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 used on a daily bases, 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.
