Longboarding

[Leanne]

I recently had to give up my favourite pursuit, kayaking, due to bad hips. It got so bad that a couple of hours of paddling left me in terrible pain for about two days. So with a heavy heart, I sold my kayaks, and with the proceeds, got myself a longboard. If you're not familiar with longboarding, think "skateboarding" but scaled up..... much bigger, and way faster. They're more designed for the open road than for skateparks. A good downhill run can easily see you topping 50mph, though I tend to bottle out at about 30-35mph.

I used to skate when I was a kid, and loved every minute of it, but I got to the stage where I felt I was too old for skating. Now though, I just don't care!

Needless to say, one thing led to another, and I ended up wanting different boards for different disciplines. So here's my quiver of boards. All from a company called Earthwing (the best IMO).

[Ice Maiden]

I couldnt do that now as i would look stupid my age

although i still am very fond of windsurfing, just never get the chance I have a world cup board and rig above me suspended as we speak ;)P

[Leanne]

I couldnt do that now as i would look stupid my age

Well I'm no spring chicken either, and that's exactly the sort of thinking that stopped me from longboarding for so long. Admittedly, at first I only went out skating under cover of darkness, while I got the basics down, but one I'd found my feet, the desire to skate became far more important to me than the opinions of a few closed minded strangers. You only get one shot at this life, so as long as your chosen pastime doesn't hurt anyone else, I say go for it, and scr*w the opinions of a few irrelevant people.

Besides, you usually find that if you're able to drift a longboard sideways round a corner at 20mph+ you're far more likely to hear people saying something like "wooooaaah!" rather than taking the mickey.

Most people that I talk too, when I'm out and about on my board, think it's very cool and that it looks like great fun. They're right as well, it is!

Another thing that I love so much about longboarding is that I can fit it into my daily life, rather than have to go out of my way or set time aside for it. If I need to pop into town or whatever, I can turn what would otherwise be a routine and quite dull little trip, into a full on, adrenalin fuelled adventure....and it keeps me fit too. Result!

[Ice Maiden]

Have to try Parcourse next LOL PS which is the best board?

[Leanne]

Hmm, no easy answer for that one, as they each excel at different disciplines. The board on the left (Earthwing Supercharger) is certainly the fastest, and the most dynamic to ride. It's a bit like being strapped onto an Exocet missile. So I use that one as a sort of commuter/sprint type board, for long days out, when I want to clock up the miles. The middle one (EW Crewzer) is more of a traditional design, but bigger than a standard board, so that one's great for tricks, skateparks, and generally hustling round the streets. The green board on the right (EW Supermodel) is a freestyle/downhill board. The trucks are mounted through the deck on that one, which makes it lower to the ground, so it's very stable at speed, and combine that with very wide trucks (10" axles), and you have a board that's just begging to have the back end kicked out at speed, for serious sideways action.

I'm often faced with the dilemma of which board to reach for when I'm heading out, but for general use, I guess if I really had to pick one out as the best, then I'd have to say the one on the left, the Supercharger.