Skateboarding has only been around for a few decades, but it’s already spawned so many offshoot sports and hobbies, many of which have become a worldwide phenomenon.
One you may have heard of, but are not all that familiar with, is longboarding—so what is longboarding?
Longboarding is the sport of riding a longboard. Longboards come in many shapes and sizes, and are distinguished form skateboards by having added stability and traction. Naturally, they’re also longer. Generally, the aim of longboarding is to build up high speed on downhill descents.
So, simply put, longboarding is really just what it sounds like.
You take what is essentially an elongated skateboard, and you ride on it, often downhill.
But there are, obviously, many ways to ride a longboard, and they have become a popular sport in many different contexts.
Let’s find out more.
What is the purpose of longboarding?
Well, that depends on what your conception is of the “purpose” of any sport or hobby.
It’s something people do for fun because they enjoy it!
That said, there are two main ways you can look at longboarding.
One is cruising and one is for transportation.
Skateboarding is most often about tricks rather than long rides.
Longboarding is great for street riding because of its shape.
Longboards feature flexible trucks and soft wheels, making it much easier to maneuver on a rough service.
So, for many, longboarding isn’t even a sport or a hobby—it’s just how they get around.
You can get a lot of speed even on flat surfaces with a longboard, so they do make reasonably good methods of transportation.
But, as I said, the other thing they are used for is cruising.
Longboards are great for long, slow rides downhill, where you can pick up a great deal of speed while maintaining stability you wouldn’t get with an ordinary skateboard.
Thus, you can cruise downhill on roads and pick up great speeds while remaining steady more or less.
There are, of course, competitive longboarding tournaments.
They take a variety of forms, but the most common tend to be downhill races.
In these races, competitors can cruise as fast as 60mph downhill.
For some, it is even a professional sport, and the biggest competitions can come with big cash prizes.
But, largely speaking, longboarding has become a lot like cycling.
While, obviously, nowhere near as widespread, longboards are used both as transportation methods, for relaxing cruises down roads, and for high-speed, high-octane races.
All this sounds great, then—but you may be wondering just how safe it is.
Let’s find out.
Is a longboard safer than a skateboard?
Well, it naturally depends on what you’re doing.
That said, longboards generally present greater dangers than ordinary skateboarding.
Skateboarding, of course, is not without its dangers.
Certain tricks present big opportunities for falling and seriously injuring yourself, and particularly in pipe skating, there’s always the chance of a big fall.
However, on the whole, longboarding activities tend to put you in greater danger if you aren’t careful.
As I said, in some drifts, skaters can reach up to 60mph downhill.
Obviously, you aren’t in any way strapped in to your board.
You’re just gripped to the top of it.
If you come off the board at that speed, you’re going to injure yourself, even if you are wearing full protective gear.
Statistics show that longboarders were at a hugely increased risk of head injuries.
Head fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and intracranial hemorrhages make up a large percentage of longboarding injuries, which are in themselves probably the most dangerous injuries you can suffer.
You aren’t at anything like the risk of head injuries of this severity from ordinary skateboarding.
Again, though, that isn’t to say skateboarding is without risk. But in terms of the severity of your injuries, statistically speaking, longboarding is a lot more dangerous than skateboarding.
Is riding a longboard hard?
While there is certainly a knack to getting full control of the board and being able to ride with the best, longboarding is quite a lot easier to learn than skateboarding.
Longboards do a lot more of the work for you, and you don’t need to learn as wide a variety of techniques, like pumping, turning, balancing, and so on.
But, again, there’s certainly a subtle technique to controlling a longboard that you can’t learn in the blink of an eye.
There are definitely harder things to learn, though.
Where is longboarding most popular?
If you’ve ever been to California, it may not surprise you to learn that this is where longboarding is most popular.
In several cities across the state, longboards are a sight almost as common as bikes.
Specifically, the best place in the world for longboarding, as many longboarders will tell you, is San Francisco.
It’s easy to understand why, since the entire city is effectively one big hill.
Longboarders frequently take to the quieter slopes at night, where they can travel the whole length of the hills and pick up enormous speeds.
So, longboarding may not be one of the most popular or well-known sports, but it is always gaining in popularity.
More and more people are trying out longboarding, and it is becoming much more well-established.
If you’ve tried skateboarding or not, longboarding could certainly be something you enjoy—there’s definitely something to the slow, relaxing cruise down a mountain road.
