You now find yourself at a blog where gravity feeds desire, and adrenaline creates a passion, for going downhill.
Longboarding.
A sport where you entrust your safety and well-being to a hand-crafted piece of wood with wheels on it. And then you go fast.
I discovered longboarding at the end of 2009, when I was in Australia. I bought a cheap longboard from a surf shop in Margaret River, on the west coast of Oz. There were some nice windy roads with butter-smooth pavement that ran along the sunny coast. I now know that what I bought was defenitely a walmart-grade board, a very flexy pine board with super wide LOC trucks and urban sk8er wheels. It was defenitely a beginner board.
So I started out pushing on the flats, as I'd only been on a skateboard a few times. my friend Dan got himself a z-flex longboard, and loved it so much that I couldn't help but get one for myself. He'd tried to teach me how to ride in an underground parking lot, but I didn't have a clue what I was doing. So I had to take what he taught me and just drill it until I got it. So the beginning was noble.
I first learnt to push on this one flat section at the top of the hill, and eventually decided, well, I might as well hit this hill. I guess I didn't know what could happen to me if I bailed, 'cause I defenitely went headlong down some of those hills, without thinking. But gradually, day by day, I got better. I was hitting steep bombs by the time I left oz, and had been carving fairly well for a couple weeks. Yet I was still at that stage where Longboarding exhausts you. No worries, though.
I got back to Canada, and discovered that we live in one of the best cities for the sport. In Coquitlam, I started hitting any hill I found, but was still trying to learn. It was a slow process at first, until about February. We had moved to Port Coquitlam, and, to explore, I took my board. And found the best hills on the first day.
From then on, I was bombing almost every day, keeping my weight directly over the front trucks all the time, because it was such a flimsy board. Luckily, the trucks were super wide and the wheels likewise, so I managed to bomb. But every day my love affair with longboarding grew. I started carving a little down the hills, and found some videos where guys had gloves and helmets and were sliding their boards like they were on water. So I thought it'd be a good idea to learn to stop, because... the speeds were fast. I had fallen a few times, but mostly kept myself under the speed limit, because I was terrified of this new love affair.
So I got some gloves.
My friend Todd and I had been hitting this one hill called foxwood in port mood for the past month or so, and in April, we made some gloves to help us carve harder. We were at the stage where we're bombing real hardcore. Without really knowing what we were doing. The gloves changed my world. I all of a sudden discovered a sport where you support yourself with all four limbs, while sailing over pavement at high speeds. I was happy to say the least. So Then sliding my long board was learnt. And I could stop, all of a sudden.
Well, If I can stop, then why don't I go faster?
Of course, I eventually started thinking of a better board, and found the Landyachtz Chinook. It was dubbed as one of the best freeriding boards around, easy to slide and stable through the corners. I stood on it at the shop and said, "whoa, this is my board." And sure enough, in late May, I bought the exact board that I'd stood on that day. They'd stop making the Chinook, and, finally having money, I was desperate to have it, so I bought their demo board. It was such a steal 'cause it was set up to the dream specifications one of the technicians had, and It was a dream. So carvy, slid like a beaut, and was super fun. I felt like I was surfing! So now, after a summer of hard bombing, I've decided to take you through my journey with longboarding. The feelings I have about this sport, since I love it so much, are going to be released through this blog. Also my progress and random rants about traffic and boardtalk in general. Join me!
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