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.
I think I'd go for that Crooked. Dual WB boards always feel kinda fucked up on the inner wheelbase.
ReplyDeleteI've actually had the BLKLBL deck for awhile now, and have been riding it with the outer 15" WB base. I'll toy around with both (inner and outer, and the Krooked) sometime in the near future.
DeleteI find 15" to be a workable wheelbase for me.
DeleteFollowing-up on this. So, with that 8.75 popsicle I mentioned in this post, the 14.62 wb seemed too big and clunky for me. However, that Black Label deck set to the 15" wb seems to ride really, really, really nice. I can only attribute it to the ratios (e.g. 15" wb works better on on the much wider Label deck).
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