Any way, I love it. I’m not very good at it, but I love it. I have improved a bit from where I started and hopefully I’ll continue to improve.
I bought my first board (Sector 9) from BC in the mall since none of the local skate shops had any longboards. Then my friend Dave N. told me that Precision in Lincoln carried some. At that point my girlfriend Sarah wanted to give it a try. So we drove down to Precision with the justification in my head that I’d get a new board and she could have my Sector 9. I drove home with a new Santa Cruz in the back of the car and a big smile on my face.
The other day Sarah and I were out in the morning to get some skating in before the heat and humidity took over. We just ride up and down her street - smooth, wide and gradual hills. All was going well. I feeling very comfortable on my board. Sarah was going longer than usual. What could go wrong? Let me tell ya…
I went down a steeper part of the street. I’ve done this section before and this morning it went really well. No fear. No wobble. “Nice!” I say to myself. Right after this section is a much steeper section - not SF steep but steep enough to pick up more speed than I knew what to do with. So I decided to go down it. Bad idea. I was going great and then the speed came and I freaked. I had no idea how I was going to slow down much less stop. I bail.
My legs are running as fast as they can. But not fast enough. I make maybe 5 steps and gravity decided it was time I bleed to the longboard gods. And down I went. Hard. Luckily I had my gloves and helmet on. I wish I had my knee pads on. I left knee really wishes I had my knee pads on.
By the time I walked back up the hill to Sarah’s house I had a tennis ball sized contusion on my left knee. My right arm is is bleeding from a good road rash, elbow to almost my wrist. Left arm is looking a little better with a road rash top and bottom of my forearm. Everything else is appears to be untouched. (It seems I torqued my right knee during my “run”.)
Am I done with this longboarding business? Hell no! I wish I could go ride right now. But I’ll be smart and wait for the swelling to go down and the road rash to be less raw. I’m so not done with this that I ordered a new board from Bustin Boards out of NYC. Next time I’ll put the knee pads on and work on learning how to slow down or better yet, stop.
