Longboarding Guide #2

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GREETINGSLONGBOARDERS!Welcome to Version Two of the Pocket Guide to Longboarding.After the success of our first Pocket Guide we saw the need tomake some revisions for 2012. Longboarding continued to ex-plode in popularity over the last year and it seems all differenttypes of people are interested in learning about the smoothcruise of a Longboard. To be honest its been a little difficult foreveryone to keep up with the rapid growth of longboard culture.Last year we saw an explosion in the popularity of free riding andsliding, as well as continued growth in cruising and commuting.Every facet of Longboarding is growing and progressing eachyear, this means new products as well as new companies areappearing all the time.

There can be an intense amount of information associatedwith Longboard products and it can all be a little overwhelmingdeciding on that first board. This guide is designed to give yousome insight into the technology behind the products, and helpyou find that perfect ride. For more info visit. golongboarding.caor concretewavemagazine.com


TYPES OF LONGBOARDING• CARVE/CRUISE/COMMUTECarving and cruising are the most wide-spread forms of longboarding. This ismore about using a longboard as a funway to commute from point A to B ratherthan seeing how fast you can go. Thegreatest thing about carving up the as-phalt with a longboard is that you don’tneed surf, snow or even a lift ticket. Youjust open up your door and go!Recommended Decks: Loaded, Madrid, DregsRecommended Wheels: Orangatang,Lush, Dregs

• FREERIDING/SLIDINGFreeriding takes things up a notch frommerely cruising or carving. Freeridingusually keeps the rider going slower thanstraight bombing a hill. Freeriding isabout flow and style and performingevery type of slide possible. Freerideboards are usually set up to turn a lot,and slide easy. They feature symmetricalshapes most of the time for riding inswitch (riding backwards with tail facingdownhill), and are usually set up withround lip wheels to help the board getsideways. Recommended Decks: Loaded, Comet, KebbekRecommended Wheels: OrangatangFreerides, Cult Classic, Kebbek Libres

• DOWNHILLDownhill racing is about being the firstperson to the bottom of the hill, and en-suring you have a lot of fun doing it. Youneed a deck that is stable at high speedswith no flex. It’s also vital that you wearall safety gear – not just a helmet. Mostserious downhillers have a full leathersuit. For information about racing, make

sure you visit igsaworldcup.com.Decks we recommend: Kebbek, Comet, LushRecommended Wheels:Cult Death Ray, Kebbek Magnet, Orangatang Stimulus

• SLALOMWhile technically, not a longboard, slalomhas carved out its own place within theworld of longboarding. The reason is sim-ple. If you love speed and the feeling ofcarving with precision, then you’ll enjoywhipping through cones. Slalom has deeproots within skateboarding and thanks tocutting edge technology, there is a wholenew generation of coneheads out there.

FAQWhat is a top mount?The simplest of all mounting styles, theboard just simply sits atop the trucks likeon normal skate deck. The advantages toa top mount come because it keeps theriders weight and feet over the wheels.This allows the rider to have maximumcontrol and leverage over the trucks. Top-mounts have emerged as a trend latelyespecially ones that are smaller and havea shorter wheelbase. Topmounts functionas great downhill race boards because ofthe grip, but people have been using themfor freeride lately which is also popular.

What is a dropped board?A dropped board means the riding plat-form (the part of the deck the riderstands on) is sunk below the trucks. It’snot to be confused with the drop throughmounting, although creates a similarfeeling by lowering the ride height to helpriders feel locked in. Dropped boards arebetter for pushing because your lower to


the ground and for freeriding becausethey slide longer because of the lowercenter of gravity. A dropped board willstill function great for Downhill too.

What is drop-through mounting?Drop through mounting lowers the rideheight similar to a dropped board but ina different way. A drop through board ismachined out so the trucks mount fromthe top. This is done by separating thehanger from the base plate. You thenmount the base plate into the boardfrom the top, followed by the hangarfrom underneath. Drop through boardstend to come mostly symmetrical inshape so that riders can ride better inswitch. Usually sits around 0.5-1” lowerwhen mounted in a drop through style,makes the board more drifty and goodfor sliding.

