Longboard for Love is a team of longboarders who wanted to go on an adventure. An adventure that could help change the world. On April 29, 2013 they rode their boards over 650 miles along the coast of California. The purpose of doing this was to raise money for the Bridge of Love, a charity foundation that helps the abandoned and orphaned children of Romania. Longboard For Love was able to raise enough for the education of these struggling children. Stay tuned for our next adventure!
The trip seems even more real now, and I'm super excited to go! This week, my board arrived. THEboard that I am going to take with me for 650 miles!
Kenton and I thought for a long time about what we wanted to bring with us. We both have Sector 9's, but they just didn't seem right. I love mine, but its too high off the ground and a little too squirrely for a long stable ride. The wheels and trucks are huge, along with riser pads to make it even higher. This makes pushing hard because I have to go so far down to reach the ground. The quest for the perfect board continued.
Kenton with his new board. He decided to go
Black Wave with the clear coat finish. Looks great.
In our searching for how we should do our trip we found distance boarding legend Rob Thompson. He holds many a record for distance skating. His first board he used was low to the ground, stable and solid. Just the right thing for long distance pushing. However it was a Rolls Rolls carbon fiber board and Rob learned his lesson with that. It was too stiff and just not the right material. He teamed up with Longboard Larry and the developed the Pusher 2.0. With this board Rob traveled the length of China! This seemed right for Kenton and I.
That was until Kahuna Creations came out with their masterpiece, the Black Wave. I really love Kahuna and their stuff, but beforehand their boards didn't match what I was looking for. They have great boards for cruising or carving. I was just missing the drop down, low-ride, stable board I needed. The Black Wave was that and more. Besides being a high-performance board, it just looks amazing. Not only will we be rolling along easier, but we will look good while doing it. I talked with Kenton, we compared our options, and in the end, the sheer beauty of the board, and our existing relationship with our friends Kahuna Creations, convinced us we needed the Black Wave. The quest.....was complete.
We contacted Kahuna and they gave us a great deal on the boards. Kenton's arrived first....and I was jealous. A few days later mine arrived up and my parents house. I had to wait all the way until the weekend to go visit and get the board, and it was beautiful. Wonderful board, with black Bear trucks, and clear orange Kahuna wheels. Behold my excitement as I opened up the board.
The box is here! I'm so
excited to open it
What could it be?
PAPER!
This was a good and happy moment. Look at the joy on my face.
Thanks Kahuna
Sadly I haven't been able to ride it yet because it has been snowing almost non-stop, all I could do was stand on it and imagine. I am super stoked to though. Kenton and I are really excited to take these boards on their first long-distance trip!
Well...it has been far too long since last I posted. I apologize. After I got engaged I had to bunker down and get through the last two weeks of school. Projects, quizzes, papers, and of course, final exams. I have triumphed and made it through the storm. Thank goodness.
Chief FreeWind desiging the board aesthetics.
Courtesy of Kahuna Creations
During this time of trial and testing terror, I was shown that there is still light and goodness in this world by my friends at Kahuna Creations. In a moment of agony and studying I decided to waste a minute or two or ten and take a break. Did I take a nap, or go on a walk? No, I got on Facebook of course, where the rest of the student population was also wasting time.
I logged on, and in my news feed I saw it...a magnificent work of art. All the splendor and magnificence that can be compressed into one glorified piece of maple wood. The Black Wave. A finely shaped board which has been artistically "tattooed" by Samoan Chief FreeWind. This is an attractive looking board to be sure, but the designs and intricacies of Chief FreeWind's craft have set this board apart, not only as a great board, but as a work of art. It comes in black and clear coating.
I love the Kahuna products. They have displayed innovation with their highly useful "Big Stick". I use it every time I board. One time I went four miles without my feet even touching the ground. They have a plethora of beautiful boards and recently even got their own wheels...sick orange wheels. Up till now they have been a great company, friendly, customer oriented, active but now....with this board....they have further set themselves apart with distinction.
Nice work Kahuna, I am more than impressed. Felicitări.
I took the liberty of borrowing this picture so you can see the boards. Seriously, they look great.
