need help, need longboard

[frochild]

I want to carve, like a hardbooter on pavement. The carveboard seems to be the best but it is very expensive and things like the T-board look very cool while being much cheeper. While I can afford the carveboard, I dont want to waist my money. So my question is simple, what is the best board to make me feel like I am on my donek 171 FC?

[tex1230]

check the other recent threads on this.

My vote is for the Gravity Hypercarve...but everyone has an opinion....

[Justin A.]

I can answer your question in less than a sentence.

http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=11235

________

Alaska Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

[Skully]

If you're looking at the Carveboard, don't forget to look at the stik....

Rides just like a carveboard, without the rubber tires. A little more veratile than the original though.

The tierneys are cool, but a little less versatile as far as pushing / transprotation. The only thing I've ridden that comes close to mimicking the carve like the t-board or the Carveboard / Carvestik is a nuclear pickle, but the deck was a little too cheap, but it would do tight carves like the Carve products.

If you watch Fee-bay closely, you can get new Carvestiks for under $200 shipped, I've seen t-boards go for less than $100 shipped, and you can get the Nuclear Pickles for under $100 shipped from retail outlets....

[FTA2R]

would def. agree it is not overly versatile, certainly not practical for any kind of flatland transportation (unless you want that to be a challenge within itself).

re: closest to hardbooting, Tierney recommends you ride with a "traiditional" snowboard skateboard stance with your torso parallel to the hill, basically feet perpendicular to the board. whether or not one can ride the board alpine style, not sure, my common sense tells me yes, with a bit of practice, but b/c the wheels are in the middle of the board, it's not going to be very stable, although if i'm not mistaken the racers ride the t-boards like that. this board def. gains stability with speed. good luck

ps i think tierney has some kind of pretty hot $20 promotion going on now, check their site. also a local shop may carry the other boards for you to check out

[frochild]

I can answer your question in less than a sentence.

I did read that section but that kid has much different needs than I. I dont care for flat land transportation, all I want to do is go down hills. It sounds like the carvestick will do a better job than the T-board though. I will check out the hypercarve. Any more suggestions?

[Justin A.]

I did read that section but that kid has much different needs than I. I dont care for flat land transportation, all I want to do is go down hills. It sounds like the carvestick will do a better job than the T-board though. I will check out the hypercarve. Any more suggestions?

point taken. Like I just said in the other thread, check this out: http://www.beyondtomorrow.com.au/stories/ep28/Skateboard.html

I saw it on the science channel, it's about the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. Even if you don't get one, it's definitley worth a look.

________

Lolol

[RDY_2_Carve]

If you're looking at the Carveboard, don't forget to look at the stik....

Rides just like a carveboard, without the rubber tires. A little more veratile than the original though.

The tierneys are cool, but a little less versatile as far as pushing / transprotation. The only thing I've ridden that comes close to mimicking the carve like the t-board or the Carveboard / Carvestik is a nuclear pickle, but the deck was a little too cheap, but it would do tight carves like the Carve products.

If you watch Fee-bay closely, you can get new Carvestiks for under $200 shipped, I've seen t-boards go for less than $100 shipped, and you can get the Nuclear Pickles for under $100 shipped from retail outlets....

Can you convert your Carveboard into a Carvestick by just swapping out the wheels?

[frochild]

Thanks for all the help, I think I will stick with the carvestick. There are a million great boards to choose from, but the stick seems as good if not better than the rest. Who knows though, I always thought I would only have one snowboard at a time........

[lonerider]

...all I want to do is go down hills. Thanks for all the help, I I will stick with the carvestick. .

Hey... just remember that Carveboards and Carvestiks are *not* designed to go fast. They are great at carving... but are very tippey and hence unstable if you go straight for more than a second. Here is a quote from the website.

The board is not designed for any speed over 15mph it is made for carving up hills rather than bombing them.

For your reference... a regular person can sprint slightly faster than 15 mph. An Olympic runner can run a mile faster than 15 mph.

Personally, I prefer my Loaded Vanguard. Hardbooter.com seems to agree in their review. I have ridden the Carveboard, Carvestik, Tierney Ride, Dirtsurfer, and a bunch of longboards (including the Hypercarve). The next thing I'm going to try and demo is a Flexboard once they get a US distributor.

