Videos of my longboard land paddling, at 64 years young

If you've been waiting to see videos of me pushing my way along on a longboard with a stick (not a foot, which distinguishes land paddling from regular longboarding)... I'm amazed. 

But sometimes people don't know what's been missing from their lives. (Which, of course, is the secret of Apple's success; don't give people what they want, give them what they will want once they know about it.)

Regardless, I'm pleased to share the first four videos made with my newly acquired GoPro Hero3, silver model.

I put it on a chest mount yesterday without really knowing what I was doing. The results turned out fine. Audio was pretty damn audible; I used the "skeleton" case with holes in it rather than the totally enclosed waterproof case.

The last two videos are more exciting than the first two, being of me going downhill rather than uphill or level. "Exciting," of course, is a word fraught with ambiguity.

I love watching point-of-view GoPro videos of people doing wild and crazy stuff. My land paddling is only mildly wild and crazy. But, hey, when you're 64, just getting out of bed can be an accomplishment.

And I'm rolling along on a freaking skateboard!

(Note: the GoPro camera has a wide angle lens which gives kind of a "fisheye" look to videos, and makes my staight stick look curved; it's a feature, not a problem!)

 

Aptly titled, above is my first GoPro longboard land paddling video. This is where I go early on in my usual Minto Brown Island Park route. Gets me warmed up with mostly mild uphills.

 

I turn left along a wider, smoother asphalt path once I reach the trail that runs along a Willamette River slough. The video above is on my return route which leads to the west parking area. 

 

I like this trail which runs through some open fields. Some aerobic uphill pushing pays off with this fairly lengthy downhill run. One advantage of land paddling on a longboard is that you can push with both feet on the board. Hard to push otherwise on a longboard at speed, especially if you need to be able to turn. At least, it was for me before I discovered the joy of land paddling.

 

Minto Brown Island Park is quite flat. There's a few sort-of-steep downhills on the trails, though. This is one of them, the flip side of the hill I pushed my longboard up at the end of the preceding video. On a longboard even moderate speed feels fast. I'm probably only going 10 miles an hour, or so. Maybe a bit more.

Felt faster.

I'm riding a Norgeboards 60" Kalai longboard (made close by in Bend, Oregon) pushing with a 6-foot Kahuna Creations carbon fiber Big Stick. Nice combo.

Comments

[Randy]

You've inspired me. Going to take up rowing in the spring after I get a new knee. A friend is trying to put a 4 man shell of 70 year olds together.

[Brian Hines]

Do it! Damn, Randy, are you 70? That's freaking old. To us youthful 60-somethings, at least.

[Dharma Wheeler]

I am 65 and just ordered the same board you have and paddling stick. I will send you the bill for my medical expenses if I rack up any injuries beyond $5 million. This was very inspiring and you made it look relatively safe and simple, as long as I stay on flat ground. One of the major benefits I see, besides a core workout, is the fact that the older you get, the worse your balance becomes and you risk a "help, I have fallen and I can't get up!". Seems like money spent on the board will prevent having to pay for the gizmos to call for help on infomercials. I ride dual sport off road motorcycles so this will be much safer.

Again, thanks for the great videos, write up and test pilot work you did. As for "old geyser", just remember that Mic Jagger is 73 and Tony Bennett is 89 and they are both going strong. Now all they need to do is take up SUP longboarding.