The Push Race

Big news to all living near Utah Valley. This Saturday is the first ever push race in Utah. The event is hosted by Jaseboards and looks like a blast!

What is a push race you might ask. Well it is basically what it sounds. It is a race on flat terrain with boards that are propelled only by the rider's pushing. This particular event will have two races. There is a one-mile  race and a five-mile team relay race.Prizes will be awarded and the winner of the one mile race wins $2,000. The race only costs $20 which also gets you a t-shirt and  sunglasses.

The event starts at 4:00 pm this upcoming Saturday in the North West Utah Valley University Parking Lot. The parking lot provides a 1/4 lap track and races will be run in heats. The event will continue till about 10:00 that night and has other activities like tarp surfing, vendors, and concerts so even if you don't want to board you can come support everything else! The hope is to have about 200 racers and 3,500 attendees so come and have a party!

The purpose of this event is more than just having longboard fun and frolic. The event is also intended to help some great local non-profits like UVU Enactus and Help International gain awareness for their ongoing projects.

If you want to learn more about the push race you can see a news article here or visit the Facebook page here. You can also sign up for the race here. Our team will definitely be there helping to support this wonderful effort and we look forward to seeing all of you there as well!

Longboard Helps: Sliding

From new team member Danny Smith comes a little of his wisdom and expertise on an aspect of longboarding that can help take you to the next level....sliding. Foot-braking will only get you so far and may loose you "cool" points (as well as the bottom of your shoe). So here we have it...

Danny's Sliding for Beginners

My brother Ben doing a heelside slide

Who - Any longboarders ready to take longboarding to the next level!

What - sliding is the act by which longboarders achieve Nirvana. Or if we’re listening to the physicist it is when the wheels loose full traction and the wheel is not only spinning forward, but “sliding” crossways across the asphalt. It is a beautiful sight and an even more invigorating feeling.

When - In the morning, after brunch, throughout the mid-afternoon and even in dreams.

Where - In the steepest canyons in Utah, across the flats of Texas, in the middle of a dance combo, or right in front of your girl to impress her.

Why - What’s all the hullabaloo about powersliding? Well if you haven’t noticed there are only so many hills that you can ride without burning through the soles of your shoes. Sliding provides an alternative to buying new sneakers for every downhill session. A longboarder’s progression can only go so far without the skill of sliding.

How - Everyone has their own style of learning to slide, but I’ll share my experience. As I was riding I would get the feel for powersliding by placing my hand on the ground with an old work glove

covered in duct tape which acted as a temporary sliding glove.

Once I was comfortable with that I started trying to do a standing heelside 180 slide. This did not involve the sliding glove, but rather was a slide starting from my normal stance and ending in fakie stance while standing up. This picture below is the middle of a standing heelside 180 slide.

After I mastered the heelside 180 slide I began experimenting with speed checks (a quick slide that slows you down but doesn't stop you), front and backside slides, and more. Just focus on the basics at first. In my opinion though, the best way to learn is to just try it. Wear a helmet and when you cut up your elbows and knees just get back on and keep trying. There are countless instructional videos if you need visual instructions, so I’ll finish by giving you a one word sermon - COMMIT. If you don’t throw your whole weight into the slide it may end with a crunch (your body hitting the ground). COMMIT to the slide.

Check out Ben doing this awesome toeside speed check!

Cause for Hope

Well the team has been talking and we have decided that with our new adventure coming up we would like to reach out and help another charity, Cause For Hope. We are excited about helping this charity and would like to explain a little more about them.

Cause for Hope's mission is to be the most effective organization in helping families in developing countries escape the clutches of multi-generational poverty and achieve lasting, sustainable self-reliance. We offer many services, but the differentiation of the foundation is found in the mentoring services we offer to those families we serve. Meaning…we assist in business development, we teach vocational training, we assist w/ job placement, we occasionally do micro-loans, but the key element is the mentor assigned to each family, local employees of the foundation who commit to assisting these families. This is done with personal one on one visits in their homes or businesses 2-3 times monthly generally between 10-14 months. In this way we can assist them with family and business budget, savings, debt elimination, re-investing in their business and other basic habits needed to break the cycle of poverty. Generally the most common feedback we receive has more to do with the individual customized assistance of the mentors than any other class we teach, and business we help them develop or job they receive. The most rewarding feedback we receive has to do with breaking the cycle of poverty when our families say…”we were in poverty, as were our parents and their parents before them, but our children will not be in that same situation.”

Many of the people Cause for Hope helps are in Latin America. Just like Romania was near and dear to me from my time spent there on my LDS mission I also feel close ties with Latin America, as do other members of the team who served their LDS missions in countries like Ecuador. From the age of 11 to 14 my family lived in Chile and I have to say that those years were very influential to my development and life. They really shaped the person I am today. I am proud that we can be helping an organization as wonderful as Cause For Hope, and I am excited to be helping people who I called my neighbors in a place I called my home.

Longboard For Love has really enjoyed our association with Bridge of Love these past few years with our 650 mile California trip and Dance-Off Contest. You can find out about what they do in the "Charities" tab. Even though we now turn our sights to help Cause For Hope we will still leave a link to donate to Bridge of Love in the "Charities" tab if you feel so inclined.

And Then There were Four....

With this new endeavour Longboard For Love is expanding our team a little. As you saw from the application we sent to Guinness World Records we hope to have six people. I am proud to introduce the two newest members of the team which brings our numbers to four. They both wrote a little bit about themselves below.

DANNY:

My name is Daniel Smith. I’m named after Daniel in the lion’s den. My friends call me Danny. As far as I know I don’t have any enemies, so they don’t call me anything. Since the time I was a wee lad of 16 years of age any time my friends asked me what I wanted to do the answer was (and is) “let’s go longboarding!” I feel free on a board. And it’s the only way I can impress the women. I’m a full-time student at Brigham Young University, pursuing a mechanical engineering education. The three things I love most are 1) God 2) My family 3) Longboarding or food (it’s a tie). Life is SO good.

TANNER:

Hello. My name is Tanner Bennett. I was born in the one thousand and ninety third year of the current era. I was born on a cloudy, rainy day. All I remember of my birth was that when the doctor lifted me up to give me the sacrificial spank on my hindparts, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and rested upon my face, illuminating my eyes and being. That was when I knew that I was destined for greatness. 

Mason happens to be my older brother. What anyone did in the world preceding this one to deserve him as a brother exceeds human comprehension. That should give you a little hint of how cool I am. When Mason first crashed his longboard into a parked car, it was me who our grandmother tried to make rub ointment onto his wounds. When Mason, first tried to bomb Fairway Drive all the way to the bottom, it was me who was following his tail on Roxanne (the first longboard we ever owned). Longboarding is what we do, and by golly we do it well.

When Mason did his trip across California, I was happily serving the great people of Ecuador as an LDS missionary and even though I didn’t get to do the trip with him, I had the greatest experience of my life there. Now it is time to resume my place in world of longboarding. It is time to don once again my helmet of safety and take up my board of long length and help raise money for good causes around this good green globe to better the lives of the inhabitants therein. This is my cause. That is my quest. Heck ya.