By Zeke Barlow (Contact)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Photos by Rob Varela / Star staff Eli Suzuki-Gill speeds down a Camarillo street on his longboard. "It's a rush," Eli said of barreling down a hill at speeds of up to 45 mph.
Video: This is speedskating
Two teens fly downhill on longboards. Watch now >>
On a street corner at the bottom of a steep hill in the tony streets of Camarillo's Spanish Hills, Russell Wood waits.
"Don't Fear the Reaper" rings on his cell phone. When Russell answers and looks up and down the street for cars, a blond curtain of hair falls across his 15-year-old face.
"All clear," he says.
Then they come.
Two figures clad in motorcycle jackets, full-face helmets and leather gloves come barreling down the hill, cruising at 30 mph, then 35, 40, finally closing in on 45 mph. Eli Suzuki-Gill and Robby Nafie, both 15, are crouched down low, heads bent forward, hands tucked behind their backs, as they blow by Russell in a blur of leather and speed.
The two aren't on motorcycles or bicycles or anything that requires power.
They are standing on skateboards. And they are moving very, very fast.
This is speedboarding.
"It's a rush," Eli said as he shook his hair from his helmet.
And it's becoming a lot more popular.
Though longboarding — skating on boards much longer than traditional skateboards — has been around since skating was born in Southern California in the 1950s, the cruising boards have been making a comeback in recent years. With the resurgence of the boards, there has been an increasing interest in seeing just how fast gravity will pull someone downhill.
Speedboarding races are better attended now, gear is becoming more technical, and people like Eli and his crew are posting their feats on YouTube.
"It's not for everyone, but it is growing and you are going to see it more and more," said Erik Basil, co-owner of the popular skating Web site www.silverfishlongboarding.com. More people attend and compete each year in races put on by the International Gravity Sports Association, Basil said. Competitions in San Dimas as well as down massive mountains in Washington are growing bigger every year.
For those with a healthy respect for asphalt, this might not be their bag. You shouldn't even have to ask if this is dangerous.
Russell lifted his shirt to show what happens when you don't wear a leather jacket and take a nasty swan dive. The matching purple scars on his pelvic bone were proof that skin is softer than road. The four stitches in his chin were a testament to why you should always wear a motorcycle helmet.
"That doesn't feel good," he said as he pointed at his road rash.
The biggest hazard is cars. Russell and his friend Nathan Deweber stand guard at intersections to watch for traffic.
Judy Suzuki doesn't like that her son feels this need for speed, but she supports it, driving her son and his friends to steep hills with few intersections that they find on Google Earth.
"I don't have insurance so you know where my mind is," she said. "I tell him You are on Jesus' insurance.' But you can get hurt walking down the street. Life is too short not to skateboard."
And then there is that whole question of legality.
Skateboarders fall under the classification of pedestrians, who have no speed limit, said Ventura County Sheriff's Deputy Patti Salas. However, they do have to follow rules such as yielding the proper right of way at intersections and being in control.
"It's really risky behavior," she said. "It's extreme skating. They have to be safe when they are doing it, but I don't know if you can do that in extreme skating."
After screaming down a hill at break-neck speeds, stopping is an important skill to have. Skaters stand upright to cut wind resistance, then weave back and forth across the road to slow themselves. At that point, they can do a foot brake, where they put one shoe flat on the ground. Robby's right shoe sole is planed flat from the rubber meeting the road.
The other way to stop is to slide out, kicking the board sideways while putting a gloved hand on the ground.
Veteran skaters have fancy gloves with plastic pucks on them; Eli chopped up an old cutting board and glued squares of it onto leather work gloves. The gang is excited about the remodel of Nathan's parents' kitchen, when the Corian countertops will be up for grabs.
The friends, who all go to different Ventura high schools, got into this about a year ago when Nathan got a longboard for his birthday.
Unlike street skating or "vert" skating on ramps, the longboards have a mellower, smoother vibe to them.
"It has more of a surfing feel," Robby said. Besides, so much of the other skating has an attitude, they said. Instead of trying to one-up each other with kick flips and ollies, now they just sail along.
They saw video clips of speedboarding and began looking for hills in their neighborhood. Before long, they needed boards that were better designed for the task and started shopping online.
Their setups now cost a few hundred bucks, complete with soft wheels to absorb bumps, decks that have a low center of gravity and super high-end components.
The appeal is about the speed and the adrenaline, of course. And the fact that girls seem to think it's cool doesn't hurt, either.
But there is something else, too — something about going as fast as you can and tuning out the blurry world if only for one-third of a mile. It borders more on Zen Buddhism than punk skating.
"The only thing you are paying attention to," Eli said, "is where you are."
Location: the street, my bed.... oh, NP (Thousand Oaks), SoCal
Age: 16
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Re: did you catch this cool article on speedboarding?
wheres robby? he hasnt posted here? what boards were u guys using woohoo?
what high school do u guys goto? how fast were u actually going?
that looks like 30ish.
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did you catch this cool article on speedboarding?
Re: did you catch this cool article on speedboarding?
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