Board Suggestions

[scrapster]

Okay, my interest in longboarding has been piqued after, oh, 20 years since I last skated. It sounds like a good and fun way to keep your body memory for carving alive through the warm months.

Anyone care to suggest a board setup for a lighter rider that would have a surfy/snowboard-like feel--mostly on flat land and very small inclines? I started to do some research and the choices are making my head spin.

If only we had this many options for hardbooting! (Though I'm starting to wonder if one can feed the other. It seems like longboarding is drawing back skaters who've felt left out by extreme freestyle trend of the last few years. Might there be an analog for snowboarding?)

[Gecko]

Okay, my interest in longboarding has been piqued after, oh, 20 years since I last skated. It sounds like a good and fun way to keep your body memory for carving alive through the warm months.

Anyone care to suggest a board setup for a lighter rider that would have a surfy/snowboard-like feel--mostly on flat land and very small inclines? I started to do some research and the choices are making my head spin.

If only we had this many options for hardbooting! (Though I'm starting to wonder if one can feed the other. It seems like longboarding is drawing back skaters who've felt left out by extreme freestyle trend of the last few years. Might there be an analog for snowboarding?)

stay local (Bristol RI)....try Sodafactory while I am a huge fan of Rus's speedboards his cruisers are also very fun....so much so that I just ordered one after trying my brothers spend some time looking through the thread there are a lot of options. I prefer Indepent trucks INO they feel surfy though Many feel Randal's (and other RKP trucks) have a more Carving feel Hard lip wheels grip/rail soft lip wheels drift slide....there are exceptions but that's the general idea

[BlueB]

Mark, welcome to your new summertime addiction! It's great, though.

I'm not very experienced rider, did the same thing as you - back last year, after 25+ years... Here's few pointers from my short, but steep learning curve:

Most important thing in your setup: wedges and bushings!

Yeah, some trucks are carvier/surfier then others, some boards flex more, some wheels grip/slide better... But, you can make almost any truck turn nicelly with correct setup. Example: I have tons of trucks (we all know that I'm a gear whore ;) ), some really cheap, some medium expensive, some heavilly modified to racing spec... However, the surfiest of my boards, that absolutelly everyone here likes riding, has the super cheap knock-off of Indys 150. They are really wedged/dewedged a lot, with longer kingpins for doubled up board side soft bushings and bingo! Board turns on a dime, tilts almost 45* and feels like a snowboard. In despite of 27" wheelbase, I can get it through HS course, or pump it endlesly on the flat...

To start on cheap, look up your old school pool board, forgoten somwhere in the closets. It might turn out the only board you'll need... Redrill for the baseplates on the kick tail itself (looots of dewedging required) and on the nose. If nose had a kick, you might not need any wedging, but only a flat riser. Anyhow, 13* wedge (soft and hard one stacked) front, and 13* dewedge (-13*) back, measured from flat surface of the board are not too bad place to start. Throw away the super stiff bushings, or thay might work at the back still, and get some nice really soft ones for the front at least. Replace the small park wheels with some decent 70mm wheels, even used, and you are good to go! Maybe keep the hard park wheels and trash them learning to slide (important for breaking, even if you don't get into downhill).

The trucks that most offten come with those jib boards are either of Indy variety (makes for good front truck), or Tracker Dart variety (makes good back truck). I'd rather have a pair of Indys for surfy feel.

More into the trucks, Randal (reverse king pin) offer more precise turn then Indys. I like them in the back of my shorter boards, but in the front of my long boards. I like Seismic in the back a lot too, but people tell me I'm a weirdo :D

Bennett is probably the best cheap front fast turning truck out there, IMO. Some people preffer Indy, though.

Wheels, so many good ones out there... Decide what you wanted to do. rom what you described, square ones I think... There is constantly one guy selling new Flashbacks for $25 on fleabay... Otherwise, you can not go too wrong with ZigZags or Grippins, duro matched to your weight. Landyachtz Mini Hawgs seem to be super grippy too, but roll slower.

