Longboard
Posted on August 18, 2007
Filed Under Personal |
I recently purchased a longboard. Even though it cost more than I am willing to publicly admit, I think it was well worth it. I bought the longboard for 3 main reasons, which I think justify the cost and will, in a relatively short time, make up for the cost.
The 3 primary reasons why I bought a longboard are:
- Fun: Let’s face it, cruising around on a longboard is fun. I used skateboard all the time when I was younger and, while I’m certainly not about to jump on a regular street board and start doing ollies in my “old” age, a longboard will let me have all the fun of skateboarding, with less of the killing myself. Plus, a longboard, with it’s big chunky wheels, is much better for getting speed, and having a relaxing ride, which is what I want these days. My days of knocking my head against the sidewalk as I screw up yet another kickflip may be behind me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still have fun skating.
- Transportation: Living downtown is great, because it means that I’m very close to all amenities–shopping, groceries, theatres–as well as most of my friends. It also means that I don’t need to drive to these places. However, because I live toward the outer fringes of downtown, I have often been guilty of driving, when I could just as easily have walked where I was going, had I left the house 5 minutes sooner. My longboard will help remedy this, because I’m now able to cruise around downtown much faster than if I was walking, without using the car. This will save gas money, and be better for the environment. With the price of gas these days, it probably won’t take long for my longboard to pay for itself. Yes, I could use my bicycle instead of my longboard, and I will still use my bike a lot, but sometimes it’s a hassle to try and find a place to lock it up, and depending what part of town I’m in, I sometimes get paranoid about it being stolen. With the longboard, these worries are mostly eliminated, as I can just pick it up and take it inside with me when I arrive at my destination.
- Exercise: I’m out of shape. I’d love to deny it, but I’d be lying. I’m in terrible, terrible shape. I figure that riding a longboard will help with this. It will give me some good exercise, but it will be so much fun that I won’t even notice. Plus, the fun factor will give me an incentive to actually go outside and get some exercise–something that jogging doesn’t do (I hate jogging). I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how much exercise longboarding will provide me. I thought it would a pretty low intensity workout (and, for the most part, it is). But, yesterday, I rode from my apartment to Whyte Ave (about 25 blocks) for the Fringe, and back again after I was done watching plays for the day. When I got home, I could hardly move. I didn’t really feel it until I stopped riding for the night but, damn, my muscles were (and still are) killing me! It takes a lot of core strength, and leg strength, to stay balanced and steer a longboard. It’s a much better workout than I had originally suspected. (Admittedly, part of the reason I’m so sore is because I’m not in good shape, right now.)
The combination of those 3 factors makes me not regret paying an obscene amount of money for my new deck. It’s an exercise machine, a form of transportation, and a fun activity, all rolled into one. That’s good value for money, if you ask me. Now, I just need to con some of my friends into shelling over ridiculous amounts of money down at Local 124 so I’ll have someone to skate with.
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4 Responses to “Longboard”
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I have roller-blades if you don’t mind having a horribly uncool fruit-booter follow you around.
I always wanted to know how to ride a skateboard! All the boys had them when I was a wee one and I was very jealous! I never did learn how to stay on the thing…except the ones with the handle bars attached.
And occasionally, it’s OK to spend obscene amounts of money on fun stuff. Especially when you can justify the costs as well as you have here.
i admire you snider - that thing frightens me.
@Allan: I dunno…fruit-boots and all. Seriously, though, that would be fun. I should dust off my roller blades one of these days, too.
@Seleena: Yeah, I agree about splurging on fun things once in a while. Especially if you can justify it!
@Mandie: What’s frightening about it? It’s not the board you have to be scared of, it’s the killer hills. I already toasted my arm bailing near the High Level Bridge on Friday night. Fun times, though. War injuries rule.