Longboarding is officially in my blood...

Off-topic
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So I posted a thread quite a few months back about wanting to start longboarding. I didn’t have 1/2 a clue about the sport at the time, but now it has turned into “my other ride.”

I now officially have a “quiver;” three longboards or more. I’ve crashed twice, have longboarded with 8 different seasoned longskaters, and have spent over $350 on longboard schtuff. I am an aggressive carver and pump hard into turns, flexing the board as much as my 75 pounds (34 kilograms) possibly can, and I can do some simple boardwalking such as an uber-awesome nose ride, with only my heels touching the board. Plus, I am getting down the basics of pumping.

As for my quiver, it’s pretty imbarassing to have this much stuff after a royal 3.5 months of longboarding. I guess it doesn’t take much to get addicted. My current quiver is…

  • 46" S9 Austria Supercruiser Deck, custom painted by yours truly and stickered up by Mark at MileHighSkates
  • 44" Lush Mako with Randal 180s, Khiro White Insert Bushings, 70s Flashbacks in 78a, and Oust Moc5 bearings
  • GFHurley 24" Orange Pigme with GFH Mini trucks, GFH Abec7s, and Retro 66mm ZigZags in 78a

I have yet to recieve my Pigme in the mail, but it’ll be here Monday. Here’s the current quiver pic, and I’ll post a picture of the Pigme on Monday:

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An artificially-made digitally-enhanced virtually awesome “Ty’s Pigme”:

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Maybe a video of you bombing some hills would be great to see.

Longboarding is pretty freaking cool! I haven’t had the chance to ride one yet, but I have seen other people who have and it looks like tons of fun. Maybe I will get one to try it out.

Keep up the riding, on a board, or a wheel. =p

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Why is it that you need more then one? Are there like different uses for different boards or what?

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Its like unicycling, different unis are good for certain things. Longboard, different lengths and style will allow different speeds and riding. =p

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And a photo of me and my slippers riding a GFHurley Twenty-Seven that is not mine, but is in my posession as it will be auctioned off at our family reunion in a couple of weeks with a professionally done (not by me) custom paintjob that has the family name on it.

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  • Mini - Oldskool, cruising, traveling with ([I]Like my Pigme[/I])
  • 40-48" Flexy Carver - Carving and cruising ([I]Like my Mako & Supercruiser. The Mako is just better quality.[/I])
  • Drop-deck Speedboard - Bombing, and speed-carving
  • 50" or Longer - Boardwalking, Dancing, Cruising
  • Slalom - Take a wild guess...SLALOM!
  • I'm sure people can think of more...
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Well, my White Khiro bushings are pretty close to, if not actually, the softest bushings on the market. This means that I can carve amazingly, and with my light weight I need a very soft bushing to get a carve equivelant to that of a heavier person on a harder bushing. The catch is, I can’t bomb much at all because I will get speed wobble very very easily, hence my second crash which happened a few days ago via hill-bombing on my Mako. Not a good idea. I am planning on getting a speedboard, though, so I can bomb hills.

If you want a video of some awesome carving and such instead, I can get that for ya in a few days… :slight_smile:

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Carving will be just as good too! =p

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Okay, you two seem to know alot about it, so:
I weigh 180 pounds, and am 6 feet tall.
I want to go sorta fast, but am a wussy and don’t want to get hurt when I fall, It will be used for some touring, not super long stuff but not short either, somewhere in between.
If possible something that doesn’t need cement to ride on either, like some hard dirt sorta stuff.
It must be cheap, but last a long time.
Please give me some links.
I would also like to see some movies, If I saw some then I could pinpoint more exactly want kind I would want.

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wow! I too, longboard a bit. I made my own longboard deck, and i posted a pic somewhere on the site. I’ll dig it up and post it here.

it’s pretty sweet.

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Learn to pendulum slide, it is possibly the coolest thing in the world, you do need to make yourself some slide gloves though. When i used to luge the skaters i rode with would always do them when they were messing around at the end of the day.

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Okay, you two seem to know alot about it, so:
I weigh 180 pounds, and am 6 feet tall. - Alright, a medium flex board will work great

I want to go sorta fast, - Easy enough. Most boards are ok for that

but am a wussy - I’ll remember that next time I wanna beat someone up…:wink:

and don’t want to get hurt when I fall, - Helmet and pads

It will be used for some touring, - Ok, so maybe a dropped deck for pushing

not super long stuff but not short either, somewhere in between. - Sounds like you need a 40" to 46" board

If possible something that doesn’t need cement to ride on either, like some hard dirt sorta stuff. - Umm, that’s hard. You’d be better off with big wheels, though it won’t make it perfect. Dirt sucks, and longboards aren’t made for it!

It must be cheap, but last a long time. - Life is not a big issue with boards no matter how much you spend, 'sept for Walmarters and Krowns. It’s really all about quality of the ride.

Please give me some links. - Alrighty

I would also like to see some movies, If I saw some then I could pinpoint more exactly want kind I would want. - I’ll try to find time in my busy schedule. takes sip of Pesi and yells at the cheating speech-impaired husband on Divorce Court

The Virdict:

[I]THIS BOARD would be stellar, but sadly it is out of stock.

If you are tired of my crap and want a real longboard that will suit your needs to a T and a half, try THIS BOARD[/I]

-Ty

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What safety gear do you wear while riding?

Be careful when bombing hills. A teenage longboarder in Portland OR died a couple months ago when he plowed into a parked SUV while bombing a hill in a residential area.

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Last time I went unicycling on Aberavon beach-front, I went past a guy on a long board. A really long board. It was probably about 8-9 feet long, looked kind of home made, and had a serious bow in the middle where the guy was standing.
But he seemed happy enough coasting away.
As I drew up alongside he noticed me and gave me a smile and a thumbs-up.
I smiled back and said “Now there’s something you don’t see every day!”
It was a little mutual kudos from one unusual rider to another. :slight_smile:

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Could it have been one of these suckers (in a good way)? http://www.longboard.net/complete.htm

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I always wear a helmet while on my boards, and if I am doing anything somehow out of the ordinary or more dangerous than “normal riding” (ie bombing, which I do incredibly rarely), then I wear knee pads and wrist guards.

On the longboarding forum, that believe it or not is as large if not larger than unicyclist.com, we’ve had a lot of discussion about the recent longboarding deaths. There has been I believe 4 or 5 longboarding related deaths in the past few months that have gained news coverage, and it really gives us a bad rap. There is a message behind it all - wear safety equipment - but people usually don’t get that and they believe that because longboarding is an inherently dangerous sport that it should be banned from public places and children discouraged from participation in the sport.

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one of my friends has a long board and I love riding it. I was whith him when he first got it and he had no clue what he was buying. we got to test the demo and then he finally found one. it was sort of weird i walk out with a new pair of shoes and he walks out with a long board.

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The most important bit of safety equipment is your brain. Plowing into a parked SUV at 40+ mph at night means that the brain was not being used. Just reminding you to ride smart.

Speed is fun. I remember my roadie days (road bicycle). We lived on a hill. I could easily hit 45+ mph going down that hill. I always wished the hill was longer and steeper and that my bike had a higher gear so I could go even faster. Going down Teton Pass I got to 55 and the same down a hill in the Appalachians. Wheee! But a crash at those speeds would have been ugly.

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Okay Tyler, Thanks for the suggestion, but I am cheap when first getting into something, and I am looking for something cheap, Is there like a Torker LX version of a Longboard anywhere?
Thanks