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clear grip tape on a longboard?


Arclite

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Me and my pops are making a few longboards for the summer season.

We stained the wood and we're wondering if we should put some grip tape on, but I dont want black, or blue, or any color because we want the wood showing.

I know there is clear grip tape, but would it be bad to put it on a board that has urethane coatings on it?

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Arc: hey, you might try some other option than clear grip. On at least two of my longboards, the manufacturer used silica/epoxy or some facsimile of that combination. It's very grippy and is part of the finish of the top of the decks. I bet Gecko has this dialed in and can tell you how to do it.

The clear grip would be OK as long as you kept it clean. Otherwise, it will pick up dirt, asphalt, whatever is on your skate shoes. Good luck!

Mark

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there is good clear grip tap but its not as clear as going the permanent route

Tread tex or what ever your local home depot is selling for texture additive, put it in a salt shaker and a shake over a wet coat of acrylic poly/sparvarnish and repeat until the desired amout of grip is achieved, I was happy with 3 coats when I did it

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there is good clear grip tap but its not as clear as going the permanent route

Tread tex or what ever your local home depot is selling for texture additive, put it in a salt shaker and a shake over a wet coat of acrylic poly/sparvarnish and repeat until the desired amout of grip is achieved, I was happy with 3 coats when I did it

Sounds too time-consuming.

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Arc: I'm confused. You took the time to make some decks that you wanted the wood to show through on the top. Now, it's too much of a hassle to sprinkle some silica on top of some spar-varnish? Sheesh, man.

The clear grip will work so just stick with that. The urethane finish of your decks will help the adhesive of the griptape to stick a bit more. Plus, it should 'release' if you choose to change grip. Milehighskates.com and Longskate.com both carry clear grip. Daddiesboardshop does, too. Good luck.

Mark

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Arc: I'm confused. You took the time to make some decks that you wanted the wood to show through on the top. Now, it's too much of a hassle to sprinkle some silica on top of some spar-varnish? Sheesh, man.

The clear grip will work so just stick with that. The urethane finish of your decks will help the adhesive of the griptape to stick a bit more. Plus, it should 'release' if you choose to change grip. Milehighskates.com and Longskate.com both carry clear grip. Daddiesboardshop does, too. Good luck.

Mark

Dad is making the boards at his house right now. I don't live with him, I live with my mom. He's probably putting on the urethane as I'm typing this. In other words, I would have to apply extra layers of urethane and sprinkle stuff on the board.

I'm probably gunna head over to the local sport chalet. That's where I got clear tape for my deck with a blue top.

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Dad is making the boards at his house right now. I don't live with him, I live with my mom. He's probably putting on the urethane as I'm typing this. In other words, I would have to apply extra layers of urethane and sprinkle stuff on the board.

i'm the Dad making the board, i just applied the second coat of marine spar varnish about 2 hours ago and i was going to put 2 more coats on it anyway, i think i will follow Gecko's advice, i'll look for some tread tex tomorrow and i'll do 2 or 3 coats with it so the board might be ready sunday instead of saturday, you can wait an extra day son

thanks everybody for all the tips, it's looking good so far, i will post pictures when i'm done

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i was done sooner than i thought, a couple of fans and the windows open made the drying process between coats a lot faster, here it is, i call it the SUMMERSTICK

total lenght 46 inches

waist 8.5 inches

wheelbase 31 inches

SCR is a secret like Kessler and Virus

i'm happy with the final product but opinions are welcome

i'll be making more and eventually i'll learn how to ride, next one will probably be a twintips

post-6353-141842282608_thumb.jpg

post-6353-141842282609_thumb.jpg

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CC: First, cool ride! I love the swally treatment. BTW, Summerstick is what Dmitri Milovich (Winterstick) called his first production skateboards that he made in SLC. It's nice to see the name re-born, especially on a longboard deck with a swallowtail.

With the waist measuring in at 8.5 inches, what angles are you going to run? Any cants we should know about. And OH YEAH, did you de-camber the nose? That's going to be real important in keeping the nose biting. Good job!

Mark

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With the waist measuring in at 8.5 inches, what angles are you going to run? Any cants we should know about. And OH YEAH, did you de-camber the nose? That's going to be real important in keeping the nose biting. Good job!

Mark

:lol:

Dad: How does the grip of the silica/texture additive feel?

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CC: First, cool ride! I love the swally treatment. BTW, Summerstick is what Dmitri Milovich (Winterstick) called his first production skateboards that he made in SLC. It's nice to see the name re-born, especially on a longboard deck with a swallowtail.
i am not a skateboarder and i don't know much about the history of skateboarding, when i decided to make a longboard i wanted to make something that no other kid in the neighborhood would have so i was looking at a pintail shape and i thought it would look cool with a swallowtail and when i was done it reminded me of the winterstick and i had no idea the name summerstick belonged to skateboards already

With the waist measuring in at 8.5 inches, what angles are you going to run? Any cants we should know about. And OH YEAH, did you de-camber the nose? That's going to be real important in keeping the nose biting. Good job!

i honestly cannot answer those questions because i'm not even sure what they mean, i don't know anything about angles, cants or de-camber for skateboard or longboard, i just grabbed a piece of wood, some generic trucks and wheels and put it together hoping it would work, my son will be the official tester, would you have any links or would you know where i can find information about what works why and for what purpose, i know i will make more, i would like to know more about performance besides the look of the deck, any help will be appreciated
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i honestly cannot answer those questions because i'm not even sure what they mean, i don't know anything about angles, cants or de-camber for skateboard or longboard, i just grabbed a piece of wood, some generic trucks and wheels and put it together hoping it would work, my son will be the official tester, would you have any links or would you know where i can find information about what works why and for what purpose, i know i will make more, i would like to know more about performance besides the look of the deck, any help will be appreciated

I'm pretty sure he was joking.... :smashfrea

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He was just teasin' because it's snowboard shaped!

