Eighteen Klick Round Trip

       It's been two or three weeks since last posting and once again I feel like a guilty blogger. I don't, however, feel like a guilty longboarder. I've come a long way in that time but I'm not going to share the whole story with you all at once. Instead, I'll break it up into a handful of stories. The first once involving a very long trek from my home in Sahali, to First Response Duty Gear on the far side of the North Shore.

The approximate path traveled. Obviously not sharing my home address!

       I received an email from them two Fridays back about a pair of combat boots I'd ordered having come in. I was too cheap to buy bus fair or pay a taxi and had no friends making the trek over in that direction so I quickly decided to go on the 18km (round trip) trek on my longboard, I had other business to discuss with them in any case so might as well take my time on the trip too. I suited up, my suit being old jean shorts, a t-shirt I don't care much for, Proto paintball knee pads (they really work!!!) my bike helmet, and some very underwhelming Urban XT skate shoes from Shoe Warehouse, then headed out the door.

       The trip from my apartment, down the hill to downtown was predicatably tragic; there was lots of going a little too fast and kicking the board behind me so I could catch it as it caught up me after bailing. There was also a fair bit of walking down some of the hills whose pavement was puke-your-guts-out rough and uneven. Then there was First Ave which I'd imagine is every longboarders dream hill to carve the hell out of, slide, or bomb down. The only problem with First is it's one way traffic and that traffic is all going UP the hill. I chose to walk down the sidewalk on that one. This put me on the flat ground on the flood plain of down town and the adjacent North Shore. The rest of the trip was looking like a whole lot of gentle pushing to my destination and it was indeed good times.

       There was one last hurtle in my way before I was really in the clear though, this was the bridge connecting the North Shore to Downtown. The bridge has a guard rail where pedestrians walk, but no concrete lip along the sidewalk so things can go rolling right off the edge of the bridge if they were so inclined. I dismounted and took my board to the edge of the walkway, laid it down, and pushed it against the edge of the sidewalk. The Switch sat just high enough to not have to worry about it going off the bridge if I lost it. Traffic was still an issue though, since there was also no lip preventing the board from playing an impromptu game of Frogger if it slipped out from under me and went the other way off the sidewalk. Fortunately, I didn't lose it while crossing the bridge, and possibly started to make a very important jump in my longboarding skill level. There was a lot of putting my pushing foot in front of me and clomping it down to jerkily slow myself, but slowly, I started to drag it and even apply pressure as it dragged along the base of the bridge. The result? A small but significant burst in confidence with foot breaking. Foot breaking looks so easy in all those Youtube videos but it had been proving to be the bane of my existence till just recently. Anyhow, I made it to the other end of the long and slightly inclined bridge with no bails.

       I made another breakthrough while pushing across the North Shore to my destination, and this was intentionally tackling difficult surfaces and making quick last minute trajectory adjustments, albeit only at pushing speed. The difficult surfaces involved in this were curbs and all those spots at intersections where a guy needs to mount and dismount the sidewalk all while having to adjust his angle of travel so as not to proceed into the middle of the intersection and join traffic. Usually I pick up my board and walk across, which is still probably the most intelligent thing to do, but it did my confidence on the board some good knowing that I could do this without bailing into a stop light.

       I arrived at my destination without any injuries, and purchased my boots. I then continued to shoot the breeze with the counter help as this local mom and pop tactical shop was a business I wanted to obtain sponsorship for my paintball team from. The plan was to exchange pictures for discounts on specific in stock items, but setting up a chance to do some photos for them was proving dfficult. This day proved to be my lucky day though, and myself and a team mate were permitted to take a hefty aum of their gear to a parking garage to do a shoot with it. You can see those fun pictures by clicking here (link).

       The trip home was slightly more exciting than the trip to the North Shore in two important ways. The first was in my decision to longboard past the beach at Riverside Park, which on a hot midsummer's day was a genius idea, remind me to do that again some time. The second was a wicked bad case of dehydration, and possibly mild heat stroke on the trip back home. Karma for oggling all those members of the fairer sex at the beach? Most probably. I was very fortunate to have that buddy's house I often hang out at to grab some water at before proceeding home, it was getting quite dire for me!

       Until this journey, I'd probably put in 3 hours at most on the LandYachtz Switch, or any longboard for that matter. After making it home, I'd likely put in a grand total of five and a half. All in all, I think a modest increase in my manoeuvrability, ability to travel long distances, tackle a few ugly surfaces, and begin effectively slowing myself isn't too bad for that time frame. This trek also marked the first time going out in public on a bright sunny day with the board in plain view for all to laugh at if I ate it! I'm not feeling like such a noob anymore!

