Freeboarding! Opinions? Anyone familiar with this??
 

I saw this mentioned in the in the question for skater's thread, and I really want to know more about this!! I'm hoping the title of the thread will bring someone with specific knowledge & experience with these Freeboards!

It looks Awesome Sweet!!!! Watched some vids & shit and did a little research & googling on the subject, but I want to know if these boards and this kind of riding is Legit! Or is this one of those "fads" that are really impractical or just plain stupid? Doesn't look that way from the vid's I've watched! But then, WTF do I know, right?

Here's a couple of quoted replies I & others posted on that thread:

If you've got any first hand experience with riding these things, I'd REALLY appreciate hearing about it!! (...never been a Skateboarder myself, but then I didn't ski before boarding either!) I'm hoping this is really a legitimate deal and love the idea of being able to shred all summer long!!!

I went to a longboarding forum i used to be part of back in the day...and "REAL" longboarders HATE these!

tough to find info on...i may guinea pig it in the summer.

Hmnn,.. I don't even have a clue about long boarding or any skateboarding for that matter! Never did either myself, so I'm not sure what to make of that statement. But like you, absent any first hand info from other members here,.. I might just do the same & guinea pig myself this summer as well! :laugh:

I mean, it looks AWESOME! but again, WTF do I know! :dunno: :laugh:
(...although, I can imagine that a caught toe edge /wheel?/ and scorpion on one of those would F'in BLOW!!!)

when i raced longboards, i wore mountain bike arm guards and custom gloves...i have some decent road rash scars still though.

:bump:
Still hoping for someone who actually rides these to reply!! :hope:

The visual of this happening is fk'n hilarious! (wipes away tears)
Scorpions suck but it's the funniest shit ever when it's not happening to you.

Are you talking about Silverfish?... Hahaha.

I had one for a couple years, they're pretty cool.

Didn't ride it very much though, not cause it wasn't awesome.
Just didn't know anyone else with one.
If you ride it & your buds are on normal longboards, you get left in the dust.

Maybe not in the long run, eventually you could keep up. You actually need the skill to do it, unlike a longboard.

You don't need skill to ride a longboard, or not much anyway.

I've been 100km/h on my home made longboard, & I just started longboarding a couple years ago.

If you can stand still & not panic:unsure: You could do it too:icon_scratch:

Watched the guy in the video below do it from about 3/4 of the way up, so I figured the top wouldn't be that much of a difference.



Well, the difference is skills
Buddy has 'em:thumbsup:
I have very little, but I do have balls of steel:cool: Sometimes that's good, but not always:unsure:

I still can't stop if I going over 40km/h, under 40 I can do a Coleman to a stop.
Any faster & the board shoots out & it's road rash time.

This is the aforementioned hill https://vimeo.com/30238073
It's a famous hill around these parts, because you will:bowdown: break the 100km/h mark.

These 2 vids are only days apart, the only difference is the grade of hill.
I couldn't get it on the dinky little hill, I needed a steeper one to get the hang of it.
https://vimeo.com/61328103
You need a steep hill, or @ least I did:dunno:

All together, over the course of about 2 years.
I think I had less than 3 hours on this thing.

You have to go somewhere hilly just to ride it. Each time you ride it.
You can't just take it to the store, it doesn't work like that.

I had quite a few of my friends try it & not one could get the hang of it @ all.
Most of them either snowboard, skateboard or both, not one of them could do it though.

Here is what an unskilled freeborder looks like:giggle:
There was no huge airs or sweet 180 carves.
I don't think I broke the 10km/h barrier:rolleyes:
https://vimeo.com/61323856


TT

oh yeah...alot of hate there. I mean, I built and raced longboards for years and this just seems like something fun, i dont understand how people can hate so much...BUT if someone posted on here "have you guys seen SKIS? they are super fun, just like skating on snow!" im sure they would get hate on, hahaha

I had a freeboard for a while, picked it up off of craigslist for fairly cheap. It was kinda of fun, a fairly steep learning curve. It mimics the look and maybe a little bit of the feel of snowboarding, but it is a totally different animal to ride. Speed is your friend on these, they don't work well until you get going down a decent slope and can actually slide. It is also extremely difficult/impossible to push them, you have to be going downhill, so i hope you have some good hills with someone to ferry you to the top lol.