Boards, flexy ones feel more like a snowboard in the beggining, then as you progress, in power and precission, you'd want a stiffer one. I started on a medium sized flexy narrow board, then swithched to a big, still flexy Landyachtz and was great, fast, stable, turny. However, now I mostly ride medium or short boards, as I found my niche in slalom and pumping. I belive that from lazy carving, you'd eventually want to go into pumping and experience the joy of self-proppeled flat land carving and on the other side, the explosivness and precission of slalom are a great fix too! A mellower GS board might be a good idea in a longer run, as it's pretty suitable for triple purpose of dh carving, pumping and cones. Some people even run real DH on them - seems to be pretty trendy nowadays...

Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle, never stop experimenting...

My 0.25 CAD...

[scrapster]

Hey BlueB Thanks for the hefty amount of input!!! Lots to consider. Unfortunately I don't have any of my old boards left :( But buying a new toy is never a bad thing

[bobdea]

Okay, my interest in longboarding has been piqued after, oh, 20 years since I last skated. It sounds like a good and fun way to keep your body memory for carving alive through the warm months.

Anyone care to suggest a board setup for a lighter rider that would have a surfy/snowboard-like feel--mostly on flat land and very small inclines? I started to do some research and the choices are making my head spin.

If only we had this many options for hardbooting! (Though I'm starting to wonder if one can feed the other. It seems like longboarding is drawing back skaters who've felt left out by extreme freestyle trend of the last few years. Might there be an analog for snowboarding?)

I'm partial to loaded vanguard/dervish and their pintail as well. at least to carve gentle hills. they are really flexible and that lends to the snowboard type feel. thing is here is that the loaded boards with all that flex and rebound make them harder to control at higher speeds, to slide and to pump, at least in my experience but I am not a good skater either so take it with a grain of salt but I'm betting that your experience would be similar.

I have a sl deck thats kinda awesome, feels less snowboard like but makes the most of a small incline as it's turn radius is tiny......

if you want to try out anything of mine we can meet up sometime, I probably won't skate as my ankle is kinda trashed from a accident awhile back but at least that way you'd get to try a few things and also play with different size wheels.

[Gecko]

I'm partial to loaded vanguard/dervish and their pintail as well. at least to carve gentle hills. they are really flexible and that lends to the snowboard type feel. thing is here is that the loaded boards with all that flex and rebound make them harder to control at higher speeds, to slide and to pump, at least in my experience but I am not a good skater either so take it with a grain of salt but I'm betting that your experience would be similar.

I have a sl deck thats kinda awesome, feels less snowboard like but makes the most of a small incline as it's turn radius is tiny......

I agree that loadeds feel unstable at speed, like anything faster than walking the flex/sag detracts from the ride... they are also rather expensive (sorry I'm not a fan of Loaded boards). Earthwing's Supercharger and Supermodel are good boards both going fast and slow so is the very simple Gravity Hypercarve.

I have a Sodafactory cruising/carving board on order something like this only without the vlam bottom

[scrapster]

Thanks for the advice everybody. I did demo the Dervish in a local shop. I liked the 2 and 3 flex models, but the 1 felt a little weird. I also preferred the top mount trucks more than the drop-throughs. Loadeds are pricey though, especially for a sport I'm just trying out.

I settled on an Earthwing Superglider (last year's 4 ply version--I'm a lighter guy.) Most people felt it was a good first board, and one you can build a quiver around. I'll probably have to tinker with accessories a bit. I now think the 70mm wheels I picked may have bite issues on my Indy 169's.

[Gecko]

risers or 66mm wheels

[WEBSIGHT360]

Congratulations Scrapster! You made a great choice. That board is on my list of boards to add to my quiver. Here is a thread on Silverfish about Superglider set-ups: http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboarding-resources-q/80447-official-superglider-army-setup-thread.html you should find plenty of ideas there.