My First Week on a LandYachtz Switch

       Oops- I am a bad blogger, 2 weeks since the last post after just getting the Switch and no new updates? I'm such a slacker. In any case, there wouldn't have been any updates in this last week on account of my making a return to my home town to do some painting for my mom and I had to travel light. The week before that I really don't have any excuse for my laziness in regards to posting. I'm starting to think weekly updates on progress with the board is probably the best way for me to go about writing on here, with the occasional extra one interspersed now and again.

       My first night with the Switch, the one after shoving back and forth in the kitchen, I was invited down to a buddies house to do some gaming. I figured that with him living about half a block away would make for a good excuse to jump on the board outside and make the trip down a little more interesting. In this case a lot more interesting. I tensed up a lot on the board the first time I stepped on it outside, which probably didn't help me, nor did starting on a incline instead of practising in a parkade somewhere for a few hours. My first thought was that riding around on pavement was not very pleasant at all, and I was getting so much turbulence that I couldn't focus my eyes right, the scenery was all blurry. I'm not totally sure what it was on the board that I tweaked since then, but the second time I stood on it I did not have that issue. I had no fun trying to turn on that incline down to his house, and jumped off several times since I was not yet super confident in my foot breaking. There was a fair bit of chasing the board down the hill involved as well. Going back up was Ok, however, as I had no reason to worry about gaining out of control speed on the way home.

       The second night out was kind of epic. I took the same path down to my friend's house on the board but didn't have to jump off or poorly footbreak nearly as much as the previous evening (effective footbreaking is proving to be a lot more tricky than I thought it would be). I got fairly skilled at doing some controlled bailing if I started to get a little unsure by kicking back and sending myself ahead of the board to catch it when it caught up to me. He and I decided to go to a very nice, smooth tennis court after the sun went down to mess around on the board. We took turns, eventually he fell, and has convinced himself he's cracked a rib without the assistance of a medical professional mind you. After hitting the pavement hard, he left, leaving me to weave around the court's nets on my own and that evening something clicked for me. I started to get a lot more confident in shifting my weight back and forth on the board quite quickly, and also moving my feet around to different positions. Feeling just a little cocky, I decided to try one of the bigger inclines in my apartment complex's parking lot. It was terribly rough with a lot of uneven pavement and gravel bits everywhere but I made it from the top to the bottom on the my first go doing enormous S curves all the way down at a manageable speed. I did it again a few more times and an hour quickly passed by. That was a very good night though I haven't improved very much since then, my only way of stopping still being bailing off.

       Night three on the board rolled in and it was looking to be a fairly short one, just another trip to the buddy's house, even less bails this time than the previous two nights, and naturally, I'm getting a little cocky. I get very close to his place and am gaining more speed than I'd like. I jump off the board, look behind me and don't see the it anywhere. Hmm, most peculiar. I look beside myself and see it rolling along right there, starting to move faster than me. OH CRAP! I give it a sideways kick to turn it off it's downhill course. First kick wasn't enough so I give it another and oops! I stepped on the wheel. Did I mention this was the one night I thought “eh, I'm not going far, I'll leave the knee pads at home”? The board rolled to a stop beside the curb but I hit the pavement hard. My knees were actually Ok after this fall, but my one elbow was pretty bashed up, more from sliding along the pavement than actually connecting with it. I didn't have elbow pads in any case so this particular wound was unavoidable. I also had an audience of pedestrians for this bail, so that rubbed in some extra embarassment.

       Night four was a lot like night three. I went to some flat terraces below the buddy's house and was pushing around there. One had a slight incline to it, was smooth, wide, and I thought would be fun to go down. It's called Strathcona Terrace, and for someone who still has no idea how to control his speed effectively, it proved too much for me. I jumped off as I usually would but something happened which I was not counting on: I was travelling close to car speed, a speed which my running legs can't keep up with and I went down hard again, on the other elbow this time leaving another nice wound. I slowly did the walk of shame back up the hill to use my buddy's sink to clean myself. That weekend I got shot with a paintball in that elbow too.

       I'm back from a week of painting and letting my elbows heal and I'm going to wait an extra day or two for some elbow pads I ordered to show up in the mail since that seems to be the part of my body taking the most punishment right now. My previous wounds have only just healed up and the scabbing is so close to gone that I don't want to go and rip my arms open again. I really should have taken pictures of the wounds when they were fresh! The more I get out on the board, the more I want to get out when I'm not on it though and I'm chomping at the bit to go see some roads I've previously walked along in a new light.

       P.S. Speak of the devil, moments before posting this the pads came in, and wouldn't ya know it, one size to small. I might have to get out and do some slow pushing and stuff because I'm very eager to get back out there right now.