Plans for the Upcoming Week

Isn't it amazing how you can live in the same city for years and years and never really see the city?

I got into longboarding for the transportation, but I've always just used it to get to class. This is kind of a shame since I live in the city with the world's longest continuous sidewalk. How could I write a blog about longboarding and not take advantage of such an outing?

(Besides, I have to take pictures of buildings downtown for my architecture class and I could stop in the new Art Museum for my Japanese class.)

But all around me, I'm watching my classmates and my coworkers freak out over their course loads. I understand their pain. Especially with the strain of being IMITATION SAUSAGE POOR (it's gross. Trust me.) life can be really stressful for us college students, despite the media displays of partying with keggers and roofies. I wonder how long it'll be until they start making knock off brands of those. "Great Value Roofies! Only at Walmart~". But uh, anyway, it's pretty difficult to take time out to do the things that you enjoy when you always have deadlines looming, so, if I can use school as an excuse to check out my fair city in the first place, I'm completely down for this.

4.5 miles of uninterrupted concrete, my longboard, a great view of Tampa Bay, and my camera. I'm gonna hit up Bayshore Blvd, the Art Museum, and Moxie's Cafe, if everything goes according to plan.

It's important to have plans. If you follow them, you'll be accomplished. And if you don't, you'll be a rebel.

-Andy

Sidewalk Hazard

This week's sidewalk hazard: Construction.

What a double edged sword, and a real pain in the ass. Because the campus has decided to do some kind of reconstruction to the gym, they've redirected foot traffic to add an extra 5-10 minutes to the paths to class, depending on how fast you walk, or - in my case - an extra 2 minutes as I circumscribe the parking lot on my longboard.

It's almost kind of insulting really, that the campus has decided to continue with this reconstruction despite our current economic state. Several monetary choices that they've made have recently been brought into question (such as the several thousand dollars spent on the shrub imitation of a bull in front of the Marshall Center, Tim Gunn's tens of thousands for visiting campus in one afternoon, and USF handing out free laptops to its athletes - don't even get me started on the ethics behind this one) while they continue to raise tuition and fees throughout campus. I can't afford a new gym, but the school is somewhat adamant in my paying part for one.

But on the flip side, Theodore Roosevelt was so popular as a president because of his reforms during the depression that created jobs for the masses. When you work in construction, and there's nothing being built, then you have no job to speak of at all, and that is a very dangerous thing in this day and age. So perhaps this is my school's way of bolstering the economy and the job market? Of feeding mouths in my community? That would be an excellent thing to consider, if that was somewhat core to their decision to gut yet another part of the school to build something new.

A double edged sword. How can they ask me to add 2 extra minutes to my morning routine (when I'm almost always running late already) in a culture where you could call your mom, download dirty pictures, and check on the status of the pizza you ordered all from your iPad at the same time? This is an instant gratification nation, and I'm not feeling very instantly gratified by this inconvenience. Construction, you have made the list and this week's pick of Andy's Sidewalk Hazards.

***

Since I was already taking pictures of stuff near the gym, I couldn't help but get a shot of this.

Like, what the french toast? I'm the first to admit that I don't recycle as much as I ought to, but at least I don't litter. What goes through a person's mind when they toss their trash on the ground? "Don't worry, plastic composts super quick"? "Check me flex my muscles while I spike my empty water bottle"? When it comes to athletics, there are two stereotypes that are often perpetuated: one is the health conscious, yoga doing, organic eating hippie who may not be able to throw a football to save their life but can bend over backwards in ways that are abnormally adroit to the point of being...freaky, and the other is the over muscled, sports playing, protein shake inhaling jock who might think that a chakra is an inappropriate hand gesture but can shoot a perfect three pointer from clear across the court without a moment's hesitation. It could be people from either stereotype that's leaving a mess like this, but guess which one bears the brunt of the blame and therefore should become more sensitive to socially environmental no-no's such as this?

But bottom line, whoever you are, don't litter. It's bad enough you're taking up the good parking.

-Andy

Admirable Mayhem

Wouldn't it be wild one morning if you woke up, had your cup of coffee, read the paper, changed the kitty litter and ran out the door on your way to work to see this?

To some, it would probably be annoying, considering that this is another force to deal with besides morning traffic. For others, it would be terrifying as hundreds of wheels whooshed past them on their way to wherever. But for me, it would be hilarious. A complete non sequitur to the daily bump and grind. Much akin to showing up at a protest and seeing this guy (EDW lynch), who made the Tampa Bay Tribune's "World In a Snap" page on Tuesday.

Apparently other people showed up with similar signs such as "I was promised doughnuts" to in effect draw attention away from the original protesters. On my way to a business meeting, I would have to find this kind of thing a bit humorous.

Similarly, when Toronto longboarders attend their Annual Board Meeting, you've just gotta laugh a little, even if you're not a longboarder. This has occurred every September 12th or 13th since 2003 and the dress code is simply: dress shirt + tie + board. Not to tarnish Toronto, but could you imagine if it were a much more famed city, like New York or London? Or even if it were my lovely little tropical city, here in the Tampa Bay? It would be a modern cultural triumph, if only for one hour, the streets of downtown were full of "business" skaters. It would add that little piece of insanity that we all require to stay a little sane these days.

-Andy

The Makings of My Longboarding

So, here's how I came to be a longboarder and why my coworkers now think I'm punk.

