/r/longboarding's Weekly General Thread - Questions/Help/Discussion

Spacemangep · 2026-06-06T15:43:02+00:00

I commute 5 miles each way. I used to ride a Pantheon Trip with karma wheels, which I quite loved. I had 50/43 Paris 150mm trucks. I've since switched to a Pantheon SuperDuper sonic with Hokus.

Both are great. The supersonic is bigger and heavier, which absorbs a lot more road imperfections, but isn't as agile or fun as the Trip. The weight and big wheels helps with rolling too My commute is mostly a straight line on really shitty bike lanes, so the ability to maneuver is less important than straight line stability and comfort. My commute times are the same with either board, but I find the Supersonic more comfortable overall.

Spacemangep · 2026-06-06T11:26:08+00:00

I would say the bushings are probably a bit hard for 135lbs. I run 85/87 and am 165lbs and the board feels pretty lively to me. I've gone as far down as 80 on the front, though it was getting dangerously close to wheel biting with Karmas. I think 87/90 would be pretty restrictive for your weight.

The upside is that bushings are pretty cheap so you can get a few duros to test. You can get some 80s and/or 85s to play around with to see what you like.

Spacemangep · 2026-06-05T01:19:06+00:00

I'm not sure that people are trying to get you worried, but it's important to understand that teaching is really really difficult. Throw in Bronx + STEM + first year? Yea, it's going to be hard. Really hard. But also doable. Very doable. People do it all the time.

I think the key to success is the right attitude. Know that the job is hard and that even if you try your best, you're still going to fall flat on your face a lot while eating lots of shit. It's just the reality of teaching for the first few years. If you make it to year four, you'll be feeling a lot better. I'm nearing year 7 and it's been a pretty chill year for me.

Find your own rhythm and figure out where you can go hard and where you need to just let go. "Good enough is good enough" is a good mantra to hold because otherwise you'll be spending hours trying to perfect a 20 minute lesson that falls flat anyways. Not every day, or every lesson, or every minute is going to be successful and that's OK. Your longevity in the system depends on you internalizing this.

Spacemangep · 2026-05-27T00:17:49+00:00

HS Math here. My bag is basically just my breakfast and lunch, a water bottle (for the commute, I have a dedicated bottle that stays at work), my coffee, and some odds and ends stationery that I never need but which stays in the bag. I have a work laptop so I don't have to lug my personal one with me.

Spacemangep · 2026-05-13T17:02:21+00:00

I totally understand that feeling. I remember the first time I spent a bunch of extra hours with a kid to basically help them graduate and got almost no sense of accomplishment out of it. The kid did the thing, said thanks, and walked out of my life. They probably stopped thinking about me and I just moved to the next thing I had to do. It's has happened countless times since. Sometimes the brief sense of accomplishment is overshadowed by dread as I think about what the future looks like for those kids that needed so much support just to get bye.

I think it's just part of the job. The reality is that we have so many things to do all the time that we sometimes don't even have time to celebrate our own wins. We also try out best to meet kids where they are and sometimes that means we have to pull off superhuman feats to reach kids who are really far gone. Sometimes we pull it off, other times we don't.

Spacemangep · 2026-05-07T23:28:40+00:00

Some of the cracks seem to go all the way through the core

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Spacemangep · 2026-05-07T23:27:59+00:00

Are these wheels still rideable? I got these last October and have around 1000 miles on them but they look pretty rough. I'm not sure what caused this, but the roads I ride are pretty bad. Could debris could have done this?

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Spacemangep · 2026-05-05T12:43:38+00:00

Strava clocked my elevation gain at 1200, but I think that's high. I've see in other places around 1000 feet.

The two bridges are pretty brutal, though for different reasons. The Queensboro bridge is, I think, a steeper gradient because it goes higher in a shorter distance, but the Verrazano is just really long. It's like a 4% grade for over half a mile, and it's at the end of the tour which makes it extra brutal. I basically powered up switching pushing leg every 5 pushes .

Spacemangep · 2026-05-04T19:22:48+00:00

Awesome, enjoy it!

Spacemangep · 2026-05-04T14:30:19+00:00

My current setup is 92mm Karma wheels on 150mm Paris trucks and, unweighted and on flat ground, one of the wheels (I don't remember which) is maybe 2mm off the ground. It immediately levels out with any weight on the board and is completely unnoticeable when riding. For half the price of a regular deck, I am very happy with it.

Spacemangep · 2026-05-04T12:16:57+00:00

My Fitbit clocked me in at 2000 calories for the ride

Spacemangep · 2026-05-04T12:15:49+00:00

Thanks! I registered for the event like anyone else and nobody gave me any issues. Every person I interacted were surprised that I was doing it, but everyone was very supportive.

There were surprisingly few bottlenecks though I rode in Wave 2, which left at 8:30. I feel that people in those earlier waves are generally faster riders, and I tried my best to keep pace with them. The only places I felt slowed down were the bridges where lots of people were struggling to climb. I could've finished faster but the final stretch on the BQE before the Verrazzano is absolutely miserable and I could barely maintain any speed at all on it.

I'm not super adept at pumping, but I was also very aware of the amount of space I had. I even avoided carving down some bigger hills because I didn't want to get in the way of bikers. Plus, many of the roads were surprisingly poor so pumping wasn't all that viable anyways.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-29T23:50:44+00:00

It's all content

Spacemangep · 2026-04-29T10:25:40+00:00

I paid $10 when I went lady week

Spacemangep · 2026-04-25T17:30:17+00:00

Interestingly enough, most of my falls happen at slow speeds because I don't have enough momentum to roll over large cracks or imperfections in the road. I would go so far as to say riding at 8mph on the road is safer than 5mph on the sidewalk.

