Some adrenaline junkies find skateboarding easier to learn and master. But some skateboarding fans might take this offensively. You think our ride is easy to learn? Yeah? Try this! Some skateboarding fanatics find longboarding funny and don’t regard it all. This is just a never-ending debate, which involves personal opinion than anything.
The fact is both skateboarding and longboarding are quiet different from each other but equally fun.
Since longboarding is relatively new than skateboarding, let’s find out what it actually is…
Longboarding
Longboarding is not primarily used to learn and perform tricks and this is the reason why it is not ideally suited for the skate parks. Longboards can turn and twists but it is better if you use them on a longer run. Longboard’s classical purpose is cruising downhill and commuting. When it comes to travelling long and short distances, longboarding has some distinctive advantages – it is eco-friendly, lightweight, cheap and above all pretty enjoyable.
Depending on the travel distance and personal preference, the shape, size and type of the longboard may vary. Longboards usually have softer, bigger wheels, which add more stability and comfort to the ride and make it flexible enough to deal with bumps and corners.
What is quickly gaining popularity is the downhill longboarding. This enables the riders to gain a speed of up to 80 mph – yeah, you heard it right, it’s 80 mph. The longboards used for this purpose are usually made up of stiffer material with harder wheels. The speed might sound a little dangerous but with proper safety gears on and on a smooth asphalted track, almost anyone can do this.
*Pro Tip* There are hardly any tracks exclusively available for longboarding. Riders usually have to bear their share of traffic and thus it can become a little risky.
Skateboarding
Skateboarding on the other hand is done for displaying tricks and maneuvers and learning new ones. Skate parks are ideal to showcase your skateboarding talent. These parks are usually designed with different obstacles including bowls and half pipes. Although skateboarding doesn’t require special settings but showing your skills on staircases, benches, and curbs are usually not allowed.
Skateboarding is older than longboarding. It came in around 1940’s when extreme surfers were looking for their share of thrills at the time when waves were flat. Since then, it has been gaining continuous popularity and is now one of the most famous extreme sports in the planet.
Conclusion:
Anyone who is looking to make a choice between skateboards and longboards should first have the idea about the differences in shape and sizes. The skateboard is designed for different tricks and maneuvers while the longboards are designed for more speed and stability. When choosing the best option, personal preferences and the places available for riding are usually the two main deciding factors.