I want a board that is fun to cruise on.What should I be looking for?Longboards come in many differentshapes and styles, but also different thick-nesses and materials. As a general rule ifit has a lot of flex, the board was designedmore to carve and cruise. Flex in the boardallows for a snappy quick feeling carveand is great for commuting and bobbingand weaving between people on a side-walk. Most boards that feature flex aremade of bamboo or a bamboo compositecombination. Boards are usually offeredwith different levels of flex, so that it canbe tailored to the person’s weight andpreference.

BOARD MATERIALSMaple - Maple is probably the most com-mon board material right now, becauseof its availability, price and durability.Maple creates a very stiff feeling boardbecause of its rigidity and thickness. Amaple board will also last an extremelylong time and should be able to hold upto even the hardest of skateboarding.

Bamboo - Bamboo is becoming a morecommon board building material in thelongboard world. Bamboo has muchmore flex and resilience than maple.Bamboo boards are more for carving andcruising because they have so much flex.Bamboo is usually used in combinationwith fiberglass to help hold the board to-gether under the stress of a skater. Abamboo board is usually not very thick incomparison to a maple deck, but thiscreates a board which is easier to carryaround when not in use.

Carbon Fiber - Carbon Fiber is the mostexpensive option for a longboard compos-ite, but brings advantages to the table.


Carbon boards are very light and usuallyhave foam core to help lighten the weight.Carbon is usually used to wrap anothermedium to make it stronger, a lighterboard makes for a faster push off thestart line and makes it easier to movearound in slides. Carbon Fiber is more foran experienced rider, because it takestime to learn a board well enough to ap-preciate the feel of carbon fiber.

TRUCKSLongboard trucks are very different thanregular street skating trucks. A Long-board Truck is known as a “reverse king-pin” truck, because the axel is on theother side of the kingpin compared to astandard truck. A longboard truck haslots of lean which creates the deepsmooth feeling carves which longboard-ers crave. Reverse Kingpin trucks are af-fected by many different factors, andknowing which trucks will go good withwhich board and style of riding is the keyto a proper setup.

Hangar WidthWhen selecting which truck is right forwhich board you must first consider a cou-ple things. The first of these is the width ofthe hanger. The hanger width is meant tobe matched to the width of the board. A9”wide deck or greater will need a mini-mum of 180mmm Hanger width. With lesshanger width the wheels are more likely tocome into contact with the board duringsharp turns and stop it suddenly becauseof wheel bite. Decks that are not as widecan get away with the sharper turning150mm trucks as they are designed morefor smaller cruising boards and minis.

Baseplate AngleBase plate angle also affects the way in

which a truck will turn; a lower base plateangle will make the truck turn less, whilea higher angle will allow for more turn. A50* Base plate will also make the setupslightly taller than a 40-45* baseplates.

A 50* base plate is the standard forlongboarding, fifty degrees is a great allaround base plate because it turnsenough for cruising but still has somestability for downhill. While a lower anglewill be better for stability because it hasless ability to turn. This works great fordownhill but can take away some of thefun of a board when it doesn’t turnsharply for cruising. Most downhillerswill run a 42* or 44* base plate with a180mm hanger.

WHEELS

The magic of longboarding comes to-gether with the wheels. It’s crucial thatyou utilize the correct wheels, becausethey can make a huge difference in yourriding experiences.

Durometeris a measurement systemfor Urethane that measures its hardness.The lower the number means the softerthe wheel will be. An extremely softwheel will grip the pavement betterthrough turns because the urethane isstickier, although they may roll slightlyslower and not slide as smoothly be-cause they are soft. A hard longboard


wheel will be around an 83-86 durome-ter. These wheels will roll faster, gripless, and chatter less in slides. This is be-cause a harder wheel has a higher rollspeed and less rippling in the urethanewhen sliding.

