Longboarders Are Chill, Unless You Ask Them About Electric Longboards
Reported By: Sam Erickson
Photographed By: Kelly North
The sun set just minutes ago, and the campus is quiet on a chilly Sunday evening. A handful of students walk across the bridge, hands stuffed in pockets with their headphones on, when they feel it: a rumbling akin to an earthquake. The whole bridge shakes and an electric whirr fills the air. Instinctively, without movement or question, the students hug the sides of the bridge, as an electric longboard rumbles through the middle of the parted sea.
Later that night, another longboard is spotted; however, this one is drastically different. Without a motor powering their wheels, the rider, rather than thundering across the bridge, is riding in circles in the Hobson, Macy, and Sutton Hall (HMS) parking lot. Gliding, curving, and pushing along with their own foot. There is no obvious direction and less speed.
The differences between the electric longboard are both small and large, but what do the riders think? Is the contrast in their riding styles reflected in their views of each other? A poll posted in The Daily Bruin provided some (though very few) answers in what is no doubt the most challenging piece of investigative reporting The Crescent has seen.
The poll had only five responses (with one of them being what I hope is a prank, featuring a lengthy threat to tattoo individuals with Simon and Garfunkel quotes). In the future, The Crescent will stick to “real” interviews.
The poll did show some key insights, though. Electric longboarders seem to be more passive about the issue, “A big part of being in the longboard community, in general, is that we enjoy the ride. Whether it’s electric or not isn’t a big deal. Whatever you use, it’s just fun to cruise around campus,” said one respondent.
However, several longboarders had very strong opinions about the electric longboarders. Ben Vander Stelt said, “I have spoken to several owners of electric longboards; oftentimes they have a hard time riding well in the beginning because they never learned how to skate the normal way, without a motor. There is a lot of skill required to propel yourself, balance, steer your board, and then pump again, over and over. Electric longboarders only have to steer, which is arguably cheating. I’m not sure electric longboarders actually belong in the category of ‘longboarder.’”
Nathan Girard, another longboarder, answered originally with a simple “[I] Hate them,” but he later explained that it wasn’t exactly hate, just that “It seems like an easy way out of working for things, costs a ton of money, and requires extra hardware and upkeep.”
From the poll, and conversations with longboarders and electric longboarders, this much is clear: if you ask an electric rider, they are going to say that it is longboarding and that the convenience is worth the extra price tag, whereas the traditional longboarders might just say that the other side are dirty cheats who are living a lie.
All of that said, there is no way to tell at this moment, without weeks more of extensive research, where the two sides actually stand, but it is incredibly enticing to think about.