Another new guy story

Surf One · Another new guy story

At 55 years old I had no skateboard experience other than a summer of crashing in 1965. We’d take apart metal shoe skates, and nail them to a 2 by 4. Riding down ‘Colonel’s Hill’ was a rite of passage that year in Fort Richardson, Alaska. Every kid in the neighborhood had gravel embedded knees. I never wanted to ride a skateboard again.

Last year one of my students brought his longboard to school. I was intrigued. This thing didn’t look like the 1965 death trap. I was pretty sure I could learn to ride something like this. A few days later I visited two skate shops but was ignored at both. Then I tried to purchase one on line only to run into permanent back order status. Trying to acquire a longboard was so frustrating I gave up.

In June of 2009 a friend showed me how to push and turn his longboard on a smooth private driveway. The feeling of rolling along and carving turns reminded me of telemark skiing. The idea of falling, however, seemed a lot more painful. Wrist guards, knee guards, and helmet sounded like a good idea. The next day I went to a skate shop to buy a board. The guy who built it was friendly and knowledgeable. He set me up with a Surf One Classic, with Randall 150’s, and Alligator 71mm, 81duro wheels. The neighbors looked surprised and amused when I started cruising up and down the block.

Regular stance felt right, but I tired quickly so I’d switch to goofy. I’ve continued that idea – practicing half regular, half goofy – every time I go out. I think it helps me understand balance better, plus it shares the load on my legs. I was surprised at how tiring pushing was. Particularly the leg you stand on. I practiced too much the first three days though and strained my right Achilles tendon. During the week I stayed off the board, I starting searching the web for information on longboarding. When I stumbled onto pavedwave and long distance pumping I knew I had to learn to pump.

Somebody on the forum advised simply watching the videos and learning to pump holistically. This is excellent advice. Going through the motions of pumping helps both balance and strength even if you aren’t actually propelling the board.

The trail I practice on is a 3.75 mile long straight with almost no elevation gain. In two weeks I was pushing the full 7.5 miles out and back. People smiled as I gyrated by, so I wasn’t the only one entertained. But I still wasn’t pumping. Or was I? Maybe I was but so slightly it wasn’t obvious. I needed some way to measure my progress. The next time I took my Gecko 201 GPS and held it while I rode. My first experiment went like this: Over a marked distance push off from a dead stop until you are doing about 10 mph. Stand on the board and ride straight to the end of the course and note your speed. Now repeat this process but pump instead of riding. If your speed at the end of the course is higher on this pass, you must be pumping. This might sound kind of pathetic, but I was desperate for some feedback. When you don’t have an instructor, you have to figure out some other method of collecting empirical evidence of learning. And the proof was in! I was pumping! OK, we’re not talking any records here, but I was a little faster at the end of my pump run than just riding. It wasn’t much, but it gave me the confidence to keep trying. Each night I’d watch a few pumping videos over and over. I’d stand on my board in front of the computer screen and mimic the body movements. Then, the next morning I’d head out for my 7.5 mile practice.

I didn’t seem to get any farther for the next few days. So I went back to the skate shop and asked if anybody could pump. Neither of them had heard of LDP, but both were competitive slalom guys. They swapped out my bushings for softer orange and blue Khiros. I went back to the trail to try another one of my experiments. This one involved riding down the only (very small) hill on the trail. I wanted to see how far I’d go just riding, then go back and try pumping down the same place. I stood on my board at the top of the rise and rode down. I accelerated to about 12 mph and rolled about 250 yards before coming to a stop. Then I rolled down the hill and started pumping. I pumped for two miles! I think I’m getting it. Now I’m waiting for a dedicated pumper to see how much that helps.

cappa · v. cool

Just want to say what a cool and inspiring post. All power to you sir.

Surf One

Time for an update.

