By: Jahmez Barnett
Bikes are quickly becoming a preferred alternative to walking in our country. In fact, it is shown 
that people from all over America use bikes to get to work, school, ride for fun, exercise, etc.
However, as good as biking is, there’s another fashionable way to ride, and it’s called longboarding.
Despite seeming similarities, most long boarders would say that longboarding is not like skateboarding at all. According to long boarder and University of Akron student Will Sprinkle, otherwise known as Sprinkles, it feels like a mix between skateboarding and snowboarding. If you’re hip to either one of those, you’re about half way there. Even if you haven’t boarded before, it is “one of the easiest things to learn,” according to Meghan Rice, sophomore UA student who learned to longboard in one day.
If longboarding is not in your interest, don’t worry about it; you’re not the first. In fact, UA freshman and non-longboarder Chris Ulner says that he wouldn’t longboard because he thinks “it’s a waste of money to even buy one.” He also says he “would only feel safe riding one in the middle of campus if I ever started.” Even though there’s nothing out there that says it’s unsafe to ride longboards outside campus, it might be wise to only ride it within campus if you’re unfamiliar with the general area.
If you decide to start longboarding, remember to wear your safety equipment: a helmet, kneepads, elbow pads and anything else that might keep you safe. Otherwise, you could end up like Sprinkles, who rode his broken longboard only to fall off and scrape his knees pretty badly on the pavement.
Before buying a longboard, saving up your money might be a good idea. A longboard goes for almost $400 online, but it would be a really good investment if you’re looking at durability and the amount of money that might be saved in gas from riding back and forth to destinations. Also, it gets expensive if you want to add your own flavor of style to the board.
Consider that it’s a really good investment and it’s just as good as riding a bike, helping people to get from class to class and around campus fast and easy.
