Not growing up with skateboards meant that for me to be more comfortable with a longboard at speed and learning how to stop would require a lot of help. Getting longboard instruction as an older person is not always easy and required a lot of asking around. My first few instructions were with Robin McGuirk of Eastside Longboards. This required that I drive from Seattle to Portland, but for me was well worth the drive. Robin is great and was able to get me from nothing to performing my first slides. He also teaches a longboard course at a Portland community college, but for me to get time off in the middle of the work week to drive there turned out to be too much.
I lucked out seeing Cole Kurtz’s flier at Motion Board Shop in Seattle for a longboard summer camp program. I was able to work out instruction times with Cole around my work schedule. I later also opened up the instruction times to include members of my Meetup group. For Cole to get me from doing a basic slide to performing heel side and toe side pendulum slides in 1 month is really amazing! It was a lot of hard work including sore muscles, a lot of sweat, a few wrecks (no injuries), and a lot of duct tape (to repair clothing and protective gear I slid on).
I just wanted to send out a Thank You to everybody that provided support in my progression. I also wanted to show a few people that it is never too late to learn. Sure, precautions are necessary, but never an excuse.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