Since I’m on week 8 of my wait for a Roe Mermaid, I decided to try and make my Surf One Classic a better pumper. So yesterday I bought a Bennett truck to replace my front Randal 150. I also got a Khiro wedge riser kit for experimenting. After attaching the Bennett with 15 degrees of wedging, I headed off to my local test area. The difference between the Bennett and the Randal is quite pronounced. Turning the Bennett feels much smoother. But it was obvious from the moment I started pumping it could use softer bushings. Back to the skate shop today for a small bushing selection. After studying all the bushing advice on the forum, I choose the orange-white-orange recommendation. I bought spare whites, oranges, and a set of blue for further experiments. For the test ride, I used a local street with a slight incline I’ve never been able to pump up. Now I can start down the incline for about two blocks, turn and carry enough speed through the turn to pump back up the two blocks. I won’t get a chance to try out my standard places until the weekend, but it already seems the Surf One is a much better pumper than before.

I really appreciate all the help and advice on this forum. I never would have guessed that such subtle changes would result in such huge differences.

funkymonk

Its true, the personal research that has been shared on this forum is priceless.
Although pumping a skateboard is a technique used somewhere in most skating disciplines, even if it had occurred to me that it could be used excusively to make a discipline all of its own - LDP - I cant imagine how much work, expense, time and frustration it would have taken to get me to the heart of pumping a skateboard.
Honestly I would probably have given it up as just a dream.

Corny as it may sound, LDP puts you in touch with a rhythm that is so personal and at the same time so universal, it boarders on the mystical.

pavedwave

First off, a great story, nice to hear your progression! That "first time crash" experience is one of the things I hear the most from guys in the 30--50 age range. That "ah ha" moment hits for those who see the bigger board with bigger wheels and quickly realize the potential. It's inspiring to see you growing the Masters division!

And thanks for the kind words. That's what this place was designed for, to share the learning process, keeping it informative vs. commercial. Even occasionally spiritual (but more of the James Brown gospel vein) Smile

SkateKi

awesome!

Surf One

The Saga Continues…

This morning I finally drove out to my test track (the Centennial Trail near Mirabeau Park) to try out the new bushings. I pumped most of the time for just over 9 miles. The most recent change was to increase the wedging on the front Bennett to 20 degrees. This made a noticeable improvement. I’m pumping up more inclines, but still lose a lot of speed and end up pushing. My average speed is up to 8 mph, and I often hit 11 or 12 on the flats. Now I wondered what else might help.

On the way home I stopped by the local skate shop so I could try out some new wheels. It’s the only thing I haven’t changed on my Surf One pumper wannabe. I bought a set of 75 mm 83a Orangatangs to replace my 71 mm 81a Alligators. They made as big a difference as the last two changes!! I only pumped about 2 miles around some newly paved local streets, but it was all pumping. Finally I can pump continuously around a 10 block loop and finish at my starting point. I understand why the bushings helped, but I’m mystified why the wheels made such a difference. The specs don’t seem that different. But it sure keeps me amused while waiting for my Roe.

How much longer will this weather last? Further testing is still required. Tough duty, but someone has to do it.

pavedwave

Nice dude! -- you've just jumped a gear moving your wheelsize up another 4mm from the 71-->75's, and at the same time a slight increase in durometer. With a larger wheel that has slightly less roll resistance, your top momentum is going to be faster overall now. I'd place more of the difference on the size than the duro -- a 4mm diameter jump is surprisingly significant.

funkymonk

yeah.. it took me a while to figure out why a seemingly small increase in wheel size makes so much difference
but then i remembered pi

4mm x pi = 12.5663706 mm

that's 12.5663706 mm (or a half inch) extra in wheel circumference, so half an inch further you travel with every turn of the wheels

when i was a humble pusher, i figured out that the wheels would turn at least 20 times on the smooth flat with each push, so, with every 300 pushes, I was 100 yards ahead! cool eh?

Surf one; starting with a non LDP board and modifying and tweaking like you have been doing is - IMHO - the way to go, when you finally stand on a 100% specific LDP set up, you'll be ready for it.

wafflesole

Skatefurther Ben

Gotta love a bit of Skate maths!

