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