Greetings Hive Community!
My name is Daryl
and this is The Longboard Hive! Most people probably wouldn’t think that longboarding would have anything to do with community building, but I the longboard community is one of the best examples of a community I have personally seen. Some how longboarding attracts a lot of the rejects of other groups, especially since for some reason many skateboarders make fun of longboarding. So when this community of mismatched people accept them for who they are, they reciprocate the same thing to any new members. They welcomed me as one of their own, despite being a complete outsider, who self taught myself entirely wrong. Sure they teased me a bit about my bad form, but it was all to make me do better, and many ended up coaching me on my technique. By the end of my first longboard event, I had improved more than i had in a full season of skating by myself, and they were cheering me on when I made a full run without crashing. Every longboard event, or race, is like a festival for longboarders, because it's when your friends from all over the world, all come together to skate, party, and hang out with their fellow skaters. This is referred to as your Skate Family, and they act like it.
Skaters all hanging out around a corner, watching skaters go by
This also extends beyond just events, as when ever someone gets injured or there is an emergency, a crowd fund is started and filled in no time. We even funded one of the major leaders of the community's dream, and basically set him up for retirement. He had poured his heart and soul , as well as most of his money, into the sport and the community, but it wasn’t making him anything back. So when he came up with the crazy idea to move out of expensive BC to the other side of the country, to turn a 100 year old church into a hostel and museum, the community was right there behind him! Basically these people are the embodiment of community, and have restored my faith is people. So now my goal is to build community through longboarding, and to connect that community with the Hive community.
But First The History Of How I Became Who I Am Today
Me as Jesus, clearly surrounded by good company
Before longboarding, I was was going nowhere in life. I wasn’t a bad kid, I just didn’t have much for social skills, I was a loner, and just wasted my days stoned playing games. Then I met a girl who longboarded and fell in love, with longboarding, not the girl. I soon got my first board, began learning tricks from early Youtube, and I made a facebook group to get people to ride together.
I then got contacted by a group of longboarders who were travelling across Canada, connecting with longbaorders across the country. They got me to organize my first event, and they showed up and showed us how pro skaters ride. This was my first taste of the longboard community, and the passion people have for sharing this sport with others.
My next big connection was when Brandon Harrison came through Winnipeg on a cross country trek, but this was not your ordinary cross country trip. Brandon had survived cancer, a stroke, and aneurysm, before he decided to follow Terry Fox’s footsteps, accept on a longboard. We skated out to meet him just outside our city, at the longitudinal centre of Canada, then skated with him through the city to the event we organized. Then after the event, we followed his progress across Canada, which lead me to get to know the rest of the longboarding community. Craziest thing, which I can only say looking back at it, he ended up having another stroke when he reached Calgary, and his left side was paralyzed. Then comes the crazy part, after 3 years of recover, though still half paralyzed, he finished the trip.
Up until this point in my life, I had not been very much out of my comfort zone, so I hadn’t gone on any real trips. But seeing Brandon Harrison skate across the country, I knew I had to get out my old ways, and get out there in the world. My first trip was just a small trip to the next province over, where I part took in my first downhill race, Slug Jam 2014 I ended up having such a good time that I got my local community to come with me the next year, and we managed to take most of the podium! This ended up getting everyone so excited about racing, we started a race event back home, despite how small our hills were. Turns out it can still be fun, as long as there is a corner or two.
Then my next big trip I took was to BC, for the Giants Head Freeride in Summerland, BC. Freerides are events where you just go to skate for fun rather than racing. It's great for those who want to get better at skating, while not dealing with cars on the open road, and with hay bales on the corners. This was where I met members of Coast Longboarding, who had the longest running longboard racing in the world, and were the first to essentially legalize longboard racing. The leader of this group was the one that is building the hostel, and museum I mentioned earlier. This amazing group of people always have a place for me to stay when visiting, they show me around to their hills, and have really taught me so much about the sport, and the history of this great community. But I will save that for another post one day, as this one is turning out to be very long!
Fast-forward To Steemit History
I first joined Steemit December 2017, because I had gotten into trading crypto, and I was investigating what Steem was. I found @SteemSkate and I was hooked! Up to this point I was just making videos to get my local kids excited about skating at our events, but this added some more motivation to get better. Mind you I did end up taking a bit of a break during the crash, and then it took me a while to get the motivation again to post, but that is when I came up with the idea to try to onboard the greater longboarding community. First I decided to become better at posting, so that I could show my success to others as a tool to attract new members.
Just recently I started to work on my pitch to get people to join, but that ended up badly timed with the take over by Justin Sun. I'm hoping now that I can tell people that Hive is controlled by the community, that this will make it easier to get people on board. I think if there is something I am going to work on improving, it's going to be to break down how Hive works in simple terms, as well as to make a good instructional video. Also what better time to get people to join, than when they are stuck at home due to this global quarantine!
Special Thanks To My Followers, Supporters, And Curators!
@Carlgnash
@Curie
@trafalgar
@theycallmedan
@knowhow92
@steemskate
@c-squared
@matt-a
@therealwolf
And many many more!
Check out my previous post which was part of they What Hive Means To Me initiative put on by @theycallmedan
https://hive.blog/hive/@howweroll/what-hive-means-to-me-the-longboard-hive
Great (re)introduction Daryl! I hope some of your longboard peeps make the migration to Hive with you. Fun seeing all the pics. You look good as Jesus LOL
I think he would look even better as Jesus now with his longer beard! Hahaha!
Is that a challenge Daryl?
Yeah that is kinda what I was thinking too! LOL How would Jesus roll LOOOOL
Thanks Carl! Yeah i think I've articulated what I need to do better to reach my longboard friends, which is largely to bridge the knowledge gap.
Yeah I lost the Jesus costume somewhere, otherwise I'd definitely bring it back. My favourite version is dressing as jesus but with zombie makeup on. Everyone loves zombie jesus!
Hahahaha!
The Church of Jesus Christ, Zombie
loved your faces pretty much! up.
My face thanks you!
Hey there daredevil.
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