I'm a big advocate for helmets. I study psychology in school and I learn a lot about brain damage and its impact on us. Helmets are a necessity They do quite a bit to save your brain and your head. You are your brain, without it you cannot function, so I say, lets all wear helmets!
The main thing that helmets do is they keep a closed head injury from becoming an open head injury. It is obviously preferable to keep your brain inside of your head rather than spread on the pavement. Especially because the consistency of a brain is like pudding, and it will not stay solid for long, but will "melt" out onto the pavement. Wear a helmet, keep your brain inside your head, and keep things from entering your brain.
Even with a closed head injury there is some damage that can be done. Your brain is a very mushy substance that floats in a liquid inside of your skull. When your head hits the pavement it has been accelerating. It hits the ground and stops quite suddenly. Sadly, your floating brain takes longer to stop. It will continue to accelerate until it hits the inside of your skull, this is called the coup. It will then bounce off your skull, move backwards, and then hit the other side, this is called the contre-coup. Both of these impacts can cause severe damage to your brain known as Tramatic Brain Injury, or TBI.
Coup and Contrecoup
TBI is the leading cause of death and disability for children and adolescents. There are roughly 2,685 deaths a year due to TBI, and at least 37,000 hospitalizations with 435,000 emergency room visits. The most incidence of hospitalization and death occurs from ages 14-18 years old. There are different types of TBI, such as contusions which is bleeding in the brain. Or concussions which is similar to a contusion but it includes the loss of consciousness. Depending on the severity of these one may develop mild to severe TBI. Loss of many forms of functioning can occur.
Along with concussion and contusion is Axonal Shearing. The inside of your skull is not smooth. My Behavioral Neurobiology teacher gave the good example that it is shaped like a skate park. Ramps, bowls, dips and hills. There are quite a few ridges inside your skull. When your skull rotates quickly and then stops even quicker, like hitting your head on the ground, your brain does not stop rotating and these ridges literally "shear" or tear through your brain matter, causing bleeding and severe neural damage.
Inside the top of your skull. Usually there are no
screws sticking into your head so...ignore those.
Pay attention to the ridges instead.
How does wearing a helmet help to prevent this? Well, most of this damage is cause by your speeding skull being stopped suddenly, while your brain takes a moment longer to slow down. Helmets help lengthen the time it takes to slow your skull down making the deceleration less damaging. As your head hits the ground, the foam in your helmet is crushed by your head. As it crushes it slows your head down gradually, rather than all at once. This causes the damage to be less severe, and can very well save your life, if not your neural functioning.
This is why you should buy a new helmet if you get into a crash. The foam has been crushed and will not work the same again. It is safer to buy a new helmet.
I was at work just yesterday when someone told me of a longboarding accident they had heard about on the news. It was not the kind of longboard accident I had ever heard of before, or even something I had been afraid of in the past. Going 40 mph in a practice run for a downhill race, a longboarder was knocked off of his board...by a deer. This seemed funny to me after my recent post on safe riding. I guess you can't think of everything while you're out there. Good this this kid was wearing a helmet.
I had a video posted on this but it has been removed. Click on the news link above to see another video on it.
Unforgiving rock hard asphalt. Covered in little gravel pebbles and tar. 20 grit sandpaper surface. This is what is waiting to welcome you if you fall off your longboard. This is not a welcome most wish to have. Longboarding can be a very fun sport, but if not done safely it can cause serious injury or even death. One thing to keep in mind is that the faster you go, the harder you fall. Therefore it is paramount that you keep your speed in check.
If you get going too fast not only does your danger level build, but you may experience the dreaded SPEED WOBBLES!!! (Dun dun duuuun). At certain high speeds and with certain board set ups, your board will start to uncontrollably pitch from left to right and eventually throw you off. Take this poor sad man for example. He had a bad case of the speed wobbles, and the lucky guy was stupid enough NOT to wear a helmet. Bad decision every time! He's lucky he missed the car and made it to the grass.
