The board arrived in a futuristic plastic wrap with the words “Experimental” in bold stamped on top. A Rodney Mullen signature model of yet another ground-breaking design- the Uberlight- had arrived, and I was to be its test pilot.
Almost skateboards have a pretty rad team that push the envelope so to speak, so the materials they use need to be up to scratch. You know you’ll always get the latest in skateboard utlity design when a young chap who single handedly created virtually every technical trick is your team captain. Rodney Mullen once had a video part that mixed advanced maths, mini pink shorts and more flip variations than a handful of Blitz catalogues at Christmas, and nobody laughed. Instead jaws hit the floor. That said, I was pretty stoked to test an Almost Uberlight prototype -1 of 500 made.
The Uberlight gets it’s name from the advanced board construction that incorporates thin layers of ply sealed with epoxy glue and a back bone of carbonite that runs through the heart of the deck from nose to tail. What this stretch of carbon does if keep the weight down and the response up. Strength, pop and rigidity are key words involved in this futuristic design. And it works.
Well, that’s not exactly true. You see, after 6 weeks of skating this board still has impressive pop and strength, but the wood has begun to wear down a bit and the shape isn’t keeping up appearances either. I don’t know exactly what strain of wood Almost have used to ply the Uberlight, but after a month, the tail was almost shaved down to a razor and the tail felt like it had sunk slightly. The most annoying thing about this design though was it’s shape: A strange sort of double nose- or should I say double tail because the nose was pretty tiny in actual fact. Popping nollies of this length of wood and carbon was a lot harder than you’d expect. I’d like to think I was getting weaker with old age, but since I swapped boards, I know that that is not the case.
I’ve kept this board for a rainy day because I know the pop will persist, but I won’t try and nollie any puddles. Keep the shape in mind when you look out for Rodney’s Uberlight, but don’t doubt general design. The Almost camp are still pushing skateboarding on each and every level.
7/10
RL-D
16.07.07