I couldn't help myself...someone posted a link to this on Silverfish longboarding so I made a username to drop in my 2 cents.
If all you see in "longboarding" is hippies with no balance cruising around on long pieces of wood...well...I've got nothing to say to you. There is so much more to "longboarding" than that. For example, how many of you have ever tried doing a 1080 slide at 30mph with your face 5 inches from the ground? Or tried slalom, boardwalking etc etc?
I understand that there is the stigmatism that longboarders are the pussies of skateboarding...but seriously...have any of you ever hit pavement going 55mph? I have, and I can tell you that it's just a tad different than falling off a rail. I don't want to come in here and bag on you guys because street skating is badass in it's own regard. I can't treflip a 5 stair but I bet few if any of you would know what the hell to do if you were going 50mph on a skateboard and had a 180* hairpin turn coming up. Stop being so damn concerned with the image of skateboarding and just go ride whatever it is you want. What the hell do you care if someone gets their kicks by cruising around on a long piece of wood in sandals?
There is so much more to skateboarding than "shortboarding" and "longboarding". You guys may think it's ridiculous when you see people at college cruising around but I assure you that there lots of people getting a kick out of watching 12 year olds throw a hissy fit after messing up a kick flip. So stop worrying about whatever other people are doing...it's all skateboarding.
Love what you do and open up to the concept that there is more to skateboarding than you may think. So yeah, don't be elitists and don't worry about what other people do to enjoy skateboarding.
P.S. I skate the local park everyday and don't wear shell necklaces. I also race Internationally and am sponsered by 2 different companies. Hope that blows your stereotypes to pieces.