Dan Day and Aubrey Churchman, senior psychology majors, like to spend their free time longboarding down the hills of William Jewell College’s campus and the neighborhood where they grew up.
“Our neighborhood is basically like a mini skate park for longboarding,” said Day.
I had the chance to talk to Day and Churchman outside the main entrance of the Pryor Learning Commons at the bottom of the one of the hills down which they frequently skate.
“Around here there’s different types of hills. There’s this one that’s pretty small and then this one that’s really large, so you get a good variation of difficulty. It’s pretty cool because there’s some pretty gnarly hills on campus, but there are some that are just fun to cruise down,” said Churchman.
Day and Churchman shared one of their favorite memories of longboarding together.
“We longboarded for like 2.5 miles barefoot over the summer in our hometown neighborhood. This summer we become one with the board,” said Day.
Longboarding isn’t all just fun and games. Sometimes you have to fall. Both Churchman and Day had what they called good “crash” stories.
“It was beginning of last summer I was on one of those small penny boards that Aubrey rides around on and it had these really slick wheels on it and we were going down this hill that you probably get up to like 20-25 on at the peak. I had a backpack on and wobbled out and flew for probably like 10 feet on the ground,” said Day.
Churchman told of a time after he had just gotten back from vacation and was eager to start skating again.
“I was skating on the dock because I was like ‘Dude I cannot wait to just skate,’ … and as I’m pushing I hit this crack and fall over completely and hit the ground and then my board just flips into the water and sinks to the bottom of the lake,” said Churchman.
Day was quick to add that he remembers Churchman’s excitement to start skating that was quickly ruined by his board sinking, an event that left both of them speechless.
All photos taken by Chandler Eaton.