I remember my worst case of the speed wobbles. I decided it would be a good idea to put my longboard trucks on my skateboard. Then, stupid and without a helmet, I decided to bomb a hill. I was surprised at how sharp my turns were on my board. However I forgot that the shorter the board, the less stable at high speeds, and soon my carving turned into wobbling. The full force of my stupidity hit me and I wondered what to do. I decided to bail before I got going too fast. I jumped off my board...took two running steps...tripped...did a flip....landed on my back and rolled four or five feet where I came to a stop on the curb of the road.
I lay there bleeding, groaning and wondering why I ever did something so dumb. My little brother came racing by me on his board, "Mason! Are you okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!!!" And he shot right by me as I lay there in the road. I eventually pulled myself off the curb and onto the grass and waited for my brother to come save me. Five or ten minutes later he returned and was somehow surprised, after my ragdoll asphalt acrobatics, that I was still laying down. He took me home and I was fine except for some roadburn and bruises. I am lucky beyond all reason that I didn't hit my head. When I flipped I really should have slapped my forehead on the ground. I got a lucky chance, and I've always worn a helmet ever since.
I can tell you from experience, check your speed, stay in control. Going fast is fun, you do look cool, until you hit a rock and go flying, or get speed-wobble-thrown and get all cut up. Controlling your speed is one of the first things you should learn.
"Mason, hold on a second," you may ask me, "there are no brakes on a longboard. How on earth can you control your speed. "Good question," I respond, "there are a few ways. Lets talk about them."
Ride It Out or Bail
If you feel confident enough you can just have faith and keep riding until your board slows down. If you're on a hill that levels out at the end you may be able to hold fast and ride it out. If you feel uncomfortable my advice is to bail before you get going too fast. Jump onto some grass. The sooner you get off, the slower you'll be going, and the risk of injury is minimized.
Skidding
If your board has a kicktail you can push it down to the ground and use that as a brake. I would suggest getting a tailguard if you prefer this method or else the road is going to eat up your board. To be honest I would not suggest this method of slowing down. Lifting your two front wheels off the ground while going at high speeds is not the brightest or safest idea.
Sliding
A fun but more expensive way to slow down is to slide. Basically your board goes perpendicular to your direction of motion and your wheels slide sideways on the road and you slow down. Its fun, and it looks really cool. I suggest looking up some videos on how to do this. It can get a little pricey because it causes damage to your wheels, causing flat spots that bump as you ride, and sliding-gloves are recommended as well. This can add up. This video below shows some pretty cool slides as well as some impressive footwork.
Carving
Turning your board from one side to the other, or carving, will slow you down. The harder you carve the more you decelerate (my physics teacher would hate that I just used that word). This is a lot of fun for riding and a preferred method of braking. Carve those hills! My one word of advice is not to play "Chicken" with the curb because you lose every time, the curb won't move out of the way, and Bonnie Tyler will not sing about her hero.
Windbraking
If you are going at a speed of 25 or more miles per hour you can stand up and spread your arms, pull your jacket out wide, just do everything to create as much wind resistance as possible. Certain companies sell "sails" you can buy, the problem is that wind conditions have to be near perfect, and one crash will tear up the "sail" material. Windbraking won't stop you but it may slow you down just a bit. There are still better methods however.
Brakes on Your Board
Some companies do make brakes for your board. I'm not sure how well they work but they look cool. You can check them out here Skatebrake.com and Brakeboard.com.
Foot Braking
Besides carving this is my preferred method of braking. Basically you are dragging your foot on the ground and this slows you down. This can bring you from high speeds to a standstill if you want. You need good balance because what you do is take your back foot (or whichever one feels most comfortable for you) and you drag it on the ground. Start by putting the front pad and toes on the ground and slowly lower your heel down and try to apply pressure using the whole surface of your sole. As you can see from my earlier post on shoes, this does eat up the sole of your shoe. However, I think its better to have asphalt damage to your shoe than your face. This is why I recommend going with a cheap pair of shoes, a pair you bought specifically to trash. Practice foot braking because, in my opinion, it is the cheapest and best way to slow down.
