Category: Skateboarding Product Reviews

Busy filming for one of the most anticipated releases of 2009, Geoff Rowley has taken time out of his busy schedule of jumping between ridiculously high containers and risking life and limb for your entertainment to put his name to another in a long line of signature urethane from Ricta.

These 52mm Chrome Cores come crafted from Ricta’s White Lightening Urethane which claims to be more resistant to flat spotting than regular wheels. Initially I was skeptical, as regardless what anyone tells you, every wheel will flatspot eventually and THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ‘UNFLATSPOTABLE’ WHEEL. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m not the heaviest in the park and I have been known to skid round the last few degrees on almost all the tricks I try but the last few weeks I have been skating them they have held up really well. This included coming out unscathed from learning rad spins and slipping out of laybacks on wood and concrete ramps which usually kills wheels and gives you the dreaded machine gun effect the next time you drop in.

All in all they are good hard wheels that look like they will last. I had a hard time getting speed out of them on larger ramps and some old dudes pointed and laughed when I skated Big Woody’s bowl in Blackpool but that’s to be expected as their 52mms are probably more at home on a street board but overall they are worth a few of your hard earned pennies and their jazzy Dark Blue cores make for a more interesting set up than the plain white deals you’re probably rocking at the minute.

Go to www.ricta.com for more.

8/10 (losing a couple of points for size, 54 and I’d be all over em)

Dickfingers

I would strongly urge everyone reading this to stop wasting time trying to flip in and out of tricks with something that looks like you’ve wiped a Magnum off it and man up. Big boards are the way forward. For the past few years I’ve been slowly working my way up from a lowly 7.75 to this beast and it’s by far the best move I’ve made.

This beauty may be more suited to transition or mini ramp skating until you get used to the width but after a while you should be able to get to grips with it on the streets. Personally I would rather skate something that had a bit more to it but what do I know? Being on the bigger side, physics dictate that it will probably flip slower until your pipecleaner legs bulk up a bit but the added bonus is the extra few millimetres really do make the difference when it comes to surface area to catch and after a while you’ll be bang on it. Deluxe have been making boards on the wider side for some time and they seem to have perfected the formula; as the board says “It’s The Wood“.

The shape is spot on, even for such a wide plank and underfoot it feels instantly reassuring looking down at the sheer bloody size of it. It may take a few sessions to get the feel of a wider board but as soon as you do you wont go back. The build quality, like all DLX boards is flawless without a delam or crack in sight after a good few weeks of skating. In short just about the only thing that I could find wrong with this board in particular is that it is about 1/16th of an inch narrower than griptape but I’m sure your local skateshop will be more than happy to slice the ends off their fingers to grip it for you.

To sum up: Antihero have one of the sickest teams around and consistently make top notch products with this being no exception. It’s a simple rad graphic on a brilliant board that you will love if you skate a lot of transition or are a street skater hanging onto a bit of holiday weight (noone is judging you.) Give it a go, you will not be disappointed.

Go to www.dlxsf.com or www.antiheroskateboards.wordpress.com for more.

9.6/10

Dickfingers

Ok, my first wheels I ever got stoked about were multi-coloured Pacer Hoggs, basically they looked cool going round but unfortunately sucked to ride!

Pretty much all coloured urethane used to lose its durometer pretty quickly and start to get really sticky and slow after 3 or 4 sessions. Enter these candy coloured delights!

As you can see by the pic Hubba like to play with colours, plus for the fashion conscious matching cross head bolts are available to keep your set up looking 80s retro fresh and in touch with your frighteningly bright NikeSB colourways (that you swore you would never wear).

The wheels ride almost the same as Hubba’s regular uncoloured urethane, very slippy to start with but calm down a bit after a couple of sessions on street. After 2 weeks they showed no signs of wearing down at all. Even on miniramp they resisted flatspots well on reverts and slides and raised a few eyebrows with the colours, so thumbs up to Hubba on these puppies. Speaking of puppies, Hubba just can’t hold it down when it comes to the ladies, if your lucky enough to be passing any of the American trade shows this year they will be having a “Kissing Booth” featuring the Hubba girls and you can get some for a dollar!

www.hubbawheels.com for more.

