" Why I Ride..."

A Story by Ken. B, Seattle WA. 

longboard skateboard

I bought my first skateboard when I was 11. It was wood with crude trucks, but it was fun to ride, because other kids had bikes and I was popping stunts and looking cool cruising on my deck while they were pushing pedals. It set me and my buddies apart that we rode and carried our skateboards around at school.

I am still skating, and I added longboards to my collection about 2 years ago. Seattle isn't an ideal place to ride, because it's raining a lot of the time, the streets are narrow, STEEP, busy, and cars are usually parked up both sides of the street, leaving about 10 feet of roadway to "carve".

I have a 26" board with beefy trucks and wheels that I can slalom down tight streets with. It gets me from A to B and I can carry it on the bus. We have some great hills out of town of course, so that's the place to bust out the long, longboards and carve huge. I hope to ride down Rainier this summer, and I have some other top secret locations that I go to every year.

You asked why I ride...

Well for me it all comes down to that feeling of "flow".

When you and the board and the hill are one. You interact with the board which in turn interacts with the road, and you stay up, and you look good doing it. That's flow.

There's so much more to it though... 

Skateboarding implies freedom. You're not working. You're not home. You're not waiting in line for a driver's license. You're out playing when you're on a board. You're cruising around seeing the sights, soaking up the sun, feeling the wind in your face, and hanging out with good buddies.

You're not doing drugs, or getting drunk when you're riding. You're doing the opposite, which is getting excercise and sunshine. And there's always surprises. Lots of surprises. There are new skating oppotunities around every corner. A new hill, a reservoir, a culvert, swimming pool, or some brand new hot black asphalt curving down into a valley through the trees.

I like to hear about regular street skaters, not pros. People that just have to get out and groove down the hills. No money, or contracts. 

Here's my Sector 9 "Nine" on my own blog. It has twin kicks, and is extremely fast and stable, so it's very versatile. I have a couple Ladera boards, (Ladera RULES) and I have my eye on two Landyachtz models. The Drop Speed (39" deck, 29" wheelbase), and the Allstar (27.75" deck, 20.25" wheelbase). The Drop has that low, low center of gravity that you need to bomb hills and cut fast corners, and I want the Allstar for that ultra-tight hill-ripping in town...

Contributed by "Ken of Seattle"