Tahoe Quarterly

Longboarding in Kings Beach

Click here for more top athletes' preferred playgrounds

Athlete: Chuck Vogt Buckley
Spot: Kings Beach

For longboarding around local style, I like Kings Beach. The hills are small, but I'm a beach man and there's something about being able to jump out my front door barefoot with a cold beer and weave my way down to the sand that is quite refreshing. My Spanish sucks still, but I enjoy listening to the "La Bamba" while hanging ten through the 'hood.

For some more vert, I walk/skate 30 minutes up Highway 267 to Commonwealth Drive near Kingswood Village Condominiums. I cut through the condos—the homeowners' association doesn't really like that, but I have so much style that they always smile! From there, I work my way down for about 15 minutes—goofing around, throwing surf turns, hitting driveways—until I can cut back to the highway on Cambridge Drive.

Stats: Fifteen-year Tahoe resident Chuck Vogt Buckley is cofounder and owner of Tahoe Longboards, which has a retail location in Kings Beach. In 2004, he cofounded North Shore's Skate the Lake event to benefit Boarding for Breast Cancer, in tribute to his mother, a breast cancer survivor.

Originally published in TQ Best of Tahoe 2008