kahuna creations makes into usa today!

[skategeezer]

Row, row, row your board ... land paddling has Hawaiian roots

Enlarge By Kahuna Creations MMA Fighter and Kahuna Rider Kendall Grove land paddles in his native Maui.
By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY
In the beginning of action sports, there were surfboards.
When 4th-century Tahitians and other Polynesian groups made their way to the Hawaiian islands, they brought a sport they called paipo, the riding of waves on boards while lying on their stomachs.
Not long after, the now-Hawaiian riders began standing on the boards, and what we know as surfing was born.
Surfing evolved from a religious and royal pastime in Hawaii and made its way to California in the 1920s and boomed after World War II when soldiers and sailors who had spent time in Hawaii took up the sport.
Surfboards, skateboards and snowboards are the heart of action sports today, and the evolutionary cycle continues.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: California | World War II | Hawaii
The latest mutation is the longboard skateboard, which has emerged in the last decade as a transportation and sport alternative to the shorter boards used for trick riding.
Longboards are great for riding on slightly sloping surfaces, but kicking with one foot for long distances can be tedious and a strain on the rider's body. That's what longboard maker Steve McBride discovered when his truck broke down and he had to kick his longboard 10 miles to get home.
"It didn't feel good. My body was all out of whack after that," he says. "I thought there had to be a better way."
McBride's skateboard company, Kahuna Creations (kahunacreations.com), was inspired by Hawaiian surf culture, so it was natural for him to look to the practices of those watermen for the answer to his problem.
The solution came from a source that was both ancient and modern: stand-up paddling, or SUP. Hawaiian surfers have long used stand-up paddling on surfboards as transportation in the seas, to move from beach to beach and even for long trips to other islands.
His land paddle doesn't have a wide blade at the end but instead uses a hard-carbon rubber dual tip that grips the road surface to allow the rider to simulate paddling through water.
"The effect is smooth, not jarring," McBride says. "It is a natural motion. Kicking a board loses that feeling."
His Kahuna Big Stick has a solid-wood grip and tapered fiberglass oval shaft and weighs 1 pound.
Land paddling has taken off, and he says sales of the $85-$149 paddles are brisk.
Several schools in Hawaii, including Kahuku High near Oahu's famous North Shore, do land paddling in gym classes.
"It's a good workout and easy for girls to do," McBride says.

[GabMG]

Someone has got to clarify this for me. Aren't legs much stronger than arms? It looks to me like using a wheelchair when you could be riding a bike...

[Eddy Martinez]

And skateboarding continues to mutate. Who would have thought. Right on. Su Amigo Eddy Tejas Outlaws

[LTRS]

USA Today? That's good publicity.

Maybe people on the bikepath in Malibu/Santa Monica/Venice will start to understand what I'm doing every weekend.

[R]

Just like paddle surfing, although I never tried it. I hope paddle longboarding doesn't catch on in California. Cops are already wary of skaters and now if they see skaters with sticks? OH F*CK!

[tomahawk]

am i still the only one who thinks this is the kookiest thing out there?

sure it might be agood upper body workout, but um, i didnt start skating to work out my arms and chest.

to each his own i guess, but it still seems to me like some gimmickey product that for some reason is catching on.

[maxkeeble88]

double post

[maxkeeble88]

By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY

The latest mutation is the longboard skateboard, which has emerged in the last decade as a transportation and sport alternative to the shorter boards used for trick riding.
Longboards are great for riding on slightly sloping surfaces, but kicking with one foot for long distances can be tedious and a strain on the rider's body. That's what longboard maker Steve McBride discovered when his truck broke down and he had to kick his longboard 10 miles to get home.

meh screw USA today
we're a mutation? only arising in the last ten years??? that makes it seems like we came out of the contemporary kickflip style of skating, not the REAL shredders of yesteryear . what would cab and mountain (and all the other greats before them) have to say?
i hate it when journalists write stories when they clearly haven't done a sufficient or appropriate amount of research

and 10 miles aint sheeeeeiiit
probably took like 50 mins whereas i can see it taking even longer with this freaking pole thing.

i guess i just feel like there are companies way more deserving on recognition in a USA today story than this one

[sk8norcal]

meh screw USA today
we're a mutation? only arising in the last ten years???

arising in the last ten years is pretty accurate....

i started longboarding in 1999...

when you were ten...

[Eddy Martinez]

1976 I was 16 years old. Tom Sims was the longboarder of the day. Bruce Walker from Florida was also a longboarding pioneer. Did not get the credit he deserved. Your Amigo Eddy TEXAS OUTLAWS

YouTube - TOM SIMS Skateboarding Tv 1976 PT 1of2

[Dragongurl]

arising in the last ten years is pretty accurate....

i started longboarding in 1999...

when you were ten...

Yeah, but the skating style of the 70s looks a lot closer to today's longboarding than today's shortboarding. Just my op.

ETA: Eddy, you just made my post pointless. But you brought proof. So, Thanks!

[sk8norcal]

nobody is arguing that longboarding have its root in the 70's...

it just died for about 20 years....

[n3rrd]

am i still the only one who thinks this is the kookiest thing out there?

sure it might be agood upper body workout, but um, i didnt start skating to work out my arms and chest.

to each his own i guess, but it still seems to me like some gimmickey product that for some reason is catching on.

I see people make these sorts of comments about the Kahuna Big Sticks all the time and I find it very strange. There are posts all over the fish about "shortboarders" making fun of longboarders, and why we aren't accepted... so on and so forth... then we go and make fun of things like this. It's an evolution of the sport. It's all "skateboarding".

If you aren't interested in this avenue, roll on down to the next street.

I'm not sure how big USA Today is, but good publicity none the less.

[samhell]

The Big Stick is a great workout and makes people
look at you like you're an alien...
It's different, unique and strange.
But it works and works very well at being
what it was intended to be.
I love mine...
There is room for everything in the world of skating.
It doesn't mean you have to do it all..
I don't kickflip down flights of 15 stairs, but I repsect
those who do... But I have no intention of doing it myself..
Skaters are a funny breed.... People are a funny species...

[sk8norcal]

YouTube - Carveboard / Kahuna #3

[LTRS]

I see people make these sorts of comments about the Kahuna Big Sticks all the time and I find it very strange. There are posts all over the fish about "shortboarders" making fun of longboarders, and why we aren't accepted... so on and so forth... then we go and make fun of things like this. It's an evolution of the sport. It's all "skateboarding".

Genuine skaters look at all types of skating with an open mind.

Trendy skaters mock anything which deviates from their chosen style.

[maxkeeble88]

arising in the last ten years is pretty accurate....

i started longboarding in 1999...

when you were ten...

well thats nifty
i got my first longskate when i was 9, in 1997
made my dad cut a pintail from a sims snowboard
with fat ass indy's and krypto's
it was wonderful

i guess we both started around the same time..

when you were.. 24?

[sk8norcal]

^ a longboard veteran i see...

well i started skating in the mid 80's and ran soft wheels since the early nineties...

my point is longboarding had essentially disappeared for twenty years..
it wasn't till late nineties that you start to notice longboards in the store...(you might not understand this due to ur age)

my local shop GoSkate was very progressive, stocked quite a number of decks...

my first deck was a LibTech... they were quite advance for their time....

[enemy combatant]

my point is longboarding had essentially disappeared for twenty years..

People were riding long boards in the early eighties. "Longboarding" as a particular name started to be used in the nineties. That is not a 20 year span. Who cares what was happening in Formosa? You don't know WTF you are talking about.

[sk8norcal]

great... geritroll strikes again...

EC, you should get a big stik, its like a cane for your skateboard.