Category: Skateboarding Product Reviews

I once came across a porno mag called Lumberjackoff in Amsterdam a few years ago. It was a gay publication for men and had 2 ‘hunks’ on the front cover. One of the dudes was leg up on a log, the other holding said man’s piece whilst licking on some hairy balls.

It’s true to say that this put me off the job of logging somewhat and since that day Lumberjack shirts were not on my agenda…until now.

When I was sent this shirt for the sole purpose of reviewing for this wonderful website the first touch sent my senses tingling. The sheer softness of the fabric is like the first time you feel a kitten, seriously, it’s that soft! I put this on and felt like i was wrapped in cat fur!

That very night, I wore my new red and black friend to a club. My chat up line all night was ‘feel this, it’s made from Canadian cat fur and is softer than a puppy’, the responses after a quick stroke were in agreement with my statement but unfortunately I went home alone.

The moral to this story is that Chico Brenes cheeky flannel shirt may not get you laid with the opposite sex but i’m telling you now that you will not trade it once you have it on your back for any woman! It’s also worth noting that if you have a favourite squeeze at home, don’t expect to get your Matix shirt back whatsoever but at the end of the day it’s well worth the risk!

Emilio Gonzales

This shirt is also part of a shoe collab with DVS, click here to view the kicks.

It used to be a given that a pro skate shoe would be the business. Like way back in the days you got a pair of cabs, or half cabs – you knew that Steve Caballero wouldn’t just ride anything, and they were tough as hell would last. These days it’s not about making a durable shoe in many cases, it’s sales. I saw some crazy glittery-ass super-high-tops the other day, and I can’t imagine wearing them, let alone trying to skate in them, where as the kids in Hoxton would find them perfect for prancing around on street corners which is a result for the manufacturers back pocket and a fail for skaters.

Thankfully, two names in skating you can trust are DVS and Daewon. So when I came across this collab with Almost I thought I’d step out from the 20 year shadow of skating in Es Accels and Vans and give my feet a treat.

First off, you open the box and instantly get stoked off the 10″ long mini Almost deck with accompanying donut theme to match in with the colour way. This tops a sticker any day! The second thing you get stoked on is the instant “I don’t need breaking in” feel the sole gives you, these bad boys are session ready like donuts hot out the box!

The sole is really soft, but has so far (a month in) showed zero signs of wear. The Ollie area is pretty wide and that allows the stitching to be away from the contact area as much as possible. The suede again is really soft and flexible so you get a really sharp response and so far has scuffed up from Jessops abuse, but no hole.

I guess this shoe reflects Daewon’s skating, fast and responsive. If you are a hammer skater, you might want a little more protection, but for the street tech heads these shoes are perfect. Peep the matching hat and hoodie too for the style gurus out on the grind – these shoes are the business.

9/10

PP

Check out some behind the scenes footage and some clowin’ by Daewon below.

Size: 8.6 x 32.35

OK, so I could be a little biased in this review as this is the 4th Creature deck I have bought. It seems that the guys who ride creature are really loyal. It could be the great shapes or the fact that they last for a long time or the graphics which are always sick, but once you get a Creature you’ve pretty much sold your soul!

I never rode the 7.5 twigs that are classed as boards, I was always rolling on an 8.0. Which was ok but I never felt that stable and let’s face it I’m not the skinniest of blokes, so when I made the jump to an 8.6 Creature it took me a while to get used to it! But that was over a year ago now.

Navarette’s pro model is not a light deck by any stretch of the imagination. Your legs really have to get used to it before you even get your pop back properly, but once you do my god does it feel good! Just landing a kick flip on flat gives you major satisfaction, kinda like you just let one drop in a lift and someone else gets the blame for the fowl stench.

This board is one of the most popular size’s. Big enough for mad bowl and vert riding and not to big you can’t flip it. It’s got a great shape to it too, which a few people aren’t keen on but it works perfectly for me. It’s mainly the nose that you’ll notice as it’s bigger than Barry Manilow’s! Even if your front foot slips 9/10 times you’ll stay on your board, and for sketchy people like me that a major plus! The tail is pretty sizable too, there’s not much chance of the back foot slipping and slowing you down on this one.

