The reign of bicycling has come to an end, and skateboarding has risen from the ashes of this old kingdom. With their ease of access, skateboards and longboards have made bicycles a thing of the past, at least on campus.
With their sleek design and wide variety, more and more Northwestern students are picking up on the skating trend. Skateboarding has been around since the 40s and from its humble roots in the surfing industry has come to be a staple of transportation at NW.
Joseph Sheetz, Sultan of Skating and top skateboarder at NW, hypothesises why skateboarding has drawn so many.
“I think it is because of the convenience and customizability boards offer,” Sheetz said. “Skateboards and longboards have better maneuverability as opposed to bikes or scooters and are able to get you to your classes faster than on foot.”
Sheetz also noted the creativity skateboards offer.
“They offer a wider variety of customization. For example, you can add stickers of most anything you want to the bottom of your board, whereas on bikes and scooters there’s less space to put decorations such as stickers.”
Perks like these have driven the skating trend forward as the staple of NW transportation.
Skateboards not only have customization and convenience perks, but have also become the transportation method of choice for the coolest of cool in North Suites.
The tradition of a Monday night doughnut run would not be the same without the lines of frosty North Suites boys gliding down the streets of Orange City on their modern chariots.
Count of Coasting Joseph Sheetz is excited about the increased popularity of skateboarding on campus.
“I think it is cool that people are starting to take up boarding more. It gives me the opportunity to have more students willing to learn how to skate properly,” Sheetz said. “I am also happy that skating has finally overtaken scootering and more and more people are starting to use skateboards, longboards and penny boards as opposed to using scooters. I am also pleased that it has become so widely accepted and is starting to become commonplace.”
Such opinions as these are being shared amongst many of the NW students all across campus. Skateboarding has often been seen as a select group of people that have all the right capabilities to ride a skateboard and not fall down a lot.
As many have begun to learn through lessons with the Guru of Gliding, Joseph Sheetz, skating is something that even the less coordinated among us can learn. With time, patience and a willingness to get back up, skateboarding may be the perfect hobby for you.
