These days, when you go to the park, you can see people who ride skateboards easily. But when I decided to learn how to ride a board, I didn’t know where I could learn. There is a club to solve this problem at CWNU. That is the skateboard club, Bono. So The Campus Journal met the leader of Bono.

Q. Hello. Please introduce yourself.

Choi: Hello. I’m Choi Geon Ho (Department of Mechanical Engineering, 24), leader of Bono. Our club name, Bono is an abbreviation of ‘people that are playing on boards’. Bono interacts with not only CWNU students, but also various fields’ office workers, other students and other club people in Changwon. If you are interested in riding a board but can’t ride well yet, I hope you join Bono and develop an ability to ride.

Q. A skateboard club is not common, did you have a motive or opportunity to start a club?

Choi: I think skateboarding is my life hobby and an area of interest. The motive of attention is that I have seen a lot of videos posted on Facebook and YouTube. I saw board videos during my time in the army and immediately fell in love. After that, I started to feel interested in skateboarding and when I got money, I bought a board. Since then, I started to learn in earnest. When I started riding the board, I usually rode alone. By chance, I was able to ride a board with others in Busan. I felt while riding together that I was much happier and energetic than when riding alone. During the semester, I couldn’t go to Busan often, so I rode solo. So I often thought I’d like to ride with someone who has the same hobby. I knew that people who are interested in skateboarding have no place to learn. So I opened a club to help them. I learned how to share the same hobby by doing club activities, and it brought new energy to my life.

Q. What kind of activities do you do?

Choi: We ride the board together and promote friendship activities. Activity is every Thursday. There is a board crew, ‘long night’ in Changwon. They have regular get-togethers every Thursday, so we also ride every Thursday regularly. They have been riding boards a long time and have specialized skills. So we are receiving a lot of help like skill instructions. The main place of activity is in front of the university headquarters and we also ride boards at the X-sports game room or our secret spots. There are no experts in the club, so we are learning with each other. I think we need more instructors, so I plan to invite an outside instructor for one semester or two per semester. Also, during the vacation, I will collect people and ride different boards. Currently, we don’t have extra boards in the club, so we are borrowing club members’ boards and riding. Later, we will buy some boards and we will help people who don’t have one to ride.

Q. I know there’re a lot of different kinds of boards, please explain them briefly.

Choi: The board can be separated by length. The longest is the longboard, next is a skateboard and the last is a cruiser board. Each board has pros and cons and each has different uses. First, longboards are smooth, so they can ride fast. Also, because they’re long, they’re stable. Longboards are mainly used for dancing, riding and downhill. Next, skateboards are agile but are the slowest. They have solid wheels so they make more noise. They’re used for tricks. Last, cruiser boards are the most famous board. Fast pace is their main characteristic and they’re easy to carry. Also, they can switch quickly so they’re used for driving.

Q. Is there anything you want to say to our readers?

Choi: Thank you for your interest. Students who are interested by watching board videos like me or seeing our activities don’t need to hesitate. Our door is open, you can knock anytime. We will do our best to help you. Also we are uploading our activities on Bono’s Facebook page. We are planning to upload a lot, so we hope that many will check it out. I hope you love our club now and forever, I look forward to your interest.

A longboard that has become popular these days

Choi Ga-Yun cub-reporter  rkxnsl@naver.com

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