But have you tuned the oscillation rate for optimal vibration dispersion? Dialed the individual angles of each directional fiber in the duodecilliaxial vectran-zylon composite?

Cool stuff! Don't try and ollie that stick, it'll end up an asym! Speaking of which, since I look kinda like your son, would you mind making me a goofy asym longboard before you get sick of making them? Pleeeeeeeeeeease? :p

duodecillion - 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

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I'm pretty sure he was joking.... :smashfrea

actually i wasn't not joking,

i have a vivid imagination and i can get creative as far as looks and shapes of the deck but i don't know the difference between trucks or wheels, which one is for slalom or downhill, which wheels have more grip and why, does the wheelbase lenght affect the radius of the turn? all of this is unfamiliar territory for me, i'm not a skateboarder or a board builder, that was my first attempt and i had fun doing it

would you mind making me a goofy asym longboard before you get sick of making them? Pleeeeeeeeeeease? :p

just give me an idea of lenght and width and i'll see what i can do, i just cant promise you a delivery time though

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actually i wasn't not joking,

i have a vivid imagination and i can get creative as far as looks and shapes of the deck but i don't know the difference between trucks or wheels, which one is for slalom or downhill, which wheels have more grip and why, does the wheelbase lenght affect the radius of the turn? all of this is unfamiliar territory for me, i'm not a skateboarder or a board builder, that was my first attempt and i had fun doing it

I was talking about the cant's and angles that UC was talking about.... :smashfrea

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Andrea- you can get plenty of "truck theory" right here http://www.randal.com/guides_faq.html

Plenty of info to get you started there. EDIT: We nixed the Mammoth trip, and I'll be on the puter for the better part of the day doing some recording. If you want I can answer any questions on the fly on either of the messenger accounts listed in my profile.

Generous enough to make me a custom summerstick? How cool is that?!

I'm thinkin a 29.5 length with a 21.5 WB and an 8 waist..but, for fun's sake, mind trying negative sidecut instead of the usual positive sidecut on a skateboard?

Maybe along the lines of a Hot Logic WC sorta shape just like my dear old auntie used to ride way back when.

asym.jpg

I like off-the wall skateboard shapes.

On the topic of cants, Gecko or Wavechaser (or both) have made some posts about kicktails or foam kicks on slalom decks and their advantages which are on the same lines of what we get on an alpine deck.

In fact, there is some info and pictures of a cant/lift setup in this ISSA thread. http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3360&highlight=block

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Sorry for the late reply here guys!

As you may have already deduced, my post above was 'tongue-in-cheek' for my questions as to 'de-cambered nose' and 'what angles?'. As to the reference to Winterstick and Summerstick, I was simply pointing out that the name summerstick had been previously used and that it was NICE to see it re-vamped (30 years later).

Sorry for any misunderstandings.

Mark

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CC: First, cool ride! I love the swally treatment. BTW, Summerstick is what Dmitri Milovich (Winterstick) called his first production skateboards that he made in SLC. It's nice to see the name re-born, especially on a longboard deck with a swallowtail.

With the waist measuring in at 8.5 inches, what angles are you going to run? Any cants we should know about. And OH YEAH, did you de-camber the nose? That's going to be real important in keeping the nose biting. Good job!

Mark

Mark, I do remember the "Street Sticks" by Dimitri M. / Winterstick ?

The late great Bob Turner built "Summerski" skateboards.

Bryan

post-198-14184228263_thumb.jpg

post-198-141842282632_thumb.jpg

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Bryan, thanks for the great photos of the old Streetsticks that Milovich produced. BTW, I have to tell you that I rode a production model of a Streetstick 8-Wheeler (Think Toft/Sims 8 Wheeler on steroids) in the early 1980's at a now defunct skatepark in Sandy, Utah and I know the guy who still owns it. He won't answer his phone when I call him because he knows what I want to buy from him.

Maybe one day?

Mark

Sorry for the thread-jack, CC and Arclite.

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Bryan, thanks for the great photos of the old Streetsticks that Milovich produced. BTW, I have to tell you that I rode a production model of a Streetstick 8-Wheeler (Think Toft/Sims 8 Wheeler on steroids) in the early 1980's at a now defunct skatepark in Sandy, Utah and I know the guy who still owns it. He won't answer his phone when I call him because he knows what I want to buy from him.

Maybe one day?

Mark

Sorry for the thread-jack, CC and Arclite.

Love to see it. I don't recall that model variation.

I have seen some other interesting skateboard he built.

More photos in this gallery.

post-198-141842282645_thumb.jpg

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