WHEEL SHAPEWheels that have rounded edges areusually designed as a freeride/slidingbased wheel. A rounded lip allows thewheel to break sideways into slides eas-ier which is what someone who is inter-ested in sliding and learning to slide islooking for. Rounded lips tend to not begood as a racing wheel because therounded edges don’t promote gripthrough turns.

A rounded lip wheel will work well fora person who is commuting as they don’tneed lots of grip. Wheels that havesharper edges rather than a smoothround lip are usually designed more for

maximum grip and racing. A hard lippedwheel doesn’t break traction as easily asits slippery counterparts. That doesn’tmean that wheels with hard lips can’tslide or be used for freeride. They are justharder to break into a slide. Hard lippedwheels are great for racers who will knowexactly which model and hardness theywould like.

WATCH OUT FOR WHEEL BITE!This happens when a turn causes awheel to collide with the board, usuallyresulting in the board suddenly stopping.It’s something that you should test for,before riding any board. There are a fewways to prevent this from happening. Thesimplest is to keep the kingpin tightenough to prevent the hanger from lean-ing far enough for it to bite. The othereasy solution is to have a few risers inbetween the trucks and deck. You canalso purchase smaller wheels.

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Bloody knees and falling leaves. Eduardo Furuga tears up the streets of Brazil. Photo: Rafael Fazano


F or decades, contests have been a greatway for skaters to meet up and show offtheir stuff. The camaraderie and friend-

ships that are formed are at the heart of what itmeans to be a skater. Sure, it can get competitive,but the thrill of riding and seeing skaters giving ittheir all is part of the experience. But while someskate events have become globally televised,multimillion-dollar experiences, longboarding isstill on a very lean budget. In putting together thisarticle, we wanted to present you a variety of waysthat contests can be run, from people that haverun them. If you’re inclined to start putting on acontest, make sure you learn from these folks.Not only have they been there and done that,they’ve probably paid for the T-shirt.

LOW BUDGET, HIGH STOKE (a.k.a. "Let's Just Do It and See What Happens")The terms “underground” and “outlaw” conjureup all kinds of images. But unofficial races remaina fact of life, and if you’re on a low (or no) budget,they can be a great way to get people racing. Butif you’re planning on running such an event, you’dbetter have a strong constitution.

Tye Donnelly and Darrin Niner, whom I metthis past summer in southern California, havethings down to a science. Tye and Darrin trulyembody what it means to be a skateboarder.

Their friendly, easygoing nature makes themthe perfect candidates to handle all types of“situations” that can arise from hosting under-ground events. They simply spread the stokeand bring joy to so many people. What they lackin money, they more than make up for in spirit.

The two met through a mutual friend, and theidea for putting on races was Tye’s. “He wanted toput on a race. He had to say it a couple of times be-fore we backed him up,” recalls Darrin. From thishumble beginning, the San Diego Racing League(SDRL) was born.

I asked them to give me their philosophywhen it came to hosting events. The two lookedat each other mischievously.

“Tell him our motto, Darrin,” said Tye. I glanced over at Darrin and could see him

smiling.

INSIGHTS ON HOSTINGA SUCCESSFUL RACE EVENTBy MICHAEL BROOKE

San Diego Racing League co-founder Tye Donnelly. Photo: Casey Stearns


“Our philosophy?” he said. “Let’s just do itand see what happens.”

So that’s pretty much at the root of what Tyeand Darrin have been up to. It’s underground.It’s not expertly planned. It might be even besomewhat risky. But it’s working.

“We were always told you need bathrooms, se-curity, permits, shuttling, medics,” Tye said. “Butwe have other ideas. We’re going to just do it.”

For the members of the SDRL, it’s alwaysbeen about the hills.

“We know what you need to race. We’ve done33 races on 27 different hills. These are all hillswe’ve ridden for years; we know what’s necessary,”explains Tye.

When it comes to providing informationabout the legal aspects of running a quasi-legalevent, Concrete Wave magazine assumes …wait, I think I hear my lawyer knocking at thefront door. The fact is that in certain states, theassumed risk liability law means that you can’tsue if you hurt yourself on public land.