Concave wise it’s a little shallow on the tail but has just the right kick on the nose so that it grabs your foot nicely on most tricks. I’ve been riding this board for two months now putting it through its paces every day and I gotta say I love it. She’s a little chunky skating street but when it comes to parks she’s perfect and in bowls – she wears the trousers.

This board will make your skating look and feel more solid, especially if you’re on the clumsy side of shredding like me. But right now I’m sitting at home with my leg in the air, ice pack on trying to get some stuff done for the site, despite any other personal activities the Crossfire heads think I do when all I have is the internet and my alone time……… even if you do ride a shred sled this wide you can still be a dick fall off and dislocate your knee!

Get out there and Support your local Creature!

Tom Halliday

Every once in a while, there comes by something that completely turns your life upside down and after realising its existence in the world, you pretty much can’t live without it: (wanking, bacon, half cabs and beer immediately spring to mind) but I cant think of anything recently that has had the same impact as first seeing Roger Skateboards…

As far as I can see, there are very few American companies out today who seem to be taking a personal approach to board graphics and the feel and image of the company as a whole. I for one am bored with leafing through online catalogues seeing the same images and same fonts on 10 different boards with a few colours tweaked on Illustrator for each pro.

As a company, Roger feels a lot more individual and all boards feature the talented and instantly recognisable scribblings of celebrated artist (and part owner) Michael Sieben, carrying various different slogans. These famously include: an inverted cross with “Skate Switch for Jesus” “UH OH A Ghost With A Boner” and “Trouser Snake.” etched into them. Sophisticated humour this is not, however from my juvenile moronic perspective it’s fucking hilarious and in my opinion is something that skateboarding could do with more of. Basically if I see another slow mo segueway of a wrongun in their sister’s jeans balancing a floppy beanie on the back of their heads, pushing through pigeons or doing a bluntslide on a 2ft bankle I’m in serious danger of shitting myself!

The boards themselves are all top drawer. They are well made, rock solid and the ones I tried (Ghost Boner & Weed & Cobras) all seemed to go the distance keeping their shapes and resisting cracks or delams as well as any board can, but even if they didn’t I’d still tell you to buy them just for the sheer awesomeness of the graphics and to promote a company whose website has a section called “Ads We Couldn’t Afford To Run” with a team rider called “My Friend Brandon”

Any company whose mission statement is “20% Skateboarding, 80% Weed & Cobras” can definitely have my money. There needs to be more boner jokes in skateboarding, we’re not Professional Athletes striving to be taken seriously on a par with football players and marathon runners, we’re on the whole, immature dickheads that spend far too much time loitering around car parks drinking fizzy pop, drawing winkies on things and calling each other names (or maybe that’s just me)…

Either way, I’m backing Roger. I would say that compared to repetitive stale Illustrator’ed graphics which are churned out at rate of knots, they are a breath of fresh air but they’d probably only turn it into a fart joke and spend the next week sniggering anyway…

Nag your local to get them in.

Dickfingers

Apparently Mike Mo knows shit. Now I’m not saying he doesn’t, but I know shit too, we all know shit, what I really want to know is what does Mo know that others don’t know for him to deserve this amazing title…does Mo Know the answer to this?!

The first Manchester shoe has always had a solid place in my top 5 skate shoes of all times, they were amazing! They are very hard to find these days, but all’s not lost, the Manchester Select is basically a vulc version of its predecessor. The shoe is still very thin and the durable form-fitting suede allows you a certain degree of board feel that only the Manchester can offer! Unlike the Man 1’s, these have shock absorbing insoles and as mentioned before, they come with the ever popular and extremely flexible vulcanized sole. This of course makes the shoe a bit heavier, but you know what, it doesn’t affect the shoe in any way!

Mo Knows what he likes I guess and I can see why these work for him. I have to say I’ve not managed to do a fakie murder flip 5-0 fakie murder out, but I’m sure Mo Knows this is possible, perhaps one day we’ll see one and then we can all say…see, I told you “Mo Fucking Knows Yo”!

Check these out if you like vulc shoes with major board feel, thin construction and tougher than Stu Graham!

2P
Crawl…Walk…Skate

Way back in the days I used to kinda work at a skatepark way ooop North called the Skateshack. The place was rad, but it fell on hard times in the early 90s so we persuaded some pro’s to hit us up on their tour. So what’s this got to do with these wheels your asking?

