One Way Or Another You Gotta Roll - The Actual Post

When I woke up this morning, my original plan had been to take Big Blue out on the Illinois Prairie Path for a nice long ride. However, the weather was calling for 87 degrees F and thunderstorms. One look out the bedroom window was enough to ensure me that the thunder-boomers were coming, it was just a matter of when. On top of that, we'd had a major bout of storms roll through yesterday and drop a deluge in the area.

I changed my mind and pulled out Big Bamboo, my Sector 9 New Lennox bamboo longboard. I haven't built up enough skill on the longboard yet to do any distance commuting with it, so I figured that if it started pouring, I'd be able to duck into the other condo tower in our complex, whereas on the Connie, I'd be miles out on the trail and exposed to both rain, and worse, lightning.

When I stepped outside, it was charcoal grey skies, just barely sprinkling, 70 degrees F, and very humid. It had that "rain" smell in the air, which I love. This was about 10:30 am. Off I rolled to the back of the parking lot where I like to practice with my longboard.

It happens that there's a very park-like design to our condo complex, with about 17 acres of grounds. A lot of it is lawn, and there's also an outdoor swimming pool, numerous trees, some scrub woods, and a pond. It's very pretty here. The Canada geese also think so. As you can see from one of the photos, when these Canadians invade a place, they leave quite a "gooseberry" minefield. That gets especially nasty when the gooseberries have just been rained on. This particular effect has caused Lake Michigan beaches to have to be closed because of elevated e-coli bacterial levels in the lake water after storms.  Watch where you're rolling!

One of the things I'm enjoying about longboarding is the room it has for what I call "micro-improvements." It reminds me of Tai Chi that way, and in a couple of others as well. Tai Chi is all about a lifetime of incremental improvements in skill level. So is longboarding. They also are both all about balance and graceful, fluid motion. There are some serious differences as well; longboarding is all about how to get moved, Tai Chi is about how NOT to get moved. Still, they're enough alike that I'm trying to focus qui while rolling on my board.

This is where that video comes in. I think that longboarding has a deep element of grace when practiced correctly, and can be as beautiful in its own way as the Tai Chi forms are in theirs. This video, "Longboarding: Let Go" illustrates it wonderfully.



Kyle Chin is the skater I believe. His form here is sheer grace and mastery.


And below is noobie me, just trying to duck gooseberries in the parking lot. Still, today I noticed several improvements. I was able to get in another push starting off, so I'm getting much better rolling speed. I was also able for the first time to adjust my foot positions on the board while moving, and also found a slightly better angle for my lead foot. Subtle, steady, incremental improvements.

By the time I was done, it was 78 degrees F, and the air was so wet you could just about wring it out. I was sweating buckets - which means I got some solid rolling exercise. I'm loving both my bicycles and my board - and I'm thrilled to have the option to adapt to conditions.

Ride on, and put your qui in it.

Dan