Funkymonk, check your pms mate.

Surf One

As a mathematician and high school math teacher I am, of course, pleased with the correct calculation of the circumference increase. The conversion from metric to English system was equally impressive. Since I still don't understand the physics of pumping I thought I'd point out another variable not yet mentioned.

My Alligator wheels have sidewalls nearly perpendicular to the ground. The O'tangs, on the other hand, have sidewalls with a radiused edge meeting the ground. I wonder if this radius is somehow affecting the grip of the front wheels. A friend of mine showed me his son's ripstik. The wheels look like inline skate wheels with a single one forward and back. After a summer of aggressive use, the rear wheel is flat in the center section, but the front wheel still has a rounded profile. That made me think of the forces affecting the front wheels on my longboard while pumping. A friend who is well versed in physics is going to try and explain why pumping propels you forward as soon as he figures it out. But in the meantime I'm going to experiment with the Alligators. It should be a simple task to radius those corners to match the curve of the O'tangs.

The increase in circumference with the 75mm as opposed to 71mm wheels is around 5%. Again, not understanding the physics involved, this seems like a minor change for such a significant improvement. Yesterday I pumped past a jogger on an incline. This is no 'Big Momma', but before the O'tangs I couldn't pump up that incline at all. As I passed him he stopped in slack-jawed amazement (I was pretty surprised myself) and said "you're going uphill!!" My reply was "Well, it's not much of a hill."

The weather is still holding, so I will continue to experiment and post my results. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll radius two of the Alligators and put them on the front with the standard Alligators on the rear. Then I'll switch and see if there is a difference in pumping ability.

funkymonk

your a mathematician!

cool, so could you work out a formula?
all this wheel circumference stuff got me thinking

long distance pumping & pushing seems to be 'judged' in the the usual time factor way; cyber miles and marathons etc, or miles covered in 24 hrs.

but as efficiency is really more important, how about some way of measuring that based on 3 variables

Wheel circumference
Number of pumps/pushes
Time taken to complete course

????
am i making sense?

the result would be a number based on the efficiency of the rider

I was thinking of a marathon that was held here in the UK recently, I didn't attend but learnt that everyone had a digital device that logged each personal lap time, now if each rider also wore a pedometer to count pushes or pumps......

be interesting to see the results
I'd bet that the most efficient riders may not come in at the front, but might have the more relaxed and elegant styles??

funkymonk

maybe the weight of the rider needs to be taken as a variable also?

cant wait to see this formula Surf One, hope it has lots of brackets, numbers, letters and that stuff Very Happy

pavedwave

LDPanda

On a bit of a tangent, let me address some of the questions youve raised, Surf One.

As for sharp verus rounded lips, yes, a sharp cornerd lip on a wheel is intended to grip more while a rounded wheel lip is intended to slide more predictably. In general, i would stick to hard edged wheels for LDP as sliding isnt something you really want.

As for the physics of pumping, theres a lot going on but ill try to give a brief description. As you roll forward, you gain linear momentum. By turning, you convert some of that linear momentum into angular momentum (a vector). By changing the angle of that vector (turning back the other way) you convert some of the angular momentum back into linear momentum. Thus, by constantly changing the angle of the vector (your angular momentum) left and right, you continually generate linear momentum (which propels you down the path). Thats only half the equation though. The second half has to do with weighting and unweighting the board, thereby converting potential energy to kinetic energy and vice-versa. Ideally, you want the greatest kinetic energy at the point where your change in angular momentum is minimized. That is, when you have reached the farthest point in your left-hand turn and are just begining to turn right, you maximize your kinetic energy to maximize your linear momentum.

Thats probably confusing and im at work right now. Ill try again later but that should give you an idea.

Surf One

I am really feeling the love here. Usually nobody cares that I'm a math guy.

