Longboarding Post 2

Post 2
2/19/2012
               
     Silverfish longboarding's guide to boards and disciplines is a useful tool when buying your longboard. I describes the type of decks you need for the type of riding your going to be doing. Freeriding is a term used to describe any style of skating downhill which includes drifting and sliding. This style involves boards with deep wheel cutouts and drop mounted trucks. Freeriding is my favorite style of longboarding.
      Speedboarding is the sport of getting down a hill as fast as possible. Most speedboarding boards have moderate concave to lock your feet in at high speeds. Slalom is usually a timed sport that involves avoiding cones on flat land with small spacing. Most of these boards are from 30 in - 36in with functional kicktails on the back. Cruising is traveling from one location to another in whatever manner the skater sees fit. Any longboard is counted as a cruiser, but they usually tend to be medium to large boards. Carving is the manner of riding a hill where a skater cuts back and forth on hard turns to slow down or maintain speed. Most carving boards are 36 in and are flexible. Long distance is a growing style, broken into two groups:
      Long distance skating and Long distance pumping.  Long distance skating is skating a long distance while Long Distance Pumping is where you are focused on generating momentum by pumping.  These boards are typically drop through mounted trucks. Boardwalking (also called dancing) focuses upon the skater's ability to use the deck to accomplish tricks and maneuvers on the deck. Decks vary from 40 in -60 in and usually have double kicktails. Technical Sliding is a specialized discipline with some crossovers to street-skating gear, this is the intentional breaking of traction on steep hills to accomplish tricks that modify the board's movement down the fall line. Deck used in Technical Sliding vary from 34 in -38 in. Overall I would have to say that my favorite styles of riding is Boardwalking and Freeriding. These are my favourite style of riding because it looks a lot cooler in my opinion. Also when I longboard I do mostly Boardwalking and Freeriding because there is not many big hills in Florida. I have always wondered how it would feel to Speedboard. It looks very dangerous, but a lot of fun.


Basil, E. (2011, May 09). What’s that skateboard for?. Retrieved from http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/Concrete_Wave_Articles/View_category