The fastest expanding form of
skateboarding. Contrary to popular belief, the
sport is greatly expansive beyond bros in board shorts (sadly, these are the most vocal assholes who own longboards, but are not necessarily longboarders). Disciplines include downhilling (trying to go as
fast as possible, serious practitioners will wear leathers and full face helmets), freeriding (essentially doing slides and tricks combined with anything downhill, mostly done for
fun), and freestyle (emulating shortboard tricks on larger decks). As the downhill riding community is starting to go mainstream, a proper comparison to regular
short boards would be that of downhill/freestyle
mtb to bmx; while both may have the same forms and ideas supporting them, their applications are greatly different and require skills respective to each, and thusly the similarities in said forms are not necessarily applicable to the ways they are used. Basically, regarding all the hate those who enjoy riding street/ park on a shortboard: don't worry about how other
people are having
fun and just enjoy what you do (I will say, if you wear flip flops while "skating" or ride a pintail cruiser, please; just stop).
Longboarder: Today I had a great longboarding
sesh: started off railing a toeside corner going 40, then got my freeride deck out and got a 30ft standie, and finished off the day cruising around learning some big spins and old
school kickflips for poops and giggles.
Skater: You do any park or street shit?
Longboarder: No, taking a longboard into a skatepark is ridiculous and annoying, though I sometimes ride bowls with my shortboard.