Longboard dancing goes viral - 16th October 2020

The sport of longboard dancing has been taking the internet by storm.

Longboard dancing has its origins in the USA in the early 2000s. An international competition has been held annually in the Netherlands since 2013, but due to the pandemic, this year's championship is taking place online.

Lotfi Lamaali, the first winner of the competition, is now a member of the jury, which assesses competitors on their longboarding performances in Instagram videos.

Using the handle Lotfiwoodwalker, Lotfi is followed by 130,000 people on Instagram and more than 380,000 on Tik Tok.

Longboard dancing is not just a sport for boys, as Cassandre Lemoine, vice champion of France in 2019, proves. Her elegant Instagram videos secured her a contract with an advertising agency representing a clothing brand.

With its mesmerising tricks and airborne dance moves, it's no wonder longboard dancing has gone viral. However, its success perhaps owes a debt to social media.