Zoology freshman Dan Brier texts while he rides his longboard home from class Wednesday on Farm Lane. Brier doesn’t own a bike or bus pass. “If there’s no snow or the path is clear, I’m on it,” Brier said of his board.
With another spring approaching, more students are picking up the sport of longboarding to get to class and cruise around campus. Recent warm weather and the popularity of the sport has prompted a boost in local sales of the longer-sized skateboard.
The trend in alternative transportation is seen as a greener way to get around, and for some street skaters, longboarding serves as an alternative to skateboarding.
For many longboarders in the area, spring serves as the beginning of the longboard season. For some participants, including zoology sophomore Chad Brewer, the season exists all year.
“I ride to class every day I can (even though) it’s a little difficult to ride in the winter,” Brewer said. “People think I’m a little crazy to ride in the winter.”
Being longer than standard skateboards, longboards give more stability to the rider. Larger trucks and longer boards make for softer wheels, said Steve Darling, manager of Modern Skate and Surf, 326 Morgan Lane.
Darling said surfers and snowboarders enjoy the longboard for its smoother, flowing feel.
Brewer said he started the MSU Longboarding Club with Peter Croce, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and community relations and secondary education sophomore, and this semester the club became recognized by MSU, Croce said.
“I skate to class a lot,” Croce said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do on a board.”
Darling said he has seen the sport growing significantly in the past two to three years, and the popularity of the sport has added to its growth, along with several other reasons.
“It’s a trend, but it’s a good source of transportation,” Darling said. “It’s part of the green movement.”
Although longboarding has been done for decades, the amount of longboarders on the sidewalks has exploded in recent years, Brewer said.
Darling said as longboarding has become more popular among students, some of the other alternative modes of warm-weather transportation have declined in popularity.
“I definitely see more people on longboards than I see on Rollerblades — I think it’s more convenient,” Brewer said. “Rollerblading to class — you have to either take them off or put shoes on.”
Darling and Brewer both agreed that longboarding can be difficult to riders.
“Rollerblading is so easy to do, so (students) switch to longboarding for more of a challenge,” Darling said.
Although more technical tricks aren’t possible on a longboard, Brewer said there’s more to longboarding than transportation.
“It’s not just cruising around; there’s a whole different part to it,” Brewer said. “There’s few of us that actually go hard core.”
Skateboarding recently has gained popularity as well, which has helped fuel the longboard movement, Darling said.
“It’s the largest growing board sport in the world. It’s taken off huge,” Brewer said.
For Croce and Brewer, who skateboarded in high school, longboarding is a more exciting sport.
“I did this street skating thing back in high school, (but) I didn’t like the feel of it,” Croce said.
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As skateboarding has become more of an accepted sport in society, longboarding has been allowed to grow more easily, Darling said.
Since starting the club, Croce and Brewer said they have been riding their longboards frequently with the MSU Longboarding Club, which has grown in popularity itself.
“Freshman year, I came here and posted up flyers for the longboarding club,” Croce said. “We had 11 people (at our last meeting), and half of them I didn’t even know.”
Darling said the sport has been popular on the West Coast for a long time and has recently grown especially on college campuses and beach areas.
“It’s awesome, and I love it,” Brewer said. “There’s no doubt in my mind it’s going to get big.”