There are several comments and questions hanging out there I'll try to deal with each one. But first, I must report the results of experiment 127.

At this point it seems likely I will have a Roe Mermaid before I turn 60. But that's still 4 years away and my pumping education must continue. In the interest science, I purchased a Sector 9 Trylam. Since it's a mass produced board it arrived in two days. I put on a similar combination of parts as my Surf One. Bennett Vector 5.0 front, O-W-O bushings, Tracker RTS 129 rear, 17 degrees wedging front, 7 degrees dewedging rear, and 75mm 83a duro O'Tangs all around. Now this is only the second longboard I've ever been on, but it feels like a trampoline compared to my Surf One. Still, it pumps real nicely. It also has this fun, springy feel to it. But I think the Surf One is a better pumper. Here are the questions.

I can't get my foot over the front truck like I can on the Surf One. should I drill new holes and move the truck back? The wheelbase (center to center) of the Trylam is slightly more than 30 inches. The Surf One's wheelbase is 29. Moving the truck back would give my foot more room, and match the wheelbase of the Surf One.

Is this flexy, springy board helping or hurting my pump?

After reading LDPanda's info on wheel lips, I'll can the rounding experiment. But this tweaking thing is sort of addictive. I've also printed your explanation and will soon draw some vectors. My math skills far exceed my physics understanding.

Funkmonk, I can do the math and make you any kind of formula you like. I just have to understand what it is you're trying to calculate first. It seems you are trying to calculate an overall rating rather than just 'who's fastest'. Sounds like a spreadsheet sort of thing. One of the immediate problems is getting the various units in some sort of alignment. You're talking about speed, or time, but related to other variables like weight and efficiency. It can be done. After all, sailboat racing can have a quite complicated handicapping system to figure out who actually won. Is this along the lines of what you want? I'll look at it if you are serious about coming up with something. After all, I owe the people on this forum. I'll tell you why in the next part of this (lengthy) post.

I just got back from skating with someone for the first time ever. I suppose you all already know this, but skating with someone is 10 times more fun than skating alone. I just started longboarding the third week of June this year, so I've got about 3 months of experience, all alone. If not for the help of this forum, I'd be nowhere. Some kid at school (actually, he's a 25 year old teacher) told me he's been trying to pump, with no success, for a couple of years. He's an experienced all purpose longboarder (cruising, carving, sliding) with years of experience. I told him I'd show him what I know. So while the students were working on calculus problems in class today, I put together my new Sector 9. After school, I took him out to the parking lot with the Surf One and the Trylam. I hopped on the Trylam and said 'do this', and started pumping around in circles. He hopped on the Surf One, mimicked me and became an instant pumper!! Within 15 minutes he was kicking my butt. So we swapped boards, and he kicked my butt on the Trylam too. So we raced around the parking lot pumping up inclines, pumping circles, and figure eights. It was a blast. I think he's hooked. So hopefully, when this Roe shows up, I can maybe get even.
Anyway, this has been great fun. Now if I can get some people together to do some distance skating I think I'll have even more fun.

LDPanda

Glad to see youre putting in some serious experimentation, thats what it takes to get your board set up right. The way youve set up the trylam sounds perfect, i cant think of anything i would change offhand. As for redrilling the front truck back a bit, id personally give it some time and work on your technique before drilling holes, but thats your call. A flexy board is good for pumping as long as its the right kind of flexy. If your trylam feels springy and lively, thats good, if it feels soggy and saggy, thats bad. Ive always found the trylam to have a very nice snappy flex (under my 200lbs) so it may just take some adjusting to. A responsive flex will allow you to store potential energy in the board as well as dampen some rough road conditions.

On the math/physics side of things:

Remember that the property which makes a larger wheel roll longer is the same property which makes it difficult to start rolling, inertia. Take that into consideration when choosing wheel size. I would say most people prefer 70-77mm diameter wheels for LDP. Any smaller and you can get tossed by gravel thats usually found on bike paths as well as having a hard time reaching high speeds. Any larger and getting started is a pain and your ideal maintenance speed will be higher and take more energy.

