Wheelbase, Madness, and a Modern Shaped Deck

I've been going through a bit of the "madness" again recently, which is to say I've been tweaking things on my set-ups a bit. I kind of hate when I do this. It never lasts all that long, but for short bursts I perseverate over nuanced differences that seemingly have little to no impact in the real world (of my skateboarding)--they just make my skateboard feel a bit different. I imagine these little "episodes" of mine are what people who have full blown OCD have to deal with every day, and man, what a nightmare that would be. 

But this time, a minor nuance actually had some real impact.  

Prior to this current "episode" I had long known 14.38" was good wheelbase for me. Or rather, anything below it and I started to feel really cramped-up and hobbled. I have a bigger board (8.75") with a 14.62" wb that I liked a lot, and I rode that around as my "bigger" board. Well, I recently ended up with an 8.75" Black Label deck with a 14.5" wb, and wow, what a difference. 

I'll save you all the details, but I realized that if I want to use the nose and the tail of a deck, on a single trick (e.g. nollie to tail slide, ollie to nose wheelie, endovers, etc.),  that 14.62" is just a tad to big for me. My ideal "stable zone" is a 14.38" or 14.5" wheelbases. I had known what the lower limit was, but didn't really know the upper limit. Now I do. So, I learned something new, and very useful, this time around. It also means I'm going to consciously change the way I skate on the 8.75/14.62 deck (e.g. I'll be skating it more in a directional type manner, with far less of nose/tail type tricks mentioned above). 

I'm also in the process putting together a "modern shaped" set-up. It won't be something I use on a daily basis, but I just want to have one for fun, and cruising. I narrowed it down to two contenders, the Black Label "Street Thing" and the Krooked 9.81 deck (one on the right). I rode both tonight for a bit, and after a very quick (and very tired) curb session, I think I am leaning towards the Black Label--it's just feels a bit better, more balanced, and "fun." Anyway, more on that later. 

 

Kicking Off a New Blog

 So, I started a new blog, which can be found here. The new blog is mostly going to focus on cultural, historical, philosophical, and existential musing of being an "older" skater. I will certainly still keep posting more general skate stuff (product reviews, DIY stuff, etc.) here, but the more personal stuff will be over on the new blog. 

First Ride: Spitfire Classics 54mm 93a

 

First Ride: Spitfire Classics 54mm 93a

Powell shook things up last year with their “Dragon Wheel.” They claimed it was a softer wheel for crust, but still slid/rode like a harder wheel. Dragon wheels gained a cult following from most of the same types are ride Andy Anderson decks. I have never owned a set of Dragon wheels, and I never will.

 

Recently Spitfire has jumped into this mid-range softer wheel market. It’s not the first time they have done this. They made the “Soft D’s” wheels about 10 years ago, which came in 95a and 92a, if I recall correctly. They didn’t sell well, and were discontinued. Spitfire also makes the 80HD wheels, which have been around for awhile now. These are really soft, and more for SERIOUS crust, or as a filmer/cruiser wheel. Spitfire also makes a 97a in their Classic and Conical Full shapes. And, Spitfire also makes a 90a wheel in their “Sapphire” series. Suffice to say, Spitfire offers a lot (too many??) options.

 

I went to Texas two years ago, and knew I was going to be skating some crusty ditches. My usually 99a Classics might be a bit too hard for those situations. So, I bought a set of the 97a Classics for that trip. Those wheels were great for crust, and I started using them for rougher spots in my local area, too.

 

Now, these 93a wheels are out. Much internet consternation has surfaced about how the 97a and 93a compare to each other. I figured I give them a shot, considering how much I liked the 97s (in some situations). People seemed to be saying the 93a was actually better overall than the 97a. Are they?

 

So, my set of the 93a came yesterday. I skated them today for a while, in place where they should perform *the worst*: a smooth skatepark. Here are my thoughts:

 

Speed: Slower than my 99a, but not nearly as much as I expected, and this kind of shocked me. I was expecting something really sluggish, and they were not, at all. They had great speed for a 93a wheel. No real complaints here.

 

Sound: I hate the sound of soft wheels. They created this water-logged thud noise, and these certainly had the “soft wheel sound” to them. I was not a fan of this.

 

Feel: I am also not a big fan of how soft wheels feel. They are spongey, bouncy, gooey, and don’t feel as responsive as harder wheels. The 93a Spitfires also had a lot of this going on, but again, not as bad as I expected. Didn’t hate it, but def liked the feel of my 99a better.

 

Grip/Slide: Soft wheels grip. A lot. Everyone knows that. To that end, I was surprised by 93a Spits. They certainly had some grip, but I also didn’t have ANY problem with them doing revert tricks on the ramps. I was expecting these tricks to be really compromised by softer wheels, but they simply were not. However, they also did grip a bit more when I wanted them to. In my older years, F/S rock n rolls on ramps have become a “MEH” trick for me. I now stall them out too long, and don’t snap them around fast enough anymore. The result is that I sometimes bail them because I start sliding/slipping down the ramp when I am half-way out of them. Even when I do make them, they feel “slippy” turning back in. With the 93a Spits, my f/s rocks felt totally “locked,” and were the most confident ones I’ve done in years, because the wheels gripped a bit more.

 

Grinds: I didn’t notice and real stick on grinds. Feeble/smith grinds on a two-sided curb felt fine. As did 50-50s and 5-0s on ledges. No issue with side of wheel grabbing against the edges.

