As a last hurrah of Jamison’s spring break, he invited me to longboard the Banks to Vernonia trail with him. It’s a nice, long, gentle ride. The weather was wonderful and the trail was dry. Jamison also tooks some videos with his phone.1
Thanks, Jamison for the invite! That’s my boy. :-)
Another Wednesday, so I headed off to longboard Mt. Tabor to get the PR that SpeedMeter glitched on last week. I was successful — 35.54 mph!1 :-)
I saw only two other longboarders on the hill and met only one of them. I’m looking forward to skating with (ok, getting dusted by) Hopkins again. At least I kept up with him hiking back up the hill. Once again, I continue to be impressed with the longboarding community here in Portland — it’s a very accepting and supportive crowd.
I skated twice from the non-Wednesday midpoint, once from near top of soapbox hill, and then six times from the top, where I took a few pictures and used SpeedMeter a few times. I’m looking forward to rain to quench the wildfires and wash the air.
In addition to longboarders, Mt. Tabor is a haven for bicyclists who want to work on their hill climbing and descent skills. Their presence made up for the dearth of longboarders. Turns out, my downhill time isn’t much different from the bicyclist I was tracking.2 More surprising, my quarter mile hike up the hill takes about as long as the return trip for him. ‘Course, once he got to the top, he kept going on down. I wanted to cool down for at least one of his cycles before heading back down.
Never Summer Clutch with purple Kegals. This setup seems to work for me.
Credits: Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Thanks to Ethan texting me Daddies was doing a demo day at Tabor, I had a great time at Mt. Tabor. Going down after a large pack really relieves the concern of pedestrians and dogs on the route (though one rider had a close call with a squirrel). Some of these guys are just fast. ‘Course, they’re the ones that talk about Tabor being boring, it’s so easy. I’m not there, yet. But I’m getting there.
I did all but my first run from the top. That, plus a better tuck from doing the Banks to Vernonia trail with Jamison multiple times, resulted in another PR for me. I think my next run was even faster, but SpeedMeter had an issue with that run. Oh well. That leaves more room for another time.
I miss Jamison on the hill.
o/-<|:
Wednesday means Mt. Tabor. Unfortunately, longboarding is just not the same thing without Jamison. Little buddy!
I did some runs from the bottom third or so. It’s the most efficient considering run length vs. return walking. And it does eliminate the risk of all but one blind corner, a good thing when skating alone.
The views are spectacular! My photography and the time of day don’t do it justice.
Being Wednesday and all, Jamison and I decided to downhill Mt. Tabor. And, being Wednesday and all, we ran into other longboarders.
Robin and Sky showed us how it’s done, with tight tucks and fast runs. Sky was hoping to break 33 (or was it 34?).
I was happy to hit 30.49, a personal record.
Regardless, it was nice to have other longboarders precede us down the hill, alerting any pedestrians1 to our approach.
o/-<|:
Jamison and I tried to get Longboard SpeedMeter going the last time we longboarded the Banks to Vernonia Trail, but it couldn’t get enough GPS satellites in view at Tophill.
This evening, I waited until the first gravel crossing before starting SpeedMeter and it worked — I think. It captured a top speed of 25.14 mph at the location I would have expected, but then recorded the run’s top speed as 9.73 mph. Oopie!
Regardless, I’m looking forward to trying my top-mount board on the trail and then at Mt. Tabor.
As promised, here is Jamison’s video of our longboard ride last weekend.
o/-<|:
Hands up in celebration of another great ride!
Jamison, Ethan,1 and I longboarded twice2 from Tophill down to Buxton3 on the Banks-Vernonia Trail. A fair number of bikes4 and pedestrians joined in the fun.
Jamison took a bunch of videos using his new Yi action cam5 and snapped some stills with it, too. I’m looking forward to his video edits. Stay tuned…
o>-<|:
Update: Jamison’s video is live!
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Today, I succeeded.
Jamison and I took #goskateboardingday seriously and went to Mt. Tabor. It was my first downhill runs of the year, and just like last year, the first run was terrifying. Actually, that’s not quite true—preparing to go on the first run was petrifying, starting was a little less so, and by the time I was speeding down the hill, I was having fun. It only got better on the next runs.
We met up with nephew/cousin Ethan and made a new friend, Jeff, once again proving that longboarders are the nicest bunch you’ll meet on the hill.
I used the board I got for last year’s Fathers’ Day the whole time today.1 That way I can leave my double-drop set up for push and this one for downhill. It felt more comfortable than the last time I used this board. Now I wonder what the other board would feel like.
The strangest thing about downhilling: when I tense up, the board wants to go all skittery under me. When I relax, it calms down. I’m sure there’s a life lesson in there, somewhere… ;-)
What scary thing did you do today?
o/-<|:
That feeling when your son and his college buddies invite you to longboard the neighborhood after dark. :-)
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