Private land is another matter. Don’t as-sume that ignorance of the law is any defense.If you’re planning an underground event, justbe aware that you might be stepping into someissues that could come back to haunt you.However, the fact remains that in the dozens ofraces that the San Diego Racing League hasput on, only one has been shut down by police.

The community support for SDRL has rangedfrom indifferent to overwhelming. Last August, Ihad the privilege of witnessing the latter, firsthand,when our family drove out to a race in Temecula,about an hour north of San Diego. Upon arrival,we learned that the entire event had been movedfrom the original road to a private driveway. Butthis driveway was steep, and a perfect place forhosting a slide comp. Talk about flexibility!

Turns out that Tye and Darrin had discov-ered this spot a few years back.

“We started skating on this driveway know-ing that they would come out at any moment,”Tye says. “I was the first to go, and they did

come out. They were happy we were racing ontheir driveway.”

Imagine that: homeowners happy thatskaters were charging down their driveway! Tyecouldn’t believe their good fortune.

But it only got better, Tye says: “They of-fered us their pool. They picked two crates oforanges for us, grown on their property. I keptriding the local hills, got their phone number,and a friendship was formed. I brought [their]daughter a skateboard.”

So what started as something that couldhave been a simple “Hey, get the heck out ofhere!” situation turned into a friendship.

When my family and I arrived in Temecula,there were dozens of skaters enjoying theevent. Once it finished, we had an opportunityto swim in the pool and enjoy a barbeque. Theawards presentation was just full of stoke. Itwas one of the most soulful events I’ve everwitnessed.

“We tread lightly and we’ve never had a prob-lem,” says Darrin. “We relate to everyone realwell, and our goal is to be a family of riders.”

Definitely food for thought.

TAKING THINGS TO THE NEXT LEVELLet’s say you’ve got bigger plans than an “out-law” event, or your mom or dad knows a lawyerwho says there’s no way you’re getting involvedin an underground race. Or you want to shutdown a road and host something that might runnot just for a few hours but for two or more days.Well, you’re going have to take a different ap-proach – one that works with the system, notaround it.

Marcus Rietema of the International Grav-ity Sports Association has worked tirelesslyover the last 15 years presenting racing eventsaround the world. I asked him what the singlemost important thing was when it came tohosting a race.

“Before you announce the race, or any offi-cial plans, you need the proper permits and


permissions and insurance in place,” he said. You might want to read that sentence a few

times. If you are putting on an event, it’s crucialthat you ensure everything is handled.

“We had a race [planned] about five yearsago in Sweden,” Rietema continues, “and oneweek before the event, the organizer had tocancel because he couldn’t get the permit.”

Ouch.Meet the Parks family of Picton, Ontario.

They’ve hosted a successful downhill event inboth 2010 and 2011: the Prince Edward CountyGravity Fest.

The family’s involvement began throughKolby Parks, a street luger who’s achievedquite a bit of success. Now the whole familyhelps plan and produce the event: Kolby; hissister, Krisha; their mother, Nancy; and theirfather, Gary.

Krisha says the first thing they needed wasa really strong organizing committee. So theycalled on friends and neighbors who had abackground in running events of some sort –including Gary, who had helped organize alocal soccer league, among other things.

This is a valuable lesson to learn. Networkingis essential. It’s crucial to work with folks whohave at least some background in organizing andworking with politicians. It can definitely smooththings out.

The biggest problem, Krisha says, was thatonly her immediate family had been to astandup race: “The people on our committeedidn’t know what it was about. We showedthem videos. It took a little while, but once thatwas taken care of, things went well.”

Another hurdle: getting streets shut down.To do so, you are going to have work with thetown council.

“It took a lot of discussion to smooth every-one’s fears,” says Gary. “We kept repeating tofolks that ‘you’re still going to be able to do whatyou normally do.’”

This is probably where smaller towns have

the upper hand when compared to the big city. “We live in a small community and we

knew who to ask, so we are very fortunate,”Nancy says.

