YOUR AD HERE »

Opinion from Bailey: Summit’s luging long-boarders present risks

Luging longboarders present risks

While I was riding my bike the other day I got to thinking about the debate surrounding longboarders on the bike path. That day, I happened to be starting the climb up to Copper from Frisco and noticed more than one group of longboarders coming down the hill. I do not claim to be an expert, but I felt that they were traveling at speeds fast enough to be near fatal. I acknowledge that anyone can come down that hill at great speeds, and I also acknowledge that the bike path is open for use to everyone, long boarders not excluded. There is huge risk traveling at those speeds, but I would like to note that a biker’s brakes are at his or her fingertips, whereas a longboarder’s are not. In fact, a long board is not equipped with official brakes at all. Perhaps I might be mistaken, but when longboarders travel down a hill at speeds fast enough to be fatal, while riding down on their backs, I fear that stopping the longboard is an incredible challenge. I will not dictate where one can or cannot ride a longboard, but I ask longboarders to consider the risk. When a longboarder speeds around a blind corner to find a mother taking a picture of her child and fails to find control to avoid a collision, the longboarder will not find much empathy. In fact, there might be so little that someone will dictate where you cannot ride a longboard.

Emmett Bailey



Breckenridge


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.