Back to the physics of pumping, since you teach calculus, ill try to come at it from a calculus side. Imagine a vector extending from the front of your board. The angle of that vector would the the angle between where your board is pointing and where you want to be heading. The length of that vector is the linear speed at which you are traveling. Now, imagine that series of vectors through the passage of time as you pump. If you were to sum all those vectors, you would end up with a vector pointing straight down the path which is longer than any one single vector. Thats the first part of the equasion. The second part involves weighting/unweighting. For that, we would take the derivative of our original series of vectors. When we do that, we see that we have two points at which the derivative is pointing straight down the path, those are the two extremes of the turn (farthest left and farthest right). Those are the points at which the change in angular momentum is minimized. If we are to apply maximum energy at those points, we maximize our acceleration down the path. Simmilarly, right before and after those points, the derivative of those vectors point either 'inwards' or "outwards." Thats bad, thats fighting our intent of moving straight down the path. Therefore, we minimize our application of force during that time by unweighting the board.

Hopefully that makes sense. I wish I had an art program that was a little more powerful than MS paint so i could actually draw out these vectors and derivative vectors to illustrate this better. Ill work on that.

Surf One

Hey thanks for that reply LDPanda. I'm going to draw some pictures tonight and study your vector explanation. It sounds like you know some calculus yourself.

The Trylam feels springy, not soggy. I weigh 175. The Surf One has almost no flex, so no bouncy feel. I'll give the Trylam some more time. I only have about 30 minutes on it, and many, many hours on the Surf One, so naturally, the Surf One feels more familiar. I like the lively feel of the Trylam though. I just got an e-mail that my Roe Mermaid may be coming soon. It will be interesting to feel what an 'optimal' flex is.

Surf One

Trylam Update

I got the Trylam set up so it's pumping well. I dewedged the rear truck to 9 degrees, and installed blue khiro bushings. The front truck is wedged at 20 degrees and uses the orange-white-orange combo. I'm getting used to the springy feel. I think it's more relaxing to ride somehow. I'm not nearly as tired after 8 or 9 miles as I was on the Surf One. But then, I've also learned to pump at different speeds. When I need to accelerate, I use a quick vigorous pump, but once I get over 9 miles per hour I can do this more relaxed sweeping pump that maintains speed. Whenever I drop below 8 mph, I crank up the pumping action until I hit about 9.5 to 10mph, then kick back for a while. I've also noticed that if I get my weight too far over the front truck I really slow down quickly. I'm still not very good on hills, but I'm getting up more of the smaller inclines. Yesterday I had my longest uninterrupted pump at 4 miles. There were a couple of very slight inclines, but an overall drop of 70 feet. My average speed was 9.2 mph. I was pretty happy with that. This morning I went out for a 9 mile ride, mostly pumping. If the weather lasts long enough I might be able to do a 20 miler before winter.

pavedwave

BITCHIN!!

that is all Very Happy

Surf One

Sadly the wet season is closing in and I may not be posting much more this year. But since my Roe Mermaid arrived, I can write up some comparisons.

From earlier postings, some of you know I started with a Surf One Classic and modified it into a reasonable pumper. I had a blast learning about the technical side of pumping boards, and actually learned to pump. While waiting for the Mermaid to show up, I put together a Sector Nine Trylam and it is a fabulous pumper. Now I've put some miles on my new Mermaid and want to let people know how they compare.

My longest ride to date is only 12 miles. I was hoping to do at least a 20 mile day before the end of good weather, but that hope is slipping away. Next year though.... I know these distances sound short to you Ultraskaters, but I only started longboarding in June, and didn't even know about pumping until July.

I got the medium flex Mermaid and it's stiffer than the Surf One and a lot stiffer than the Trylam. But it does have more room for my feet so I think I put a lot more power into my pump. But the Trylam still feels more fun than the Mermaid. It has this springy, lively feeling to it that just makes me laugh. The Mermaid feels more business like, but I think it pumps a little better.

