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Really hated to hear this news as Tom Sims has long been one of my favorite skaters as well as being a huge innovator in the world of skateboarding. Just a few years ago when I started getting back into skateboarding I had my old Sims board re-outfitted with new trucks and wheels. It's a board I've had since I was just a little kid but I'm still riding it to this day thanks to updating it with new equipment. It's a testament to Tom Sims' craftsmanship that it's even still around.

Tom Sims, Skateboard and Snowboard Pioneer Dies


Tom Sims 1950-2012

Tiki Torches wrote:

Middle-aged skateboarders defy family skeptics, and falls
Folks in their 50s are shredding old-school, even pulling rad moves, as a growing
number of grayhairs take up skateboards.


Scott Hostert has heard it all: You're too old. You're nuts.
You don't want to live the rest of your life being fed through
a tube, do you?

Bicycling is also a lifetime sport.  It is also a respected form of transportation in many countries.  It is the most efficient machine ever designed in terms of moving mass for the amount of energy expended.  A bicycle itself — at an approximate weight of 30 pounds without rider — is capable of bearing and moving many times its own weight over distances.  Now add the operator/power plant.  Since the average rider can produce and maintain perhaps a quarter to a third-horsepower of effort over time, the weight-to-power ratio is higher than almost anything other than a jumbo jet¹.

Then of course there are the benefits, not only at the personal level but on a societal level.  More use of bicycles for trips of five miles or less not only pays off in better personal cardiovascular health but also could reduce society's dependence upon motor vehicles for these same trips.  29% of all commuters travel less than five miles to work/school².  Using a bicycle for trips of less than five miles could result in the reduction of over 15 pounds of pollutants in the air per vehicle³.  And with less personal motor vehicles being used, the need to pave over green spaces or tear down housing to permit huge parking lots or parking structures at our schools and businesses would be reduced as well.

As for the long and respected history of cycling, the argument can be made that if it weren't for bicycles we would not have motor vehicles or the extensive system of paved roads that we currently take for granted.  At the turn of the century, both the British-based Cyclist's Touring Club (CTC) and its American counterpart, the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) were extremely vocal in lobbying for improvements to the roads, which at that time were little better that cowpaths or dirt trails.  The earliest motor vehicles borrowed extensively from existing bicycle technology when it came to wheels and the earliest forms of power transmission (chain drive).  And it is a known fact that the first successful powered aircraft was built and flown by Wilbur and Orville Wright — two bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio!!

So if you want to get your exercise and recreation and actually accomplish something at the same time instead of just dicking around on a plywood board with wheels on it, rediscover the joys of cycling.
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¹ - S.S. Wilson, "Bicycle Technology"; Scientific American Mar 1973.
² - http://www.livablestreets.info/facts-and-stats
³ - http://www.csus.edu/org/eso/bicycle.htm

-"BB"-

Bicycle Bill wrote:So if you want to get your exercise and recreation and actually accomplish something at the same time instead of just dicking around on a plywood board with wheels on it, rediscover the joys of cycling.

I've never really been into bicycling but I don't have anything against it either. Nor would I find it necessary to insult anyone that's into it. In the meantime, I'll continue to skateboard. It's not only therapeutic, it's physically fulfilling as well. If you honestly believe that skateboarding is "just dicking around on a plywood board with wheels on it", I suggest you check out this footage.