This past Saturday (8th June) was World Oceans Day. Rather than spending my day writing something philosophical and insightful about the state of our oceans I was instead writing on an altogether different subject -though a subject that is also close to my heart.
I'm blogging for the Huffington Post! The story started on Friday when I received a bit of strange text from my friend Tallulah, a local photographer. It went something along the lines of "I have a newspaper editor friend wanting a blog post from a longboarder for the Huffington Post... it has to be done by Monday". My response "I don't really think I'm qualified to talk about longboarding!". As it happens I longboard so that does sort of qualify me and ideas of what I might write began to form. The remit I was given was to write about why I love to longboard and whether the recent accidents involving longboards gave me pause for thought.
There are many reasons that I love to longboard; I like the slightly offbeatness of it and I like the unconventional freedom that I get from it. My board provides me an escape from the slog of grad school and the daily routine. Whether I just get out to skate the neighbourhood, the sea wall or further afield to the Seymour
Demo forest in North Vancouver. So there is no question that I love to longboard.
There are many reasons that I love to longboard; I like the slightly offbeatness of it and I like the unconventional freedom that I get from it. My board provides me an escape from the slog of grad school and the daily routine. Whether I just get out to skate the neighbourhood, the sea wall or further afield to the Seymour
Demo forest in North Vancouver. So there is no question that I love to longboard.
After a couple late nights and re-writes (including one on the ferry as I travelled to San Juan Island) I submitted a final draft to Tallulah's editor friend on Monday morning. Less than 24 hours later there I was... well my writing at least, staring at me from my computer screen. Not in a word document but instead on a webpage, the HuffPost Vancouver webpage.
I think I can say that this is my first publication. While it is not the peer reviewed hard core science article that I had envisioned (that publication process takes a whole lot longer than 24 hours!! my paper has been in press now for 3-4 weeks... I have lost count actually), this is no shabby thing. I mean seriously the Huffington Post?? What a weird and wonderful way to start the week!!
Follow this link to read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/frances-robertson/longboarding-safety_b_3418264.html
I think I can say that this is my first publication. While it is not the peer reviewed hard core science article that I had envisioned (that publication process takes a whole lot longer than 24 hours!! my paper has been in press now for 3-4 weeks... I have lost count actually), this is no shabby thing. I mean seriously the Huffington Post?? What a weird and wonderful way to start the week!!
Follow this link to read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/frances-robertson/longboarding-safety_b_3418264.html
Skate safe not stupid folks!!
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