Moment: A long quest for adrenaline

Drean Whitener drops a hand for extra stability while blazing around a corner on his longboard in North Chattanooga.
Drean Whitener drops a hand for extra stability while blazing around a corner on his longboard in North Chattanooga.

Drean Whitener has been flying down hills since his 13th birthday, when he first received a longboard. Since then, he's skated every day and has even become a sponsored rider.

He goes to competitions quite frequently, with his most recent taking him all the way to Massachusetts. He prefers freeride events, which are more focused on powersliding, where it's not as much about going down the hill as it is about going sideways downhill.

"The longboard scene in Chattanooga is pretty small and undeveloped. It's mostly like casual riders, people who use it for transportation like to and from class, really leisurely," said Whitener, 19. He said only a handful of people in the city want to zip down mountains and go fast.

"I'm hooked on that adrenaline rush," said Whitener, who moved here four months ago from Birmingham, Ala.

He described riding his board down Signal Mountain Boulevard in the middle of the night as his craziest ride here in Chattanooga. He and a group of friends rode down the mountain in front of chase cars with their headlights at full blast. He also has a video of himself riding down Scenic Highway from the top of Lookout Mountain, past Ruby Falls to the bottom.

Despite his thirst for speed, Whitener says steps are always taken to be as safe as possible.

"In terms of safety, you know, I can't speak for everyone, but the people I skate with, we wear helmets and slide gloves. And usually when we're out skating live roads, which they all are, we do our best to stay in our lanes, do our best to spot corners if we can; we have cars follow us. Just really try to stay alert, be visible, yield to cars and do our best to be really aware of the road."

Whitener said people in the neighborhood are usually quite friendly and some even bring out their cameras to take pictures. But it only takes one person to call and complain for the boarders to be kicked off the road, he said.

"Getting kicked off hills is my least-favorite part of longboarding," said Whitener. "It's kind of a bummer. It's what I like to do; I know a lot of other people like to do; it sucks to see it banned."

He describes longboarding as a great way to get outside and do something fun and active. Despite how reckless the sport may seem, he said that when he's going down a hill, there's a sense of quiet calm, where he's focused on the moment.

"The wind gets in your eyes, you start like crying, getting pretty emotional. You're like shaking at the bottom of the hill, but you always go back up for more," Whitener said.

photo Drean Whitener drops a hand for extra stability while blazing around a corner on his longboard in North Chattanooga.

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