Longboarding

Boy,what happened to me? It's been nearly a year since my last post. Well, the lackluster following had me discouraged about blogging for some time. Also, my change to a night job in this ski town has altered my participation in the daytime world, not that blogs go by the clock. Either way, I have decided that I have something nice to say. Until now, not so much.
I wanted to chime in on skateboarding.
I've been skateboarding since 1972. I've often told this story but never written it down. It was in the wake of the Kennedy assassinations that uppity parents groups managed to pass some sort of restriction on selling toy guns in toy stores. In the wake of their success they moved on to other dangerous toys like skateboards and managed to ban them, too, at least on the east coast. That summer my brother and I spent a month in Mexico City. My aunts, our hosts, brought us to a toy store so we could pickup something for the slack times. My brother and I were amazed to find skateboards for sale there. We bought a board to share with a thick laminate deck that had clay wheels and open bearings. We rode the heck out of it on Parque Avenue in the D.F. When it was time to return to the states we brought the board with us. My hometown has lots of great hills and good pavement. i only recently let the board out of my possession. I wish I hadn't. Since then I've gone through several iterations of boards settling finally on a California mail order board by Weber. The Weber Camberflex is still what I ride. It would now be classified as a mini longboard. I've swapped out the Roadrider wheels for some 72mm Krypotonics and wide, maybe, Gullwing trucks. I seem to recall breaking all my Gullwings of the original ilk but now ride a more traditional version. I have ridden this board hundreds of miles, maybe a thousand or more. I can think of one fifty mile excursion I made with a friend. That was our single longest attempt in NH. I've skated some great hills with it. My M.O. is to ride under a full moon. It's easier to tell if cars are coming and your support ride can follow you down to provide lights in the dark areas. Some of the highlight rides include skating the continental divide Down Rabbitears Pass into Steamboat, CO. It's illegal to skate on CO state roads, by the way. I still have the ticket to prove it. Joshua Tree NP has a 6% grade for 6 miles that is spectacularly lined with Joshua trees. Custer State Park in SD has a fabulous 15mph road that winds through rock formations and makes a great area to tow a skater behind the vehicle. The Kancamagus Highway in NH is also unbeatable,especially since they repaved it.
I still longboard at age 50. Call me old but I keep my speed under 35mph so I can still bail safely if there is trouble. Now I've added a mountain board to my lineup. I've tricked it out to perform like my Weber and installed the street tires. No more getting stopped by rocks, cracks, twigs on the pavement. I like street skating by the time I was made aware of the Ollie, I was too fragile to go through the painful learning curve of broken bones. I harbor no ill will toward street skaters or downhillers. It's all good. Power to the peddlers! Gravity sports rule!