A Perfect World: Always Downhill

Nice little toeside standy

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:08:29 +1000

Nice little toeside standy

Getting some stylish sideways mileage

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:14:42 +1000

Getting some stylish sideways mileage

Awesome, too bad it’d only last about 1 minute…

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:43:17 +1000

Awesome, too bad it’d only last about 1 minute…

Photo

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:38:22 +1000

Photo

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:27:39 +1000

Magical powers of boards coming out once again, Newton’s...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:12:04 +1000

Magical powers of boards coming out once again, Newton’s got nothing on grippy thane.

Ever see a japanese kung-fu movie where they seem to run on air...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:04:11 +1000

Ever see a japanese kung-fu movie where they seem to run on air while fighting? You’re looking at the secret.

The mother of all downhill races

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:49:01 +1000

The mother of all downhill races

Photo

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:57:16 +1000

That feeling when you wake up in the morning and go...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:53:55 +1000

That feeling when you wake up in the morning and go “I’m going skating”

Then remember you live in Australia and it’s been raining everyday for the past 2 weeks.

Photo

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:31:39 +1000

Huge early grab

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:29:45 +1000

Huge early grab

Hey man, I like your blog, I'm taking up longboarding this summer, any pointers? Peace ☮

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:37:07 +1000

That’s awesome man, always need more people spreading the stoke. I’d say have a look at youtube videos by searching for the following things (with the word ‘longboard’ before it) - carving, sliding, freeride, dancing. That will let you look at people doing different styles and you can see what you’re most interested in. From there pick a board that suits, e.g. you want to slide so a pintail isn’t optimal, you want to cruise around then maybe something longer for stability and comfort (38” plus).

Two things:

1) wear a helmet, wear a helmet, wear a helmet. Maybe they’re not so cool but neither is permanent brain damage.

2) Don’t be a dickhead. Not that I think you are, but when you act like a tool, run into people with your board, run over childrens feet (I’ve done this) etc. while you have a longboard with you it makes everyone look bad. I’m sure you won’t be a dickhead but it needed saying.

Other than that, just get out there and skate, there are no rules about how to do it and nobody can say you’re doing it wrong. It’s about fun, so have fun.

Schwarzenegger bringing some style, loving the retro-speedos

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 01:25:28 +1000

Schwarzenegger bringing some style, loving the retro-speedos

Black velvet pucks and some crazy proto trucks.

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 01:18:44 +1000

Black velvet pucks and some crazy proto trucks.

Gnarliest grip ever, made of broken Heineken bottles and epoxy....

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 01:14:47 +1000

Gnarliest grip ever, made of broken Heineken bottles and epoxy. Seriously.

Review: Orangatang Durians

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:18:00 +1000

Durometer: 86a (yellow)

Diameter: 75mm

Contact Patch: 45mm

The gist of it: Decent slide wheels but not the greatest. Grip when necessary, slip when wanted.

The rest of it: The Durians are an interesting, but solid, offering from Orangatang in the department of slide wheels. I rode the 86a’s which are the hardest Otang offer in any of their wheels. They’re intended for sliding and freeriding and they’re definitely up to the task. They come with standard slide/freeride features: rounded lips (both inner and outer) and a stone-ground finish which is nice because it removes the ‘break in’ period of regular wheels. They aren’t particularly fast and the acceleration isn’t fantastic but neither is a real problem.

Their big problem comes, I believe, from the interesting feature I alluded to before. The wheels are made of the Happy Eurethane that Otang uses for their other wheels including the InHeats and 4Pres. This formula is a particularly grippy one, which is fine given that it was intended to be a freestyle/carving wheel with a lot of grip, the problem is that the Durians aren’t a carving wheel and they don’t need a lot of grip. Consequently the wheels get A LOT of chatter, much more so than you would expect. The wheels slide perfectly well thanks to the rounded lips, stone-ground finish and (in my case) the harder duro but the chatter is excessive. Up to you whether you want to deal with it but I’d shop around for another wheel first.

The wrapup: Durians are great sliding wheels if ‘ability to slide’ is your only consideration. However they chatter loudly, aren’t especially fast and are not particularly cheap.

Getting close at the Maryland DH race.

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:46:05 +1000

Getting close at the Maryland DH race.

“Nah man, this hill’s pretty small I don’t...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:36:34 +1000

“Nah man, this hill’s pretty small I don’t need one”

Wear a helmet. Enough said.

Swag (n.): These guys.

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:31:43 +1000

Swag (n.): These guys.