Do you often find yourself getting late to all your classes? I mean after all, we can all only speed walk so fast, right? If you can find time in your crazy busy schedule, stop in to a Longboarding Club meeting! You will be assisted to find a quicker, more convenient means of transportation, to get to your classes in half the time it would take you to simply walk.
Talking to several longboarders around campus, I received a similar response on how longboarding saves so much more time getting from place to place, in comparison with walking. For example, take into consideration what freshman Connor Gumm had to say about his short distance to class while longboarding. “Living in Residence Hall One, it takes me exactly two minutes to get to Davis Hall on my longboard, and I make it just in time for class every single time.” Sophomore, Sophia Constantine shared a related comment about longboarding around the campus. “At night, I love to take my dog with me to Longboarding Club meetings, and she has even basically become the club’s little mascot.”
Fortunately, I got the opportunity to speak with the president of this thriving club, senior Franklin Alves, who shared a lot about the organization and its student involvement from last year to the current semester. Going from never touching a longboard, to just wanting to learn on a whim to prove some people that doubted him, Alves has created a club that is now almost one of the biggest on campus.
The club recently began back in February 2013 with less than 10 members, and has now been the talk of campus, and has over 60 members! Alves and the other leaders of LBC encourage others who have at least some remote interest in learning to longboard. “I admit it did take me about a month to learn to longboard, but I promise you, it is not as intimidating as it looks, you can do it”, Alves confesses.
Personally, as an inexperienced person who has always been a bit fearful of skateboards, I’ve been slowly but surely learning how to longboard, and it’s really not as difficult and scary then I had visualized. What is awesome about this club is that you really don’t even need a longboard! Cool, right? Longboarding Club gives out free rental boards and safety equipment—for those who are fearful of breaking something—to all those who are completely new to longboarding, and want to feel more comfortable with riding around.
Do you think you’re ready to gain longboarding as your new hobby and way of getting around? Conveniently, meetings are twice a week, Monday and Thursday, and take place in front of the bull at 9 pm. The club is open to creative ideas, and because of that they have a cool new event called “tarp-surfing”, where you literally surf on a blue tarp—you should totally try it. I highly recommend you stop by one of the club meetings, check it out, and make it your scene! You’ll meet tons of new people, pick up an awesome new hobby, find a quick way to get around campus, and hopefully you will get over a fear!
If you are interested in finding out more information on Longboarding Club and its events, please check out and join:
https://orgsync.com/62143/chapter
https://www.facebook.com/groups/509014012445683/