A
Story by Ken. B, Seattle WA.
"Why
I Ride..."
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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"
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Ken's
Board:
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Visit
Ken's Blog >>
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A
note from LBD:
Ken,
thanks so much for your story. Like you, we also LOVE
to hear from "regular" skaters and not just pros that
truly love skateboarding for what it represents.
Freedom.
Celebration. Life.
Ride
on, dude.
-Chris
Rempel, LongboardDirectory.com
