Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Phil Shao #6.



Eight comments yesterday and nobody mentioned Anthony Oglesby.

I thought about making that scan larger so you could see the graphics better, but the ad was a little on the crappy side. There's only so much magic you can work in Photoshop.

I've occasionally thought about buying a board just as collectable, but never followed through with any impulses. Decks can make nice wall art, but I'd rather just ride them. There's so much turnover now that it hardly seems worth keeping up with it all beyond what your next board is going to be. Nothing against the artists or the companies, we're just not going to see an era like the 1980s again where a pro was defined by their graphic.

My set up is a normal wood board that is 8" wide and somewhere around 32" long. No red, white or natural top ply. Yellow is frowned upon. Purple, grey or blue are preferred.

- Shorty's Black Magic griptape, although lately I've been using Jessup.

- Shorty's 1 1/8" phillips head bolts. I've got plenty of these stockpiled. For a while it was hard to find this size and I hoarded them.

- Lucky risers from 1997 or 1998 that I got at the Skate Station in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I want to see how long I can keep using the same pair.

- Speed Metal bearings. For some reason I got back into heavy metal in the late 1990s and was stoked on idea of a bearing company that had metal in their name. I said I would keep riding Speed Metal until they stopped making them. For a while, the quality was somewhere between OK and good, but the last two or three sets have been the fastest and most durable bearings that I have ever used. I don't have any of these stockpiled and they are getting harder to find. I've since lost interest in heavy metal.

- Spitfire 56 or 57 mm wheels. Always white and no super weird graphics. No cores or new technology. I'll go as low as 55.5 mm if it's a Spitfire with Dan Drehobl's name on it. Otherwise, I'm keeping things larger. I made it through small wheels and I don't ever want to do that again. I also like orange or light blue wheels, but haven't ridden those in ages. I hate black and red for wheels.

- Venture 5.25's. I usually ride the silver ones because they didn't make the colored models in the wider size until recently. Sometimes I like the idea of a colored truck and other times not. Lately, I've taken to creating my own trucks. I buy a set of Ventures 5.0's in a color I like and switch in my own wider hangers. That way I get a little color and correct truck width. I have a surplus of unused or barely used hangers to pick from. I put in my old bushings, too. My current trucks feel great and took no time to break in. I'm not at a Daewon Song or Matt Rodriguez level yet for truck modifications. I hope I never get there.

The Kettle Black can have a field day with all that.

Thrasher - February 1993 Volume 13 Number 2

12 comments:

Keith said...

8" wide, 57mm wheels!

I'm still stuck in the past LOL

Indy's... old ones. Baseplates with 6 hole pattern. I think they are at least stage 6. Just broke a kingpin on monday and the thread on the axles are pretty much toast.

52-53mm wheels. I found a set of blue Zero wheels with Bones Reds down at my parkade garbage area the other week... for all intents and purposes, they are new. Looks like someone rolled around on them for 5 minutes. I also have some Bones wheels in wrap at home.

7.75" wide board. Right now, it's an alien team board. Some lame Chinese wood I think. Shape is good though and it feels fine so far. Haven't moved up to 8" yet. My old legs fear flip tricks on a board that wide.

Anonymous said...

I'm the anonymous that left the comments yesterday, and I left my setup notes there.

I'm hell-bound to lock down kickflips, but I kill shoes in a month or less. What do you guys recommend for shoes? There was a thread on Slap where people mentioned sanding down their grip to lessen the wear on shoes. You guys do that?

On a side note and to continue the fad of not commenting on the day's image, thanks for this site. It's nice to see some older guys. I'm 36, just started skating a year ago after a 20+ year hiatus. I started figuring out back boardslides last night on a shitty 6" rail. I can't even describe the feeling that gave me. I feel like I've been asleep for 2 decades.

smorales said...

anonymous, for some reason my twitch reaction is to hate in some way but that's rad you got back into it. i'm just a kid, 21, and hope to be/look forward to/dread skating at your age.

