"Harley Ingleby"
As per a previous post, we were coincidentally on the same break as newly crowned world longboard champion Harley Ingleby last week. Alongside a magazine (PACIFIC Longboarder) article about his victory, the question is posed, "Why would anyone choose to haul a nine foot longboard half way across the world when you could practically carry a shortboard quiver on your back, like arrows? The answer is simple.
"While all great surfing is difficult - as you carve a moving object across a moving surface - longboarding introduces the added dimension of walking the board, the traditional high water mark of expertise in the great tradition. Walking adds the poetry to the prose of carving, the subtle improvisation to the solo, the finesse to the grunt and muscle of bodywork. If you like, longboarding is flamenco on water - flaming moves, passionate runs down the line, soulful arcs, posturing on the nose with the wave crashing and nipping at your back offering the clacking castanets and drumming of the dancers."
In his novel 'Breath', Tim Winton says, "How strange it was to see men do something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant, as though nobody saw or cared."
... and for me at least, longboards are easier to ride.