longboards¶

this year (2026) I sold my motorcycle because I found an amazing deal on a vespa gts 250ie which has more torque and hp plus is an automatic and a step through

fun fact this is my 6th vespa and 9th scooter

I wanted to get more exercise so I used the motorcycle money to build some advanced modern longboards

most of these boards are artfully hand crafted by small family businesses

surfskate¶

surfskate boards you can say are low geared and turn extremely sharp similar to a surfing you can "pump" it to accelerate from a stand still

on most of my surfskates you can tune the angle of the rear truck which holds the wheels on the board so the gearing changes and it feels like a shorter or longer surfboard

when you ride a surfskate downhill you have to keep the speed down so you turn back and forth aka switchback carving

I recently built a downhill slalom racing board I will add a video of that later

on flat land you can move in a rhythm back and forth to pump it forward without removing your feet from the board you can even do this up small hills

a ldp aka long board pump longboard is setup for efficient and comfortable long distances high geared pumping so you push up to speed then maintain the speed using rhythmic motions

a pump track is similar to a roller coaster and you can accelerate by compressing and decompressing your knees in rhythm

my longboard stories¶

fun fact - I'm 53 and I started skateboarding (again)

I am trying to keep it safe for example drive to the burke gilman and use a long distance pumper the biggest danger there are the morons in spandex or the mob flying around on ebike motorcycles or onewheels I have nothing against ebikes etc. but if you are going over the trail limit which is 15mph you need to go ride on the street with the cars not the grandmas with baby strollers

that said my downhill slalom board is so stable I find my self going increasingly fast and loving it lol

I started skateboarding in elementary school my mom got me I believe a variflex with bennett trucks

I used to get an exhilarating feeling carving on it - carving is leaning hard into curves

now I have a custom modified slalom racing bennett truck and learned why it used to be so exhilarating

they have a design that causes a high rate "divey" turning profile

I skated everywhere!

I bicycled before that and I cannot remember what happened to my bmx bike

I either lost it or it broke but it never occurred to me to ask for another bike I just switched to skateboarding

later I upgraded it to a powell lance mountain which is a high value collector now I should have kept mine lol

I don't know what happened to that board I think I traded it for a per welinder then a skull freestyle deck and probably gave that away or lost it in a move

anyway I am not sure why I ever quit skating I did not get bored with it I wish I'd stuck with it

one reason I took a break is I broke my wrist bones and had a compound fracture but that was being dump I tried riding vert ramps with no training lol

2026-08-10 quiver review¶

careful before ordering parts there may be ai slop here i did not verify anything
my quiver is evolving as I learn about longboard designs
my favorite at the moment is slalom because cruise including downhill and pump