8.25, indy 149 tho i want to try some ace but i can't argue with the indy warantee, reds, spitfire 56-58 tho i ride them down to who knows what.

flannelflannel said...

board: 8.5" do not have any superstitions whatsoever
trucks: thunder 147, cant have trucks flush with board
wheels: 49mm bones street tech
bearings: bones swiss, nothing less
hardware: shortys, not particular about length but particular about phillips head
risers: clear lucky, always need to have risers on my board.

one superstition i have however is my shoelaces cannot match the color of the tongue. just doesnt work.

Anonymous said...

Board: Any Deluxe 8.125 to 8.25, with a wheelbase of 14".

Trucks: Thunder 149ers

Wheels: Bones 54mm. I only ride Bones. White only, no colors. No cores because the cores fall out.

Bearings: Any. If I want to go faster I can always push.

Grip: Any, as long as it's black, because I'm not Kristian Svitak. I sand the grip after applying, not to save my shoes, but because I don't like the board to be too grippy when first riding it; I want that broken in feel. I hate that the board catches my toe when doing kickflips with new grip.


--Rikku Markka

Old School Sammy said...

I'm 45 these days, been skating since 1977, and even with the arthritic knees I still get up on board to go with my 6 year old, who's been on board since he was 3. As far as shoes go--DCs seem to last longest for me, and they cut their shoes wide enough to make my big dogs comfortable. I wore Vans High Tops all thru high school and college (back in the day when they'd actually cut a shoe to your traced foot outline!), as well as Cons Chuck Taylors, and loved both shoes, and I could wear and ride em daily and they'd last over a year--sadly, neither company cuts a wide shoe, so they are out for me--so my shoe recommends are:DCs if ya got wide dogs, or Cons and vans if you have narrow feet.

Keith said...

" flannelflannel said...

trucks: thunder 147, cant have trucks flush with board"

Does this mean you like the "hoverboard" look or you like the axles to show from above?

justin said...

The trucks have to be flush with the edge of the board. It looks wrong. I don't want to see that at all. A few kids are starting to ride trucks that are wider than their boards. That looks weird, too.

None of my gear preferences are really at a point of being a superstition. There are just some colors that I don't like and don't want to see on my skateboard.

I need to figure out what I'm posting today.

Old School Sammy said...

When I ride the popsicle decks as I skate with my son--I need 3 things:
Mob Grip
Bones Red Bearings
Indys with those rock hard bushings taken out and replaced by 87A Doh-Dohs---makes those suckers turn like champs.

Anonymous said...

'Round my parts, when you have a big board and small trucks, it's called a Biggie Smalls.

--Rikku Markka

doneyrocks said...

decks got the "popsicle" shape about 2 years after I started skating. My first board was a Santa Cruz Corey O'Brien...because of the graphic. (I was 13...ok?) So I adapted to the new shape pretty quickly. But when I started, boards were 9 - 10" wide. I skate an 8.25 now. 8 is too small, and 8.5 feels to big. I'm a smaller guy at 5'7" so it feels perfect for me. the only superstition I have is 2 different colored laces. Same color as the shoe on my lead foot (I skate regular) and something completely different like pink or orange on my right foot. Why??? I don't know. If I come out of something fakie (or switch depending on how you're looking at it) it just helps me to look down and see the other color. I also do some kind of small cutout on the nose of my board (on the grip) like just a random, small shape no bigger than a quarter. That does something for me too....I know it's weird but everyone has their schtick....know what I mean?

doneyrocks said...

as for board setup:

I'm a die hard Black Label guy. Just reps old school skating to me. 8.25 like I said before.

Indy trucks....gotta have the Indy's 139mm. I know I still have a quarter inch left over....not like it's waaaaay smaller than the board. 1/8 of an inch on each side less than the deck width

Spitfire wheels...I always buy 57mm cuz they will wear down to a nice 56 or so after a while

Bones Swiss bearings.....It's not 92' and I'm not riding "bearing covers"...which means I'm not trying to go slow. I wanna flow in that park with hardly any pushing. I'm old, and more pushing just means more work.

it is really good to find a page with "old heads" on it. The kids at my local park stare at me like I'm a kook....like "what's that old dude doing here?" Fuck em' Skate on. Although on a side note, I gotta say that young kids rip these days. Meaning me and my buddys weren't doing at 17 what kids who are 17 are doing now. Man, skateboarding has really evolved.