Kahuna Big Stick
An ingenious idea of a "paddle" for riding was used by Kahuna Creations. It is basically a paddle handle on one end of a stick and vulcanized rubber on the other end. This is primarily a propulsion device, but it can be dragged on the ground to slow you down. It is a lot of fun to use for pushing forward or braking, I would suggest anybody getting one. Dragging it for braking does cause some wear on the rubber but you can buy replacements for pretty cheap.
Now that you know all of these methods, get out and practice them. They will make you a more dynamic rider, and really increase your fun when you aren't falling and getting injured all the time. Most important though, WEAR A HELMET!!! Safe speeds and safe riding is no substitute for a good helmet. You can go brain dead moving at five mph or fifty. Wearing a helmet is your best tool to minimize injury. My personal favorite are Triple 8 helmets, and I'll explain why later, but just get some sort of lid on your head.
This long trip is going to need a lot of equipment. Backpacks, tents, low-riding longboards, etc. Sometime soon I'll post a list of everything I'm taking with me. A lot of these things are expensive. In preparation for my trip I have been liquidating my boards for additional funds (speaking of which, if anyone is looking for a good mountainboard I'm trying to get rid of mine). I don't need three boards, I just need one. Just a few days ago I sold one of my longboards to a friend. This wasn't just any board, it was my very first longboard I ever had.
My first board was a Krown. Krown is not a high end longboard company by any means, but it is a perfect beginners board, especially for the price. Her name was Roxane, I don't know if I got that from Cyrano de Bergerac or the song by the Police but it just seemed to fit. I had Roxanne for years and years. The nose of the board was chipped from when I hit a car, the flat deck was a little warped, but I loved her still.
I never spent time with Roxanne except for carving down big hills, like I said, Krown is a good beginner board and I have since moved on, so she spent a lot of time on a shelf. That is why I am happy to see her go. My friend is just getting into longboarding and Roxanne is the perfect beginners board.
I would like to familiarize all of you with the second member of the Longboard For Love team, Kenton Durfee. Kenton and I have been close as can be ever since we were little boys. We lived right next door to each other until the age of three when my family moved to Kansas. However we would see each other every summer when my family visited Arizona. A lot of my favorite childhood memories are with Kenton during those summers. Everything from camping, to swimming in the irrigation ditches, chasing chickens, scenic hikes, milking cows, running around barefoot, and all sorts of boyish tomfoolery. Kenton is one of my closest friends and I admire him very much.
Kenton and I with his family
Kenton introduced me to longboarding back when I was 14 years old. I had just gotten back from living in South America and we were visiting the extended family. Kenton and I were nigh inseparable that summer. His dad had just bought a Sector 9 board, which would actually be the same model of board I would later buy, and he let us take it for a ride. I was instantly hooked. Riding up and down the streets for hours in the blazing Arizona heat. I loved longboarding the moment I stepped on a board and I couldn't really explain why. This glorified plank of wood, which had been shaped and worked, attached to metal bars with urethane wheels was one of the most thrilling things I had ever experienced.
Kenton's last visit we explored this cave
Kenton was patient with me and let me ride probably more than I should have. We would play, swim, and work during the day. Then, late at night, after the construction workers had gone, we would go to a nearby road which was being re-paved and would longboard for hours. Rolling on the newly paved road was like skating across a smooth sheet of ice, no bumps, little rumbling of the wheels. It was wonderful. As soon as my family went back home I began my own life of boarding. I guess we could say that one reason I'm doing this trip is because Kenton introduced me to longboarding. Thanks Kenton, and thanks Uncle Dale for letting us ride your board.
I'm really excited to do this trip with Kenton. He is a great guy. He is determined and hard working so he won't give up on the hard days. He has a great outlook on life and a positive attitude, which will help on those draining days when we push uphill with a headwind pushing us back. Best of all Kenton is my friend.
I'm sure he'll have a lot to say when he starts posting on the blog.
Kenton and I playing frisbee golf while camping.
Its a family tradition for the guys.
Well I am more than happy to announce that I will not be embarking on this trip by myself. My cousin Kenton Durfee has agreed to accompany me. I called him a few months ago when I first got this idea. It was just after I went to meet Ben Smith on his trip, that I went to grab a bite to eat with some friends. I was sitting there and I got an idea. I quickly scrawled "Longboard really far" on my receipt stub, so that I wouldn't forget what I was thinking.