As I mentioned before, I was looking to get out of paying the parking permit at my university. Every year they raise the price while not providing very many parking spaces and doing something silly like giving you a ticket if you back into the ones they've got. And since I live just off campus, I figured I could use the exercise anyway.

Originally I was a biker. No, not the hardcore leathery kind; not even the girl's jeans wearing "I am less polluting-er than thou" kind. I bought myself a brand new bicycle a week before classes started, and it was stolen the first night of the fall semester. I even went to the cops and we got into a staring match when he asked me if I wrote down the VIN number to my bike.

So, I got a new (used) one that was cool enough for me to enjoy but crappy enough to not get stolen (and this is why you can't have nice things) and I rode that all year until the summer, when I went to go visit my parents and my apartment complex decided that they were going to clean out all the bike racks and left a note to that affect on everybody's doors 2 days before. They never said what they do with all of the bikes that they get. I had a theory that they were in cohorts with some bike shop in north Tampa. A kind of bike mafia.

Having failed twice as a bicycle owner, I decided that I would go for something more compact that I could keep with me at all times. I went down to the mall (the mall - in case you ever wondered where your little bratty brother got his skateboard, it's between Neiman Marcuss and Saks Fifth Avenue), and I picked up a skateboard. I even let the dude selling it to me talk me into getting it insured. I'm not quite sure what I was insuring it against, but...as long as there were no premiums and heavy deductibles involved I didn't mind handing over three more dollars.

Unfortunately, I did overlook an important aspect of skateboarding: I didn't know how. Let me tell ya, if you plan on getting one of those bad boys, teach yourself how to skate before you have to get to class in under 10 minutes. Trust me on that one. So after that first day, I started practicing by skating from my apartment to the dumpster at the end of the road. Let me tell you, I'm a pretty short guy and still I felt as though that skateboard wasn't big enough for me. I would propel myself forward on the grainy asphalt perhaps a total of four feet before the skateboard would come to a rocky halt. It didn't feel very productive, especially when I took on one of the speed bumps to what could only be described as a Disney's Goofy kind of moment. That's when I remembered that whole longboard idea.

A longboard is very much like a skateboard except that the board and the wheels are much, much bigger. This is the difference between a skateboard and a longboard. The bigger wheels of a longboard allows it to simply roll over obstacles that a regular skateboard could not, such as twigs, debris, and larger cracks in the concrete. The bigger board....well. The bigger board just makes it easier to balance as far as I'm concerned, but ultimately while a skateboard is designed to do nifty tricks, a longboard is designed to cruise the sidewalk in much the same way a surfboard cruises a wave.

I googled longboard shops in the Tampa Bay area and found one out in St. Petersburg, and drove out there one day to check out what they have. Longboards are clearly an investment because while I spent a grand total of $13.99 plus tax on my skateboard, I spent just over $100 on my longboard. But when I bought it, the guy asked me if I ever longboarded before, which I hadn't, so he took me out for a spin around the block and explained that it wasn't much more difficult than that. That day I drove home with a longboard in my back seat.

That was 5 months ago. Ever since, I've tried to up the metaphor that I'm a land surfer (since I can't actually surf, but it's got the laid-back yet cool connotations that could only be associated with the Fonz from Happy Days so I'm riding this wave and telling no one about it). It's easy to do because it already looks like a surfboard with wheels.

Because I carry my board around with me everywhere, one day my coworker ran into me on campus with it. He took one look at my longboard and my threadless designed T-shirt and said "Andrew, I didn't know you were punk". I just smiled and added it to the other list of groups I've been categorized in: goth, jock, slacker, nerd, geek, over achiever, and hippie. I am a man of many hats.

-Andy

How It All Began

I would like to begin with a moment of silence to all of the longboard blogs that haven't made it past their 3rd post.

Hopefully this one won't disappoint as such.

I think that this might…will…work because there aren’t many (if any at all) major blogs dedicated to longboarding for beginners. In fact, most blogs that I’ve found are more about advanced longboarding, like downhill longboarding (which…is a little dangerous, cause longboards don’t have brakes. LONGBOARDS DON’T HAVE BRAKES. I nearly crapped my pants upon realizing this after my first downhill experience – the slope at the end of my driveway. It’s a very steep driveway.

…stop judging me.)

I want a blog for beginners, by an experienced beginner, because in truth that’s all I really am, and I feel as though most blogs skip straight to the experienced stuff. I don’t yet know the difference in trucks and struts, and when I eventually learn the difference (cause I came to college to learn something important, right?), I want to describe it to people in a way that they might understand, and why some things or equipment might be better than others.

Philosophically speaking, I’m looking to marry the laid-back attitude and demeanor of skateboarders and longboarders with the practicality that a longboard can provide from the prospective of a potentially morally-responsible human being who is transitioning from student to employee. I want to examine what is proper longboard etiquette (because I seem to freak a lot of people out when I roll on past them), and even go as far as to touch on how other people view longboarders, but I don’t want that to be the main focus of the blog. I want the main focus of the blog to be ultimately giving non-riders a couple of pros and cons to help them form an idea of whether or not it’s right for them, and to rub elbows with the big shots who regularly longboard and find out from them what works best.

This is basically where I want to go with this; I mean, I got into longboarding just because a roommate I had once has one, and I figured it would be a great way to avoid paying for parking at my university. I think that there’s potential for a lot of people like that out there – those that are looking for alternative transportation more so than a new sport – and I think that a blog that would help these potential longboard purchasers cross over to “the long side” would be very beneficial in the longboarding community.

-Andy