While walking to class, a lot of students use longboards as a way to cut their time getting across campus. Longboarding can give people an adrenaline rush while riding down a hill or it can bring friends closer together. Some students shared the reasons why they do it. 

 “I normally just don’t walk unless I’m talking to someone and walking to class — anytime I would be walking, I’m longboarding on campus,” said Geoffrey Purcell, a freshman in political science. 

Purcell has been longboarding since his freshman year of high school and uses it as his primary method to get to class. 

“When I walk, I feel like I’m going too slow,” Purcell said. “Just because I longboard so often in between classes, the distance I feel like campus is on a longboard is a lot shorter than when I walk.” 

One of the obstacles when riding on-campus is avoiding the sea of people, which can be a challenge, Purcell said. He said while he is riding through campus, he has to be more observant than the common student. Purcell looks out for students who may be distracted as well as groups of people, which can be a bigger obstacle. 

“I look pretty far ahead when I’m longboarding,” Purcell said. “[…] I try to look for people who are not observant and then slow down for them preemptively.” 

While going to class, Purcell said he did not know where to put his longboard during his first year and figured it out as the school year progressed. 

“You just put it on a wall — you just put it anywhere because the professor really doesn’t care,” Purcell said. “That’s the thing I learned, I used to put it under my chair and then I learned no one cares so I just put it in the front of the classroom near the door.”

As Purcell is one of the many students who longboards on-campus, freshman Kira Simmons is another student who longboards, and said she longboards during her free time and avoids campus. Simmons said she enjoys to skate during the night to avoid the crowd during the day. 

“I think my favorite routes are just going around random empty neighborhood streets at night so you have them all to yourself,” Simmons said. 

The reasons why both Purcell and Simmons longboard are very similar — they said they enjoy the adrenaline rush as well as the efficiency. 

“My favorite part is that it’s something that brings friends together to just get outside and explore,” Simmons said. “It’s also just an easy transportable way of transportation.”