The guy who made the biggest impression was a skinny gawky looking hick, dude was killing the place, and himself on a frontisde 360s over this funbox, screaming, shrieking, as loud as eardrums could stand. The demo went on and he still couldn’t pin it – so he rammed up the vert wall at the opposite end of the park, pushed like a demon across the skatepark and hucked this huge frontside 360 right over the whole box.

Avoiding the slippy flat bank landing and hitting terra firma about 6 feet from the bottom of the bank – guy must have span about 15 feet and landed, screamed like a banshee and then collapsed in a heap laying in pile of dirt with his chest pumping like crazy for air and a crazy look in his eye. Shit was intense! Kid of course was the one true JC, John Cardiel and what was he riding? Spitfires, naturally. That was 17 years ago and the still holds true today, Cards is a legend, and Spitfires, in my opinion are still the best wheel to ride.

These here are the latest F1 formula, they genuinely feel different to other urethanes – it feels really smooth, no tread lathed in, just pure hand poured urethane, smooth as marble. The advert says they are flatspot resistant, so I put them through their paces. On street they slid when I wanted them too, no problems there, but the difference was, when I wanted them to grip, they did that too. I rode some bowls and sketched in some disasters and even going in slightly over rated they gripped and let me correct myself, ordinarily I’d have slipped out! These are hard wheels too – 100DU’s. I have no clue how they know when you want to slide and when you want to hang on and grip – I guess its all part of the magic of skateboarding but remember – with JC on your side, you can accomplish anything.

Go to www.dlxsf.com for more.

Phil Procter

It’s no secret that Matix produces really good quality skateboard clothing for the likes of you lot, so I was over the moon when this pair of Mike Mo Jeans found its way to my front door.

Mr Capaldi has come a long way in the last couple of years, from a ridiculous section in Fully Flared to winning the Battle at the Berrics without breaking sweat. This kid has an enormous talent on a board, but if you think it ends there, then I am delighted to tell you it doesn’t, he pretty much styles everything he gets involved in and you have to admire that!

He’s signature denims on Matix are no exception to the above! He’s put together a very nice 5-pocket jean with a straight leg and regular waist rise. Unique features include a waistband with built in lace loop belt and custom Matix buttons, rivets and labeling. They also come with a pre-fixed Italian coloured lace to keep them up and you from looking like a rollerblade gangster wannabe. Overall they sport that kind worn look with wear and tear on the pockets and seems. Like most jeans these days, they have a 1% stretch element to them, which makes me happy because I know they won’t rip when I rip.

Check’em out if you can and get a pair if you want to add some flare to you’re wardrobe, these are very well manufactured and even though they’re slightly more expensive than Sainsbury’s jeans, I really recommend them for skateboarding. They are perfect, look rad and will last a long time.

Emilio Gonzales
9/10

The good folk over at Element thought it good to cut my summer short and send over some lines of their Fall 2009 range. At first I thought it’s strange to get a couple of hoody’s smack in the middle of one of the best summers we’ve had for years, but I was quickly reminded of how unpredictable the English weather can be and I never look a gift horse in the mouth!

These hoods are really cool to be honest, they are amazingly comfortable and really light, guess that’s why they came in a few months before fall and not closer to winter. Both the ‘Total Eclipse‘ and ‘Dark Earth II‘ comes in 100% cotton, but the thing I like most is the hood itself is double lined as you would expect, but with a layer of jersey, not heavy spun cotton like your normal winter wear.

I’ve been rocking these over the last few weeks, because we have had the pleasure of God’s monsoons recently and I felt a bit like Noah and his Arc, all prepared for this shit. These aren’t really thick enough for the Alps, but they are perfect for a late summer night BBQ. I really love the fit and feel, it reminds me of my favourite Slap hoody that some skate obsessed female stole from me many a year ago…Biatch!

There was another surprise in my box, a dead sexy pair of dark rinse indigo jeans called the ‘Aberdeen Blackout‘. Summer or winter, I rarely get the pins out, so jeans are always a winner for me. They represent everything I enjoy in a pair of denims, straight fit, 2% stretch for a good Beni-Hana, dark indigo in colour and they are super soft, unlike your £40 Uniqlo sta-press bollock tearing cardboard denims that is this decades must have.