The Surf One is easily outclassed by both of the others, so it's going to be converted into something else. I don't know what yet, but I do want to learn sliding next year.

On my standard route, the Centennial Trail in Spokane, I'm averaging about 8 mph on a course with some ups and downs. I'm sure that average will improve as I improve my ability to pump up hills. I still have to push occasionally, but never on the flats. I'm assuming you skilled pumpers pump up everything. On the downhills 20 mph is about as fast as I want to go. The Mermaid is just a tad twitchier than the Trylam, but when I get my foot firmly over the front truck, tuck a little, and put my hands behind my back, it feels fairly comfortable. I'm thinking that same expanse of real estate up front allows my foot to give more input to the board, hence the twitchiness. The Trylam is rock solid at 20 mph. Since both have the identical truck and bushing set up, I think it's the deck itself.

The Mermaid seems to get up to speed with a little less effort than the Trylam, and it's slightly easier to maintain that speed. Again, I have little data to support my findings, but that just means more testing is necessary. I'm still frustrated by my inability to go up anything but the slightest of inclines. Still, I can't complain. I couldn't even pump 3 months ago.

We've gotten almost 2 inches of rain in the last 4 days, and the high temperatures are only getting into the low 40's. When the road is dry, 40 is warm enough to go out. Sunday I was pumping in 37 degree weather, and that wasn't too bad.

Finally, on Sunday I was pumping along on the flats at a pretty good clip, about 12 mph. Four or five teenagers were on the side of the trail and saw me coming. All of their mouths were wide open in amazement and one of them yelled, 'How old are you?' I said, '57 years old!' as I rolled on by and the kid shouted 'HOLY CRAP!!!'

I was feeling pretty good.

pavedwave

Great hearing your stories -- have I said Inspiring??! Your progress sounds pretty freaking fast from what I've heard so far. Watching the kids jaws drop has to be a kick.

The flex and Mermaid impressions never cease to surprise me. Over time I'd like to get everyone's weight and some kind of baseline impression we can all agree on, how to define "snap" for example. It has to be the trickiest element in this game. For a guy like you I sometimes wonder whether a Medium or Stiff flex is better -- especially comparing that flex with the Trylam, which I'd consider to be more like the Medium if not somewhere in between.

I hope you can find some garages to satisfy your pumping soul over the winter? Thats the one thing that saves us physically and mentally...

crote123

Surf One,

You and I have had a similar path to LDP. I started pumping in June instead of July and you got me beat by about a decade (I'm 46). Except in my youth (30 years ago), I also skateboarded so getting on a longboard wasn't a learning process (funny how muscle conditioning lasts a long time).

I also started with a non-LDP board (Sector 9 Custom Weave with Gullwing Mission 1 trucks and Sector 9 wheels) that was very flexy. Reading this forum site, I came across many names for LDP boards and ordered a Galac deck. In the meantime, I modified the Sector 9 to a Bennett 5.0 in front, Tracker RT/S in the back with OrangOtang In Heat 83a wheels.

This gave me some time to experiment with "setup" as I've tried many wedging/dewedging angles and Khiro bushings (and others) color combinations. Just with that, I saw a difference with my pumping efficiency.

I finally received my Galac deck (it's beautiful) and carried over my setup to that board (just needed to change wedging/dewedging angles as the Sector 9 has camber while the Galac is flat). First thing I noticed was that it wasn't as flexy as the Sector 9 (which I kind of enjoyed being flexy) and that the improvement that I was expecting from having an LDP specific deck was not as much as I had hoped for. That is, until I went out a few more times and actually got used to the board's width and experimented with feet placement. Then I started to notice the difference, especially when you start picking up speed. Like John (of Galac) told me, it's when you're over 10mph that you're going to notice the difference and I'm sure it's valid for all LDP-specific boards.

