Skateboard sailing

[kmf]

Anybody have any experience with skateboard sailing?

I talked to Dana Miller and he likes to use one, and has offered to help me out in my choice.

I am thinking of getting one to help with sail handling skills, using it in light winds on rough surfaces like the port property south of the event site. I guess at this time of year one could use the Event site also.

Any type of board suggestions?

Could keep me away from the dark side with all the other burnt out sailors.

KMF

[westender]

Rueter used to sell them. Busted my wrist on the F'n thing. Should have geared up better.

[isobars]

Dig up the archives. They've been discussed many times, with repeated comments like Westender's ... and much worse in one case. How fast is a destroyed ligament going to heal at your age? I suggest sand/grass with big knobby tires plus full motocross gear right down to serious ankle-protecting boots ... all of which still left me selling mine when the carnage began despite the fun our group was having on corporate, college, and city lawns all over Albuquerque. Pavement is hard $#!+ even at a slow walking pace.

[Thx.]

I made this one copied from a core windsurfer in Utah and it is rad. It's made of Baltic birch ply. You just throw on some trucks and a sail and go. This one has great flex and gybes super nice. The sheets come in 5 x 5 and I cut out 4 blanks. I spent hours on it this spring zooming around the parking lot. It goes upwind great too. I have an extra blank if you want it for free. I learned to duck gybe with it, then was able to do them on the water for my first time his year.

Some dude came up and starting dissing on it as he said the board was too big and obviously a big boat. I let him ride it and he didn't want to get off - lol.

[Thx.]

The bigger one is the 5 footer (haven't tried yet). The little one is the skate showed at the event site in previous photo.

[kmf]

I did a search as iso suggested, and holy smokes......lots of information.

KMF

[kmf]

Perrydave
I would love to get your extra deck from you, and would be willing to pay for it to help defray your initial costs.

I sent you a PM, lets get together.

KMF

[dana_miller]

May humbly submit to this discussion, my favorite theory about how dangerous skateboardsailing is? That like riding a bicycle or a motorcycle or flying a plane or just walking along the sidewalk texting -- it's about as dangerous as the person doing it. It's been my experience that if you keep the speed down and go on clean pavement in steady, unblocked wind with the right gear on (read a helmut and wrist guards -- more if you are out of control, just learning or going for vert in a skatepark) then you have no worries. It's the rocks that you really have to fear. When you hit one with hard wheels, the board stops and you don't. So I carry a broom.

I for one, have suffered way far more injury on the water than I have skatesailing. On the water I've had two blown eardrums, a broken nose, broken metatarsals a couple times, a broken toe, half a dozen ankle sprains, thirteen stitches for a skeg wound, uncounted bruises and assorted other sprains, hit the water so hard from so high I was coughing up blood and I've been held down till nearly passing out. This verses skateboardsailing where I've only had a couple hip pointers and concrete burns from the skatepark action, a little road rash and some tendonitis in my elbow that was dogging me there for awhile from overdoing. And it's not like I'm getting hurt less because I'm doing it so much less. I'm averaging about seventy days a year skatesailing.

So when I hear reports of injuries, I have to wonder what the circumstances were. No protection? Showing off for the crew? Lots of testosterone in the house? Sailing fast and taking chances? Rocks on the venue? All can be contributing factors to getting injured, but not just in skateboardsaling, yes? So do we still blame the skateboardsailing or do we take responsibility for what might have been less than totally responsible assessments and consideration of the risk factors?

And I'm certainly aware there is a temptation to oversimplify the risks and think of falling on grass and sand as somehow preferable to asphalt or concrete. But in terms of impact and injury, I would suggest there is a more complex set of variables to consider. Mostly to do with speed, control, rolling resistance, quality of venue, quality of wind, experience, and of course, the gear. All taken into account, I would further offer that skateboardsailing is safer then all other forms of windsurfing. I know this may seem counter-intuitive, but more than twenty five years of experience sailing on everything but ice makes me fully confident in this assertion. Once you're going faster than you can comfortably step off, it doesn't matter much what the surface is. Even water starts to feel like concrete from high or fast enough Not that shredding the eighteenth green wouldn't be a total hoot, but that quality of grass isn't so easy to come by and likely to be a short lived sesh. Lesser grass comes with the risk of bouncing out of control or kooky stuff like stepping on a wheel. Which is one of the issues I've found with the bigger boards that are multi terrain capable. Indeed, I consider the sandsailing I do on a Norblan I've had since the mid eighties to be the most dangerous form of sailing I do next to the wavesaiilng. The temptation to go way faster than I can comfortably step off is a constant companion. So while consistently going way too fast, I'm on my best behavior when I do sand, and totally love it. There's nothing quite like the feeling of gliding across the hard packed sand flats on a minus tide. And for what it's worth, I find the sandsailing is more about the experience of being out there, the thrill of how grippy it is and conditioning than it is working on tricks. I look to the skatesailing for skill building and really do find the risk factors in the ideal skate wind environment (like 5-12 mph) rather minimal by comparison. With respect. Dana

[kmf]

I'm stoked!!!

But cautiously aware of my mortality.


KMF

[isobars]

So if I get hurt skateboarding in a full tuck down a steep four-lane highway in front of the State Capitol in Tallahassee at midnight on steel wheels, it's not the pebble's fault ... but MINE?

Mike \m/