Don’t get your wallet out for that crap, get hold of these instead, trust me, you’ll be happy you did. I’ve only had them for a little while, but I can tell they’re of superior quality and will last me much longer than I could imagine.

2P
Crawl…Walk…Skate

ALIEN DIES IN CARELESS ACCIDENT:

“I felt the snap, but I had no idea he had completely broken his back!”

It was a typical Wednesday evening and we were roaming around the park as fast as we could! Dylan led me to a bar which I knew needs careful approach but he seemed certain of his ability and we hit this thing with a Mac10 lipslide! An overcompensated ollie resulted in heavy contact, so intense it fractured the poor Alien’s back bad enough for his badly timed death to become apparent right then and there.

One onlooker said: “It was terrible to see, he had so much left to give!”

I was overcome with guilt, but I knew in my heart that he lived 2 great months and he’s looking down on us from Space with a big smile as if to say “I’ll do it all over again if I could”.

It’s sad, but you have to move on and I’ve since met another Extra Terrestrial, but this one is an Alien with a difference. He’s been under going a series of tests at a secret laboratory at NASA’s space centre where he’s been fitted with what is referred to as ‘Moonpop‘, a carbon fibre inlay amongst the normal maple to strengthen the middle whilst retaining true organic feel.

The overall construction feels completely normal, but I do think this one’s a bit heavy on the concave side, saying that though, it’s not really affected me too much, but I do prefer them flat. He’s an 8 incher and goes by the name of Arto Saari. He’s light for his size and definitely a snappy fella. I’m not sure if we’ll have the same relationship as with my previous buddy, only time will tell, but I’m very happy to have him onboard as we’ve had a lot of good times already.

www.alienworkshop.com for more.

2P

Crawl…Walk…Skate

Let’s face it, I have done some stupid things in the past: believing Cundall’s claims that driving him anywhere will result in petrol money has got to be pretty high up on the list but I recently did something that surprised even me. In a moment of unrivalled retardation, I got on the Body Mass Weight Scale at Boots. I don’t know what I was thinking.

In three easy to follow steps, I managed to completely disillusion myself and discovered that I was er… more than a little heavier than I thought. By two stone! In 30-40 seconds I went from being lithe and athletic to doughy and rotund and all because the thoughtless bastards at Boots didn’t think to put a warning on that bloody machine. On the plus side I feel that my newly acquired “Fat Lump” status means that I am now in a far more authoritative position to review wider boards. Or at the very least tell you if they snap or not whilst perfecting my slow transformation into an English Dan Drehobl with less fags and fewer tricks…

The fine upstanding Nick Zorlac, (maybe) taking sympathy at my slightly chunkier frame, sent me through one of the latest Team boards from Death Skateboards, which keen eyed readers of these reviews will know is one of my favourite companies out there, British or otherwise, who consistently churn out top quality gear with this beauty being no exception. You also never really read reviews on this site for Death product so this could be the start of many.

At 8.25 it wont be the smallest in the shop by a long shot so if youve made the jump up from a narrower one, be prepared to take a while relearning flip tricks as the wonders of physics dictate that your pipe cleaner legs will take a little while to get used to the spin of a wider board. Although saying that, what little you lose in the speed your board flips, you gain twofold in stability, which in my humble opinion is worth more in long run anyway…Graphic-wise, its a typical Death product so you know what to expect: if youre looking for a lamp post or an “Illustrator-ed” Teacup then this probably isn’t going to be for you, although if you buy a board solely for the graphic then it’s probably safe to say youre a bit special anyway… As far as the concave goes, this is on the mellower side and I’ve been reliably informed that its the same shape that Andy Scott, the Bolton Jedi, skates (however the resemblance to our skating pretty much ends at the board…)

I’ve been skating it for a good few weeks and it’s still going strong with no visible delams or cracks. Personally, I preferred it for mini ramps, but dabbled in parks and with my annual attempt at street skating thrown in for good measure its proved to be fine for everything.

Give it a go if you’re looking to step up to a slightly wider board or if like me, you’re still carrying a little holiday weight and don’t want to put your foot through a 7.5″… Nobody’s judging you, go on have another biscuit, you’ll feel better…

Dickfingers