With innovative board sports growing -- think snowboarding, wakeboarding, kiteboarding -- it makes sense that the granddaddy of them all wouldn't stand still. Skateboarding, developed in the 1950s among surfers who wanted to "surf the streets" in their spare time, is being influenced by its modern offspring. Novel new boards let you carve asphalt like it's powder, stand up and paddle like you're in Waikiki and twist like, well, nothing I've ever seen.
-- Roy M. Wallack
--
Paddle on pavement
Kahuna Creations Ki'i Pohaku longboard and Big Stick: A 4-foot longboard that you propel on the streets with a 5 1/2-foot, rubber-tipped wooden pole.
Likes: Exhilarating fun and fitness for all ages. Superb upper-body workout as you push off and glide; you drag the end of the stick to stop. The artistic, slightly rounded, sand-impregnated, three-eighths-inch-thick wooden board flexes as you push off, adding to your power. The 10-inch wide wheelbase keeps it very stable. Instant fun -- you can do it the first time and feel yourself getting smoother by the minute.
Dislikes: None.
Price: Longboard, $139-$159; Big Stick, $89-$149 (877) 945-0100; www.kahunacreations.com.
--
Hone those surfer skills
Carveboard: Wooden-decked surf- and snowboard land trainer, invented for pro surfer Brad Gerlach by his father, Joe, that lets you simulate near-horizontal banking into a wave or snow with extra-wide wheelbase that enables the platform to pivot 45 degrees or more.
Likes: Great for fitness, skill-building, balance training and sheer fun. Starting on a slight hill and replicating the snowboarding position, with feet width-wise across the board, you squat, twist your torso and carve S-turns deeper and deeper. Although I'm not a surfer or snowboarder and was shaky at first, I got into a groove after about an hour and started seeing skills I didn't know I had. The huge 4-foot-long model with 9-inch-tall pneumatic Dragon Paw tires and the smaller 40-inch Longstik with polyurethane tires were great fun, with the former designed for steeper hills. Carving is work; I was soaked.
Dislikes: The wheels are so wide and stable that you can't kick up the board to your hands or spin it around.
Price: Wave, $450; Surfstik (34 inches), $275; Longstik (40 inches), $285. (760) 930-9767; www.carveusa.com.
--
A bit of twisted logic