[Skully]

Can you convert your Carveboard into a Carvestick by just swapping out the wheels?

I've been wondering the same thing. The trucks on the Carveboard are definitely different than on the Carvestik, but I'm sure you could use skateboards wheels with sideset bearings, or if you used wheels with offset or centerset bearings, you'll have to make sure the cutout on the inside of the wheel is big enough to clear the outer parts of the truck. The other problem will probably be that there won't be enough clearance for the rails to clear the ground when doing deep carves with high angles of inclination. If I remember correctly, you can almost burry the rails carving hard with the rubber tires on.

But if it will work, I'm thinking some 97mm flywheels would be fun on a carveboard though, it would definitely cut down some weight and make it easier to push, probably be quite fun on some mellower hills:

I'll check and see if I can swap the "dakone" wheels off of the Carvestick with the Carveboard and let ya know....

[Michael_A]

Hi,

These two boards are much more different than you might think. The stik is closer in size to a regular skateboard. It carves very well and doesn't need a steep slope at all. Because the wheels are relatively small it is relatively easy to overpower it and skid. (I'm sure some riders do this on purpose but I'm no expert.)

The carveboard is much bigger and has really huge sticky wheels. You can rip much much faster on the carveboard in far greater confidence. But it's big enough so it's a little awkward to lug around.

They both come with a great dvd that shows some really good riders on the street. The web site has portions of that video too and will give you a good idea of what they can do.

I bouth a stik and now that I've had it for two years I wish I got the carveboard as it is so much more grippy.

Michael

[frochild]

I actually went with my origional choice which I had forgotton about. Carveboard makes a longboard which is different from their carvestick/surfstick and carveboard. It seemed like the best compromise between all the boards I have been looking at. While I live in an area that only has hills ( not kidding), most of them are not huge. I want to pretend I am a alpiner and keep my body and skills in shape for carving. I am not sure there are other boards that can deliver the same, or better. Being able to go fast is great but not at the compromise of limited carving ability. That being said, my order has not been processed yet and I can go ahead with somthing different if there is somthing that can outmatch this product.

You guys have always helped me out and your advice stopped me from buying the wrong snowboard. While I have looked into things, unless I have ridden them I have no idea what really works the best. Everyone states their model is the best, but I cannot truely figure out what truely is. I do know that there is an article on this website that states the carveboard to be one of the best solutions to summer blues. The article is outdated, from 2000 though.

Thanks for any input. :)

[Skully]

I actually went with my origional choice which I had forgotton about. Carveboard makes a longboard which is different from their carvestick/surfstick and carveboard. It seemed like the best compromise between all the boards I have been looking at. While I live in an area that only has hills ( not kidding), most of them are not huge. I want to pretend I am a alpiner and keep my body and skills in shape for carving. I am not sure there are other boards that can deliver the same, or better. Being able to go fast is great but not at the compromise of limited carving ability.

Thanks for any input. :)

(Edited)

So if I understand you correctly you're talking about the "Long Stik" which is going to ride a lot like the "Surf Stik", or "Twin Stik", only with a slightly larger turning radius.

If there are any Carveboard dealers in your area, they may have demos that you can try out.

As you can tell, I'm a fan of the Carve products. I haven't found another "Traditional" style longboard / skateboard that gives you that deep carving feeling. The closest thing was the Nuclear Pickle - Oh, and the Tierney, but we've already ruled that out.....

[frochild]

thanks for the input! I feel like I made the right choice.

[Skully]

Can you convert your Carveboard into a Carvestick by just swapping out the wheels?

I'll check and see if I can swap the "dakone" wheels off of the Carvestick with the Carveboard and let ya know....

I tried mounting the wheels from a Stik to a Carveboard, and it could work with some modifications to the truck, or you could definitely use side-set skateboard wheels with no modifications. You probably wouldn't want to mount a Carveboard with the smaller urethane wheels though - as mentioned in the earlier post where we discussed this, there isn't enough clearance for the rails of the board to clear the ground when turning. I just mounted up one truck, and left the other with the rubber tires, and I could hit the ground with the rail of the board by stepping on one edge of the board while it was stationary. I guess if you really wanted to mount skate / urethane wheels, you could rig up some risers to get the height needed so as to not burry the rails of the board in the pavement on each carve / turn.

