Category: Skateboarding

When a truck is tried, tested and approved by Arto Saari then it is a truck I hope will somehow give me the confidence to stop slacking and learn some new ledge tricks. It was the original D2 prototype that was given the thumbs up by the only man who can get away with skating to two Bowie songs one year and popular math-rock another. The D2 Lite is a lightweight (duh) construction achieved mostly through hollowpoint kingpins and a lighter design shaped through the same D2 geometry that helped Arto fluidly carve around a corner and backlip a double kinked rail. The addition of the inconspicuous East-Coast killer Jake Johnson earlier this year was a good move too. Their job on Destructo is to sell me a product and they have done a good job: hitherto Jake Johnson’s welcome clip, Destructo never really came to mind when buying trucks, and I found myself excited to try something new.

A snapped kingpin troubled my younger self frequently so I was overjoyed to find that a month of regular night sessions through the city has done little to no damage. So don’t let the term ‘Lite‘ fool you into thinking by choosing this design you are compromising a truck’s necessary strength. These are solid. And that is not to say that I haven’t been shredding the shit out of these! Doubters gonna doubt, sure, but you readers better be recognising that I have taken all five of my ledge tricks to the D2. I even learnt a new trick for the first time in years! Once they were fully worn and grooved into my awkward stance I found they provided a smooth, consistent turn (which given how slow-footed I am, is an absolute necessity) with a genuinely noticeable lightness and somehow made grinding feel radder than usual. Like butter.

The D2 Lite is relatively inexpensive for a simple lightweight truck, and I can only recommend that you give these a try too.

Bellend Sebastian

It’s fair to say that the one thing I always look for in a new jacket is big pockets. It’s not as if I have massive hands or anything, I just always seem to have a lot of stuff to carry about and in the winter. I have always found that it’s a good idea to have a spare t-shirt in my pocket once the sweat pours out of me from a cold session, then at least I’m dry on the way home and catching pneumonia doesn’t have to be on the day’s to-do list. The Elsdon jacket comes with deep front pockets and a front zipped breast pocket that are accompanied by 2 more pockets on the inside that once again are deep enough for t-shirts to be shoved in if needed.

Although this is in the Volcom Stone Age Fall 2010 range, it’s certainly not the all conquering winter jacket. For a start there’s no hood so if it rains you need a hoody underneath it, it’s cotton based so not waterproof as such and it’s not lined with the warm padded stuff to beat the temperature when it’s super cold. So although it’s no contender for the warmest jacket of the year the very positive and most important info that can be taken from wearing this for 3 weeks now is that you can easily skate in it without overheating and that’s what makes this a must have. It’s one of those jackets you crave for on a crisp winters day when it’s cold out and the suns up which is pretty much half of our winter here in the UK. It’s also soft and without stupid overbranding and zips everywhere that dig into you when you fall which makes a big difference to me personally.

So there you have it, go and put one on in a shop and decide for yourself and if this doesn’t float your boat then have a look at the other jackets that Volcom have in this collection here as they make some of the best clothes for skateboarders out there.