The tang stench of tar is in my nose. The street ahead is fresh and featureless, a snaking stretch of smooth asphalt put down just days ago by a construction crew.
I am surfing on land, the wheels and wide deck of a longboard swooping downhill, carving polyurethane to pavement as I lean to check speed on a city street.
The sport of longboarding — a discipline that mixes facets from surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding — is a rising trend with active adults. No longer is this sport limited to the realm of the teenager, and no longer do the boards simply mimic a skateboard with a stretched deck.
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Kahuna Creations, a company based in Hawaii, is one outfit with a new take on the longboarding game. Instead of the familiar one-foot-kicking technique that skateboarders use to obtain speed, Kahuna’s longboards are made to be “paddled” on land.
The company (www.kahunacreations.com) sells wood shafts topped with carbon-rubber grips — called Big Sticks — that riders stroke and push off the pavement to progress along. The motion is similar to technique seen in the sport of stand-up paddling, where surfers stand feet spread atop their board and employ a long paddle to stroke out to sea.
I tested Kahuna’s 48-inch Pohaku Surf Rider longboard and the Kahuna Big Stick Classic paddle pole, which cost $149 and $139 respectively. Both are of nice quality, and the stand-up-and-stroke technique came easily for me after 10 minutes of trying.
By reaching and pulling with the stick paddle, you obtain a nice upper body workout — something rare in outdoors sports. The exercise also felt more even than kicking, which tends to exert one side of the body more than the other.
On the Kahuna setup I felt like an amalgam of the surfer Laird Hamilton and a Venetian gondolier. The stroke-to-move technique was unusual and fun, though as a skateboarder since my childhood I found myself wanting to kick the board for more speed and not just paddle along. Fortunately, the Kahuna boards accommodate either mode of locomotion.
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