HYANNIS – Dominique Vazquez zoomed east on the sidewalk next to Main Street on her longboard, an almost three-foot-long type of skateboard, and disappeared into the horizon. Moments later, she was coming back the other direction, crossing Ocean Street.
Dominique Vazquez: “I’ve lived in Hyannis for three years and I haven’t seen another girl yet that skates.”
“I can keep up with a bike on a longboard,” said Vazquez, 19 who lives in Hyannis and in Centerville. “This is a “Sector 9 longboard with Swiss red bearings and big purple Orangatang wheels, four-inches wide that are really squishy,” she said.
“I go up and down Main Street,” she said. “There are five or six of us. They all work at that gas station around the corner.” Vazquez, who was skating alone on this day, said she works as a glass blower.
Dominique Vazquez: “This is a “Sector 9 longboard with Swiss red bearings and big purple Orangatang wheels, four-inches wide that really squishy.”
“I’m the only one of us that’s a girl,” she said. “I’ve lived in Hyannis for three years. I haven’t seen another girl yet that skates.”
Vazquez said she took up skating after seeing a television show featuring professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. On the Christmas when she was 15, she asked for a skateboard. She has since gotten a longboard, which she bought from a friend for $20, she said. A new board can cost $80 on up to hundreds of dollars, she said.
There is a difference between skateboards and longboards, she said. Skateboards are shorter and designed for tricks in skate parks, but lose maneuverability over pebbles, she said. But longboards, can, by her description be used for commuting.
“Yesterday, I longboarded for eight hours,” she said. Vazquez said she has gotten going as fast as 35 miles per hour going down some hills, even in downtown Hyannis.
“This is one of the funnest things you can do with your friends on the Cape for free,” she said.
— Brian Tarcy