 

Nose/Tailslides: Didn’t have a problem with these. If you ride Thunder trucks (e.g. shorter baseplate), you may have a different outcome.

 

Lipslides/Boardslides/Blunt slides on 1-sided Ledge: Did not try any of these. TBA. My gut says there will be stick problems, because of how they powerslid (see below), but my gut was also arong about a lot with these.

 

Powerslides on Flat: Def more grippy than my 99a, but I could make them slide, but not as good.

Overall, they performed much better than I expected them to *at a smooth skate park*, which is NOT what they are really designed for. The real test is going to be when I get them in some real crust later this week…if the rain goes away. More later.

How to Do a B/S Slappy

 

How to Do a B/S Slappy

Here is a “How-To” I wrote for a b/s slappy. The principle is basically the same for f/s, the mechanics are just slightly different.

 

(1)  Find a tiny curb. We are talking REAL small here. 1” – 2”. No higher than two inches. If possible, find a slanted one (like they have in California). If you can’t find a slanted one, no worries. Just make sure the one you found is 2” tall or shorter.

(2) Wax the fuck out of that curb.

(3) Go to an empty part of a parking lot. Once you are there, tighten the fuck out of your trucks. Yes, I said tighten your trucks. Stay with me on this one.

 

(4) Do some backside carves, really flexing those ankles, and pointing those toes down. Your trucks should be so tight now that both your heel-side wheels lift up in the air. You should be carving on just your two toe side wheels. Do this a bunch so that you can easily go up on to your toe side wheels whenever you want.

 

(5) Loosen your trucks up again. Get them back to where you had them before.

(6) Go back over to that tiny curb. Approach the curb at about a 45-degree angle, with a decent speed. Have your weight slightly ahead of your feet. Knees bent/and crouching down a tad.

 

(7) Just as your front heel side wheel is about to slam into the curb, do that same motion you did with the really tight trucks to carve up onto two wheels. Shift/thrust your hips toward the front of the board, so that they “catch up” with your shoulders (which were slightly ahead of your hips/feet), as your do this, also swing your back leg around (almost as if front leg was the pivot point) to help get the back trucks up on the curb. MAKE SURE that your shoulders stays in a parallel line directly over the curb. If your shoulders are too “open” (not parallel) it is MUCH harder to get your back truck on top of the curb. There is a LOT going on here, all at once, and they are very subtle motions. Getting the weight distribution, weight shift, speed, angle, and shoulders to all go as one, I think, is one of the reasons slappies are literally the HARDEST tricks to teach.

 

(8) Once up there, grind away until you want to come off.

 

(9) Find a SLIGHTLY taller curb, and repeat the same process.

 

Note: The textbook definition of a slappy makes NO USE of the tail to lift the front truck onto the curb, and NO USE of the nose to lift the back truck up, either.

 

Note on F/S Slappies: On f/s slappies, the shoulders are SUPER important. Not to scare you, but f/s slappies can produce some NASTY slams. What often happens on those slams is this sequence of events: (1) you get the front truck up, but the back truck doesn't make it, (2) the rear toe side wheels bounce off the curb, (3) the back end of your board then slides around, turning the board 90 degrees (e.g. board goes into a f/s railside position), (4) rear truck then catch against the curb and board stops dead, (5) since your feet are now twisted a bit under your torso, it is next to impossible to "run out" of, (6) This sends you flying backwards toward your hip/back/forward elbow. Slams like this are bad enough on flat ground, but now you also have the edge of a curb to look out for. Making sure that rear shoulder gets parallel with the curb, when "slapping" into it, can help avoid this sequence of events. Leaving the rear shoulder "open" is almost an invitation for this type of the slam.

 

Note on Wheels Size & Shape: Larger wheels make it easier to roll over/slap-up a curb. Wheels with a more rounded profile (e.g. Spitfire Classic type shape) make slappies easier than a more squared-off shape (e.g. Spitfire tablets).

The Best Skate Photo I've Ever Seen

I’ll be writing more about this photo in the future, but for now, I’ll say that this one of the best skate photos I’ve ever seen. No pros. No fancy skate parks. No gnarly tricks. It captures something so pure. The "YEAH” face of the kid on the platform, for “just” a simple kickturn grind. In its most elemental form, this is the magic of skateboarding, that any skater can relate to and/or knew at one point in their life. 

 

 

Rediscovering What I Had Already Known

I saw a post on the SLAP forums that sent me down an introspective rabbit hole: What are (skate-related) things you were too cool for as a kid, that you now appreciate and/or love?

A few of mine: Tony Hawk. Skating transition. Watching vert. Side rails. Pads. "Basic" tricks. Non-traditional forms of skating. Shitty ramps. The joy of just rolling.

The irony here, is those are all things I really liked/loved as a very young kid, and then "lost interest" in as I got a bit older. Now that I am much older, I realize how much the very young version of me actually knew. Everything is a circle, and I'm grateful for that.

The Subtle is the Most Profound

Pre-Socratics. Plato. Hume. Kant. Heidegger. Kierkegaard. Frankl. Tao Teh Ching. Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Bible. The Four Noble Truths. Transcendentalism. Camus. Native-American mythology. Dostoyevsky. Dr. Suess. Calvin & Hobbes. Yoko Ono. I‘ve read/studied it all. 

Everything you need to know about the meaning of life...can be found in this photo.