Longboarding Essay

987 Words4 Pages
Longboarding Longboarding, a branch of street skating, with roots in surfing, first emerged in the 1950's on the west coast. By the 1990's, skateboarding and longboarding split into their separate disciplines, developing variations of longoarding styles, but the centralized idea behind it all is to mimic riding a surfboard on the pavement. It's common to hear a longboarder refer to this sport as “riding the paved wave.” The different styles of longboarding vary greatly from one to the next: cruising and carving, vert and sliding, slalom, downhill, freeriding, commuting, and dancing. Longboards, generally longer and wider than regular skateboards, are usually between 36-60 inches in length. The wheels used in longboarding are softer, and in most cases larger, than the wheels on a standard skateboard, which allow for a much smoother ride and the ability to roll over some objects such as small rocks or sticks. The bushings in longboard trucks (trucks connect the board to the wheels) are soft as well, which typically makes carving easy. The trucks are, also, wider than the deck (the deck is the wood or composite plank that the rider stands on) in most cases but not all. The most basic use of a longboard is commuting. Requiring either a long cruiser or a shorter hybrid type board. A kicktail is useful on a commuter board as well, allowing the rider to pick up the front of the board to drop off curbs or efficiently navigate sidewalk turns. The wheels will, usually, be a medium to large size, allowing for rolling over small surface obstacles. Cruising and carving are where the surfing feel really comes in to play. The wood used to make boards for this style will generally be more flexible than say for downhill riding. The riderwill turn from side to side in a serpentine pattern. The flex of the board combined with this side to side motion creates a feeling of surfing.
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