You also need the "Stik" axles, as the spacing on the regular Carveboard hubs is a little wider than the stik wheels, and of course if the carveboards use different bearings than normal skate wheels also (if attempting do do it with normal skateboard wheels, not "dakones")...

[Guest raphael]

Carveboard is really great. I love mine

Surfstik is versatile and cool but it carves less hard and deep (... but you can use it as a slalom board). I love mine too, but more like your everyday wife. The carveboard is more like my secret love.

I never tried the longstik, but i think it might be cool. Longer than the surfstik so i suppose it must have a bigger turn radius, wich helps with stability and enjoyment in the carve. And it must be fast (like the surfstik) but at the price of roadgrip.

Flexboardz are really cool too and feel a lot like alpine (at least that was my impression the only time i tried it)... and it goes fast without woobles.

Here is their website:

http://www.flexboardz.com/homeuk.htm

[Baka Dasai]

I want to carve, like a hardbooter on pavement...So my question is simple, what is the best board to make me feel like I am on my donek 171 FC?

Go back 3 years and I was asking exactly the same question (even had the same Donek). I've done a lot of skating since then, and have pretty much given up on my original aim of replicating carving on snow. I've mostly ridden conventional longboards, and "carving" turns with them is fun, but there's no way you can go as fast, and feel as many Gs as you can on a snowboard. The grip isn't there.

Carveboards have more grip, but they're slow-speed only, and have an insanely tight turning radius. And they're too heavy to lug up the hill more than a couple of times. Definitely fun though.

But I've found myself getting into other forms of skating. First was slalom, which has a lot of similarities to snowboard carving, and then park and pool riding, which I think also shares some similarities (at least when carving the walls rather than doing tricks on the lip).

So I guess I'm saying that you should keep an open mind about your goals. Skateboards can only go so far in replicating the sensation of a carving snowboard, but there's a lot of different, yet similar, stuff you can do on a skateboard.

[Gecko]

so what parks/pools are you riding? Marubra? Bondi? I got to skate Washington St again last week. Man I wish I was a better skater or had more time to exploit that place. I have Groton to play with near work and Whiterock about two miles away but Wash St is another world in comparison.Still the more I skate the better I feel on snow, so I don't think I'll quit anytime soon.

[Baka Dasai]

I've mostly been riding the park at Dulwich Hill, which is pretty nice. I've got a weird skill set for a skater - I've got no problems pumping up speed and carving high up on the walls, but I've only just learnt to kickturn, and still can't do frontside kickturns reliably. And I haven't dropped in yet. :( But it won't be long.

Dulwich Hill:

Here I am right on the edge of traction:

[frochild]

Well, I ended up getting the longstick and I am not disapointed; that thing is a blast!

There are many positives to it: It gets around easitly, speeds up in seconds, carves with no effort, and can take on some monsterous hills. The biggest plus is that it allows me to noodle around my area providing the exersize and off season practice I desire.

The negatives: I knew the carveboard would provide better traction and the ability to do bigger hills over the stick but I did now know it was by leaps and bounds . I have already in a week maxed out almost all the potential of my stick(I am still working on slidding though) and am wishing for more.

Despite all of this, the longstick is worth the money and is great for everyday carving, to be honest there are no hills in my area without a car ride that I cannot handle. The idea for me was to be able to come home and use it like an exersize machine; but I always want to go big. Too bad I cannot afford both.

In the end, if I had to choose between the two, I think the carveboard wins.

[Guest raphael]

In the end, if I had to choose between the two, I think the carveboard wins.

Did you try one ?

The Stiks have their advantages after all:

- faster

- requires less strengh to push, pump or carry

- turns quicker and shorter, so handles the unexpectable easely, and as you already realised nothing is too steep for it (the carveboard requires more width to turn so it tends to take uncontrollable speed with steep and narrow streets)

- lighter and easier to stop, so less danger for you and others around

- cool for cruising, slalom, bowl ... (even go shopping)

All in all its much better for everyday use. ;)

The carveboard is great, but its really ... hardcore. :lol:

If I should keep only one, i'd keep my SurfStik.

... well, that's the wise answer.

I'm not sure i'd be that wise. ;)

[Guest raphael]

Dulwich Hill:

Dammit, i'm super jealous.