Now, I'm stuck like you. Winter is near, last few weeks have been crap (rain and cold with lots of leaves on the paths). So, it hasn't been the best environment to test out my new deck but I'm quite happy I made the jump to an LDP-specific board.

One change you may want to do if you find your flex not good enough on your Mermaid would be to use the longest wheelbase if you haven't done so, or if possible (not sure you can and want to do it) to drill more holes in the back of the board to increase the wheelbase. It should help with the flex a bit.

As for going up hills, IMHO, it's all about going very nose heavy (front foot completely over the front truck, the screws are under the foot) and using the counter rotating technique (upper body rotation). You may also try soft bushings (I'm actually using all whites in the friont). On the flats, the front side of my front foot is just behind the screws of the front truck (I promise, I won't mention "front" again Very Happy

). Also, I snap more the board on each side than rotate (my upper body pratically doesn't move), it's all lower body motion for me (maybe it's wrong but it works for me).

One last advice, if you can afford a Garmin 405 watch with a heart rate monitor, do so. It's incredible what you can learn about yourself and you can follow your progression as you put more time on your board. I've actually "surprised" myself with one stat for a 4km lap. My average heart rate for that lap was 174bpm. "Common wisdom" has maximum heart rate at 220-age which would give me 174 max heart rate. I actually hit 183 on that lap (and I know I can hit higher too).

Nice to read about older riders as I don't feel alone and ridiculous in my passion for LDP. I sometimes ride and feel awkward about LDPing at my age but then out of the blue, I'll get people walking, biking, skateboarding even in the people in their cars giving me a thumbs up as I pass along them. Then I know that it's all worth it.

Finally, this is a bit OT but if you get snow in the winter where you are and if you don't already, start alpine snowboarding (snowboarding with hard boots). It's incredible, I love LDP but alpine snowboarding is just tops for me. What a rush carving hard down a hill.

JeffVyain

You old men are the heart and soul of LDP. I'd be interested to see how the market for LDP boards splits up between age brackets

Surf One

I had no idea how addictive this pumping thing would become. I haven't skated outside for any distance in over a week, and it's driving me crazy. So I've started a new training program on an indoor route. It's not as much fun as outside, but it will keep me in shape. Since the hall in the high school where I teach is 330 feet long, one lap is 660 feet, which makes 8 laps to the mile. I can make the turn around at each end without stopping. I get to school at 6 every morning, so two or three times a week I go for about 25 laps. The really fun part is since the floor is level I can pump the entire way. Even with the turnaround, I'm averaging about 8 minutes per mile. My best morning to date is 3.5 miles. I have the hall to myself as few people show up before 7. My current goal is to do a ten mile pump. It will take me over an hour, and I'll be a sweaty mess, so I better do it on a day off.

I can go faster, but it makes the turnaround tough. Sometimes I have to footbrake to slow down for the turn. I wonder if I could learn to slide a bit to scrub off some speed. That would be fun. The other day I was cranking into the turn much too fast and the wheels broke loose. I wasn't ready for that and ended up high siding and getting pitched off the board. Fortunately a wall was there to stop me. Very Happy

I've also been looking at the gym with much interest. I don't think my wheels would hurt the floors, but I'm pretty sure my skating days would end shortly if I entered that sacred domain. Besides, the gym has security cameras. I really want to get some video of my pump, but maybe not that way.

stocago

I used to be a runner and would strive for daily workouts, but since I've converted to LDP, it's been very easy. It has been addictive. I skate everyday, unless it rains. Since I live in Florida it usually works out, especially this time of the year. Since the days are getting shorter, especially with the change to standard time, I have run out of daylight on most days, since I often work 6 days a week. I have found a stretch of path that is fairly well lit and I just do repeated out and backs, which are boring, but I can at least get my fix in. I've been experimenting with a headlight, but that will be secondary as it's still not safe riding in the dark.

Another new guy story

v. cool