I thought about all of my friends who would agree do something crazy with me and then actually follow through, and Kenton came to mind first. We talked on the phone for an hour or so that night. We were absolutely thrilled at the prospect of doing something like this. The biggest obstacle has been organizing both of our busy work and college schedules together. Kenton has committed now...and he's coming. All he needs to do is figure out if he is coming for the whole trip or just part of it.
I'm still looking for others to join, especially if Kenton can only come for a week or two and not the whole trip. Anyone interested? Let me know.
One of my goals in training is to become better at longboarding longer distances. The furthest I had gone before I got this idea was about eight miles. Two days ago I put in my headphones and got on my board headed down the Provo River Trail. There are few things that are more relaxing than cruising on your longboard listening to some tasty jams. The soothing and constant rhythm of kicking your feet and carving down the trails, a steady grumble of your wheels spinning on the pavement below your feet, the warm summer sun beaming down on you as you have this time alone to just move and think. I absolutely love it.
Before I knew it I had been going for about a half hour and needed to turn around, a friend was coming to visit. I turned around and rolled on for a few feet when I saw a sign. It was a map of the trail and on it I saw that I had gone about five miles from my home and I was a mere half mile from Utah Lake. I turned back around and went all the way to the lake. It actually felt really cool to go there, but sadly they wouldn't let me into the lake property because I didn't have two dollars to pay the entrance fee. I just got to see the sign and turn back.
Headed home I was cruising along again and I looked over the the river on my right, I saw some kids on a rope swing swimming in the river. I jumped off my board and ran over to join them. This rope swing...was awesome. The water was deep and slow making it perfect to swim in, although it did smell a little like fish and was completely opaque. It was a fun little adventure and I have since gone back again with my friends to swim there. You can't see these things when driving by in a car. That is what is great about traveling by longboard, you are inserted into the local environment, you experience everything as you pass through, instead of just passing through.
Another thing I saw was a movie being filmed along the river. There were camera crews and a bunch of people dressed up in clothes from the 1800's singing and two men dressed in white in the river re-enacting a baptism from early Mormon times. I hope I didn't bother them when I was crunching through leaves and sticks trying to take a picture of the event. I'm a little disappointed with how my picture turned out but I didn't want them to film and view the footage later only to find a guy with a longboard and bright blue skating helmet peeking out of the bushes across the river.
I got home after 10-11 miles of riding and hung out with my good friends. One thing I want to mention is that my back started killing me in the evening, something that hasn't happened yet on a longer ride. I wonder what wearing a hiking backpack will do on 30-50 mile days will do. Hmmmmm.........
One of the things I have been doing to prepare for this trip is physical training. I'll post on most of this later, but what I want to talk about today is footedness.
Whenever someone rides on a board, be it surfboard, snowboard, wakeboard, skateboard, or longboard they are standing sideways. One foot goes in front of the other. Regular stance is where your left foot is in the front and the right foot is in the back, usually your right foot is what you will push with. Goofy is just the reverse of that. Just like 90% of the world is right handed, most people ride regular stance.
Boarding stances. Courtesy of silverfishlongboarding.com
It is a little tricky to find out what "footedness" you are. One test you could do is to get a soccer ball, set it on the ground, step back a few paces, and then kick it like you're scoring the winning goal of the World Cup! Whichever foot you kick with is probably your pushing foot when you longboard.
If you still can't tell which foot should go forward, stop reading this now and go get a friend to read this paragraph, I will wait.....Hello new friend. What I need you to do is to walk behind your confused compadre and push them hard enough to make them stumble but not hurt them. Whichever foot they put forward to catch themselves is the one that they push with when they ride. Congratulate them on being regular or goofy stance and apologize for shoving them, tell them I apologize too for asking you to shove them. Tell them they can keep reading if they so desire.