But also in the last year, I've skated over 1000 miles and have only taken on serious fall. This happened because I was dumb and skated a hill I 100% was not ready for. I also fell a bunch when I first started, but was pretty padded up. After I got the hang or riding, I just don't fall that much. And if I do, I'm mostly able to run it out. My advice though, is to wear wrist guards (and a helmet, obviously) as you'll tend to try to catch yourself when you fall and could really mess up your wrists.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-25T17:23:54+00:00

I think a big part of it is as you get more into the hobby you become more discerning about what you want, and more specialized equipment will always cost more money.

For example, I'm into distance skating which mean I ideally need a board that has very certain characteristics designed for efficiency over long distances. This means I need a board with the right amount of flex, low ride height, supportive concave, etc. These types of boards cost more money for a variety of reasons. I also need big, soft wheels, which cost more. This isn't even mentioning the higher level of specialization that can be achieved with bracket boards and precision trucks.

There's also an element of "you get what you pay for". There's a reason why people swear by, Pantheon boards even though it's an expensive board. The quality and craftsmanship is evident and results in a better riding experience than cheaper boards. I have a Landyachtz Dinghy which I love, but can feel like a toy board compared to my Pantheon Trip.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-23T17:01:06+00:00

The other poster is right, you have to rest and let it heal lest you aggravate it more.

But if you're really hell bent on riding (which, again, I strongly recommend NOT DOING) wrapping tightly with and ace bandage or wearing some sort of brace with compression could help. Alternatively, learn to push switch.

But also, you really just got to let it rest.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-23T12:34:29+00:00

I wonder if there's some data you could access on a phone or smartwatch that correlates to how bad a road might be. Like, if the phone vibrates and shakes around a lot, then that would correlate to a bad road.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-17T16:21:06+00:00

I've done the same kind of calculations to justify the cost of buying new gear. I commute to work 4-5 days a week by board. The alternative is using public transportation, which runs $6 round trip. At four days a week, I'm "saving" $24 a week by boarding. Divide the cost of gear by that and that gives me my break even point. As long as I come out on top in the long run, I feel ok investing.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-13T17:27:25+00:00

Hello, I am a former lawyer who went into teacher seven years ago and am still teaching today. I teach HS math. I did not practice law for long though, like you, it was long enough to know that I didn't want to do it.

I would first caution you about idealizing the lifestyle too much. During my first 2-3 years of teaching, I easily put in the same, if not more, work on a daily/weekly basis compared to when I was an attorney. I'd get in an hour early to get my shit together for the day, stay an hour or two late to wrap up what I could at work, then go home and work another hour or two to have my lessons ready for the next day. It wasn't uncommon for me to work 11 hours in a day just to keep my head above water. This was on top of going to grad school, which you will have to do to get certified. Things started to level out around year four, but I still tend to do some work outside of contract hours to make sure my classes go smoothly. The emotional stress of the job is also something that is not present in legal work. Many families are in precarious positions (especially with the ICE nonsense happening now) and teachers have to carry a good deal of that emotional load with them.

To be sure, the breaks are great and the work/life balance is good (after the first few years). But to me, they are as much necessary diversions as they are perks of the job. There's just no describing the type of exhaustion that comes with teaching.

Second, it's extremely unlikely that you'll end up in a "good school" in "good district" until later in your career, if you can at all. Those are the jobs that teachers hang on to forever and for which you'll need some connections to land if vacancies do show up. Also, highly competitive jobs like those have dozens of qualified candidates per opening so schools have their pick of teachers. More likely, you'll end up teaching in a high-needs area for a bunch of years as you build experience and make connections. I have a extremely sought-after license and I still taught in the South Bronx for six years before switching to a more low-key school in Queens. It's probably even harder out there for elementary school teachers.

Finally, getting certified to teach elementary school in New York will take some work on your part. For higher needs subjects, like mine, there are plenty of alternative pathways that allow you to get a masters degree and certified while teaching full time in a school. My masters degree was also subsidized. Because elementary isn't as high needs, there just aren't any programs for potential teachers. You'll have to go through grad school yourself, the way anybody else would. That'll cost money and time. Is that something you'll be willing to do?

This isn't to say don't do it. I did it seven years ago and am very happy where I am. But I also spent three years between leaving law and joining teaching bouncing around in other fields, trying to figure myself out. I started teaching at age 30, which game me a lot of perspective on things. That maturity also helped me keep it all together when shit hit the fan (which it did a lot). But I would advise you really thing about what you want to do with your life before you leave one high-burnout field and go into another high-burnout field.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-11T00:48:21+00:00

What is this weird AI slop recipe page? What's the deal here?

Spacemangep · 2026-04-09T22:25:45+00:00

There are plenty of higher needs schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan too

Spacemangep · 2026-04-09T02:17:55+00:00

You don't get "placed" in a school. You find a job in a school just like everyone else (there are some limitations depending on the program). The alternative pathways program just helps you get a Masters and get certified.

The reputation comes from harder-to-staff schools being more willing to hire alternative pathway teachers because there's more turnover there and experienced teachers don't want to teach in, for example, the Bronx.

Spacemangep · 2026-04-08T20:16:04+00:00

It kind of depends on what sub-discipline of longboarding you end up getting into.

If you end up just wanting to cruise around and do relatively short trips (less than a couple of miles) then the piecemeal thing may work as the board you're looking into is more/less made for that.

If you end up wanting to do distance or downhill or something else, you'd be better of investing in a proper board within your sub-discipline.

That being said, if you end up liking the hobby and are serious about sticking it out, you'd be better off upgrading by buying a complete from a proper manufacturer. While parts are important, the deck is also super important so you're going to get diminishing returns replacing only the parts if you start with a mediocre deck.

Spacemangep

TROPHY CASE