Krisha agrees: “We are very lucky to livewhere we live because almost everyone knowseach other, and there is strong community sup-port for hosting an event like a downhill race.”

Contests can become expensive. It’s veryeasy to lose your shirt. So getting financialcontributions is critical for holding a larger-scale race.

When an event takes place, it’s important tothink about the ripple effect. In this crazy eco-nomic climate, a longboardrace can bring insome much-needed business. In this crazy eco-nomic climate, a longboard race can bring insome much-needed business. Hotels, restau-rants and all types of goods and services arepurchased by racers and spectators. Make sureyou communicate this to the local politicians.

“We make an economic impact on a commu-nity, and doors open up,” says Marcus Rietema.

Darrin Niner (left) and Tye Donnelly haveplanned more than 33 races. They are two ofthe most hard-working and hospitable folksyou'll ever meet. Photo: Michael Brooke


There can be money in places you’d never evenconsider. Contact your local Chamber of Com-merce. You never know what they’ll say.

While it would be great to get some cold,hard sponsorship dollars from an energy-drink company, the reality is that you’re betteroff looking locally for sponsorship money. It’simperative that you bring in advertising sup-port from the local businesses.

Krisha agrees. She says that although “thelocal hardware shop didn’t really benefit becausethey are not a national corporation ... they are trulya community-minded business and they cameout supported it financially.”

Speaking of finances, Rietema remindedme that it’s imperative that race organizerscreate a budget and stick to it. Having a budgethelps ensure that you can deliver on expecta-tions – the classic “under-promise and over-perform.” The problems arise when youpromise the world and then expect it all to fallinto place without the hard work.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of asmall town getting behind a race. Picton hadthe support of more than 350 volunteers lastyear. “We went to our local Rotary club to helpwith traffic control. Local and regional mediawere helpful,” says Nancy Parks.

Another great thing about being in thecountryside is that it’s a little easier to accesshay bales – or straw bales – to line your course.(“We use straw,” explains Gary. “Hay is feed[grass that animals can eat] ... straw is a by-product, but it’s not food.”) This is an importantitem, and it’s crucial that you have a safe race.

The Picton events benefited because Garyis a farmer. He borrowed wagons from hisneighbors and was able to collect so muchstraw that the entire course was lined from topto bottom.

It also helped that the race was held at anopportune time. In the northern part of NorthAmerica, the straw crop comes off in August.So September is a good time to host a race.

Placing the bales before the event is only halfthe battle, however. Remember, they’ve got to becollected after the event. “We had 10 farmers showup with a wagon to collect 2,500 bales of straw infive hours,” recalls Gary.

The Parks family also contacted Rietemaand brought the IGSA to the Picton event. I askedMarcus if the IGSA should certify all races.

“It doesn’t have to work for everyone,” hesaid. “We brand an event as an IGSA and it guar-antees a certain level of participation.”

The process to bring in the IGSA is prettystraightforward. An organizer contacts theIGSA and explains what they want to do withtheir event.

“We take a look at their maps and plansand aspirations,” says Rietema. “We just worktogether through the process.”

Having an IGSA official at your race can behelpful.

“These people are experienced and havebeen through a lot,” explains Marcus. “They canshorten the learning curve. Having one of ourpeople can also be helpful prior to the event.”

In speaking with Parks family, it was evi-dent that they were methodical in their ap-proach. It took four months to plan their firstrace, and the results were quite impressive.The registration process was flawless, racersreceived stellar treatment and they even man-aged to break even financially. Rietema saidtheir event was absolutely first-rate – quite anendorsement for a first-time race.

As to the future of race events, it would ap-pear that small is the new big. Rietema agrees.

“We are limiting events,” he says. “The bigevents have become saturated, and we willneed smaller events for people to qualify at theWorld Cup level.”

So if you think your town is too small to hostan event, you might be missing the big picture.This might be the perfect time to becomefriendly with your local farmer and start work-ing out a deal on hay! CW


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