Regular pushing
Myself, I ride regular. Ever since I was introduced to longboarding eight years ago and snowboarding seven years ago regular has just been what works best for me. Whenever I try to ride goofy stance I get somewhat nervous of falling down. I can do it, but it feels really awkward. On a long distance trip this poses somewhat of a problem for me. I don't want to push with only one foot. If I do the quadriceps on my left leg and the hamstrings on my right will be out of proportion with the opposite leg. Also, if I can't find a way to push with both feet I probably have only half the endurance that is possible to me.
Riding Mongo
I could just stand regular stance and alternate pushing with my front foot (known as riding mongo), then pushing with my back,. I've been practicing this and like this solution a lot more than trying to ride goofy. I have found, however, that this poses the problem of steering while standing on one foot. My left foot is usually directly over or directly behind the front trucks making it easy to just lean a bit and steer the board. When I push with my front foot, my back foot stays on the board a couple inches in front of the back trucks, right on the bouncy flex of my Sector 9 board. I don't feel as stable. To be shamefully honest I have not practiced this much in my life and I wasn't too good to start of with. After a few embarrassing mishaps and crashes I have gotten pretty good at it.
If one can increase their boarding endurance 100% by learning how to push with both feet, there has to be more solutions to help us skate further. I will be looking into that...
The plan thus far is to do a longboard journey, to raise money to help children in Romania. Where would one do this trip though?
Beautiful mountain roads of Romania. Looks like fun
but probably too dangerous.
Utah? Nope, Ben just did that, and Utah is a dry desert. I like living here, but there are cooler roads to go see. I lived in Kansas before it is a flat state, green roads, that sounds good right? Nope, I hate ticks and plan on doing lots of camping. Romania? No bugs, beautiful scenery. I know those roads very well after driving them so much, but I also know how dangerous they can be and I don't want to die on this trip. I would love to longboard there, but funds for the plane ticket and fear for my own safety are telling me to look elsewhere.
I've always wanted to go see Washington D.C. What if I just longboard from my Utah home to the capitol of the USA? Well...that's a little long for me right now. Mapquest tells me that its a little over 2000 miles.
After lots of thinking the decision has been made to travel along the coastline of California. Mainly on Highway 1. The road is about 650 miles long. I am considering traveling the whole California coast which would be more than 1000 miles.
According to my all knowing but still slightly dubious source Highway One is one of the most scenic drives in America. I also think it would be a good idea because there will hopefully be less elevation change if I stay at sea level. Pushing a longboard up a really large mountain for 20 miles is not the most fun thing in the world.
So, right now, this is my route. Highway 1 and the Coast of California. We'll see how that pans out.
The cause I would feel privileged to involve myself with is the Bridge of Love. A non-profit organization created to help the orphans and foster children in Romania. I'm going to share what the Bridge of Love is and what they do just by taking straight from their website:
Our Story Bridge of Love was created in 2001 by Scott and Laurie Lundberg, of Taylorsville, Utah. The Lundbergs and their children traveled to Romania to visit an orphanage during their Christmas holiday in 1999. There they saw a situation they could never forget. Babies and toddlers stayed in their cribs nearly all day, starved for love and attention. The bedroom walls were bare, and a cold breeze seeped through the windows of the poorly heated orphanage/hospital.
There were no blankets or toys in the room, and the workers changed the babies’ diapers in silence. The toddlers rocked their little bodies back and forth for hours, the only stimulation they could create. The older toddlers banged their heads on the side of the crib—over and over—creating a new noise and huge lumps on their heads.
Laurie described the situation as “children living in a zoo.” They each had their own cage from which they couldn’t escape. Most of the children had been abandoned at birth, with little or no information about them left behind. There were no plans for these children—they just existed. Nobody was their voice.
The Lundberg family quickly became attached to the thirty-two children in the orphanage. They determined to do everything possible to save as many of the children as they could. They persisted when told there was nothing that could be done for these children. They knew that each child was important and worthy of love.
Bridge of Love has spent the past ten years saving these abandoned and orphaned children. The foundation began its mission by working to find loving homes for the children and helping to place them, one child at a time, in foster care with Romanian families.
Currently, there are nearly 40 children in foster care who receive support from Bridge of Love, plus a group of six older teens and young adults who were abandoned as children. This is in partnership with a sister foundation in Barlad, Romania called Podul Dragostei, which is Romanian for “Bridge of Love.”
More recently, Bridge of Love has partnered with other nonprofit organizations in Romania to help even more children and families in need. These currently include a maternity center for young mothers and their babies as well as an amazing organization called The Heart of a Child Foundation, both located in Galati, Romania.
Here is a video describing a bit more about what the Bridge of Love is.
An adventure would be cool. Longboarding somewhere in the world and seeing all the sights would be very cool. However, just doing that for the thrill of it is not a good enough reason to go. I really like how Ben had a purpose to his journey, he was helping and making a change in the world. I want this to mean something too. I want to help make a difference somewhere.
One of my favorite psychologists and thinkers, Viktor Frankl said in his book, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning,"Man is originally characterized by his 'search for meaning' rather than his 'search for himself.' The more he forgets himself- giving himself to a cause or another person- the more human he is. And the more he is immersed and absorbed in something or someone other than himself the more he really becomes himself. Just consider a child who, absorbed in play, forgets himself- this is the moment to take a snapshot; when you wait until he notices that you are taking a picture, his face congeals and freezes, showing his unnatural self-consciousness rather than his natural graciousness. Why do most people have that stereotyped expression on their faces whenever they are photographed? This expressions stems from their concern with the impression they are going to leave on the onlooker. It is 'cheese' that makes them so ugly. Forgetting themselves, the photographer, and the future onlooker would make them beautiful."
Viktor Frankl
This fits well with the biblical wisdom "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:25-26) or "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." (Luke 17:33).
Too often in life we focus on ourselves, being the best we can be, "finding ourselves" and things like that. We spend a lot of time and money on our own pleasure and enjoyment. Everyone wants to be happy and becomes very concerned with achieving that goal. What if that thought is the very thing keeping us from being happy? Frankl continues to say in his book, "Primarily and normally man does not seek pleasure; instead, pleasure- or, for that matter, happiness- is the side effect of living out of the self-transcendence of existence. Once one has served a cause or is involved in loving another human being, happiness occurs by itself. The will to pleasure, however, contradicts the self-transcendent quality of human reality. And it also defeats itself. For pleasure and happiness are by-products. Happiness must ensue. It cannot be pursed. It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."
And I've always wondered what Thomas Jefferson would have to say about that last line.
Therefore, with my own paradigm of thinking I would believe it to be a waste of time to pursue this journey for my own joy, for the kicks and giggles. It would seem a waste to me. A cool experience, but largely a waste of time. I would rather be like Ben and use this to wrap myself into a larger cause (this begs the question, am I just using this cause to try to transcend myself and be happy? Is my own happiness still the end goal? Or is sincere altruism involved? I suppose we shall see).
Hi, I'm Mason. I'm at a young and impressionable age right now, and age where I am making key decisions for my future, so I spend a lot of time thinking about the life ahead of me. At the moment I'm a student at Brigham Young University. I really enjoy what I do and the things I learn. Sometimes though I catch myself getting caught up in the routine of what I'm doing. School, work, homework, eat, sleep, school, work, homework etc. I get scared that too often, we get lost in the "doing" of things. I get scared that, although I have goals and a purpose, I focus too much on the end result, without taking much joy or learning in the journey.
I think every now and again we need to do something out of the box, something to break the routine. I feel like I need an adventure. I'm at an age and situation in life where I can pursue a random endeavor, something to tell my kids about one day. Earlier this summer I was wondering what kind of adventure I want to do when I heard of something Ben Smith was doing.
Ben is in the middle and that's me on Ben's right
holding the board
I know Ben through his older brother Mike, who is one of my friends from High School. Ben is a great kid. At the age of 15, before he could even drive a car, Ben decided to ride a longboard 400+ miles across the state of Utah. That in of itself is admirable. However, Ben didn't just do this for kicks and giggles, he was raising money for a friend named Gates. Gates had recently suffered an accident that left him paralyzed and Ben was trying to help him out.
I went to go see Ben as he passed through Provo and I was inspired. I want to do something similar. Longboarding is something that I have loved for years and years. It is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable activities. I also love to travel. Wouldn't it be fun to combine both?