Wheels 8/10 – Chic 10/10

Phil Procter

Starting out as a small skate brand making custom tees in small runs, Iron Fist have grown to become one of biggest brands to come out of South Africa.

With bright styles and a bit more thought going into their designs than your average clothing company they have worked to sit in the same sort of bracket as Volcom, producing high quality gear for the skate/surf market, so its not surprising to learn that the founders had a hand in that company in the early days too…

Opening up the parcel of clobber the kind Iron Fist people sent me out (I love this job) I ferreted around and pulled the handful of t-shirts out of the box. The first of the three has a full chest print of the Peace V’s hand outline with fuck off and die squeezed in the outline, which is a commendable sentiment to send to all soapdodging treehugging hippies…

The second has a tidy hotpant-sporting lady with disco wings and my personal favourite (and the one my missus hates the most) features a cheeky looking bird with one nip out in a jazzy pop art style.

All of the shirts feel top quality and unlike some other brands that feel like they’ve been churned out as fast as humanly possible to maximise profits, these feel like they’ll last beyond the first wash and are sure to brighten up the gloomy British winter that is lying in wait.

In short, they are definitely something to look out for and can be found in finer skateshops across the country. Check out the full line at www.Ironfist.tv and pester your local to order them in.

Dickfingers

Everyone loves new decks, new griptape and the promise of fresh pop! First thing I noticed with this Element 7.80 board is how light it was, after reading the pamphlet that accompanies the deck, I learned it was due to the “Patented AirFrame Chambers“. Basically they have 5 air chambers running down the centre of the deck, and the central 3 plys are engineered in a horizontal “S” shape to firm up the deck while cutting the weight down.

The concave is deceptively deep – it doesn’t look it, but its similar to the “spoon killer” concave that Real had out and grips your feet great. As for flex, that was what worried me, it felt very rigid for something so light, but survived a few nollie to disasters and the board-snapping ollies to rock fakie. The pop is really snappy, and with a the huge nose gave me plenty of time to tweak and shifty, it’s a really functional design.

As for the Muska, dudes still out there killing it – I read a quote a little while ago that sums him up, asked him where he went “Went? I didn’t go no place dude, I was out on the streets, skating, ask the kids in Hollywood, they seen me, i’m there doing it, don’t see no other pro’s out on the streets” So, less visable, but after peeping some vid clips that are floating around, the mans still representing, and Element are firmly keeping quality lumber under his feet!

Rock on 8/10

More at www.elementskateboards.com

PP

The images of these in the adverts were too good not to replicate on my feet so within a week we had them in the office and they did not let us down, these are seriously comfy shoes.

Mikey Taylor’s name has come up a lot in the last year and Etnies loyalty to his steez has been these beauties. I met Etnies UK team rider Mark Nicolson for a skate in the same week and he had a pair on and swore by them, so here’s his own thoughts on these most saught after pair of kicks.

“My first impressions were that the shoe really looks good. The Don Pendleton artwork on the tongue is a nice little touch, Classic Workshop style as always. The shoe has a very popular slim style and vulcanized sole which provides fantastic board feel but not so much that you hurt your feet if you jump down anything. Anyone who rides Etnies knows this is due to the System G2 heel insert that provides good shock absorbtion. The one piece toe cap initially looks like it might not survive too long but I was surprised to find it’s a lot harder wearing than I thought. In a nutshell, these are up there with the very popular shoes of the moment like the Emerica Reynolds 3’s and Leo Romero’s and I can’t wait to get some more!

Look out for a Death/Etnies collaboration shoe out very soon.

Mark Nicolson Death Skateboards / Etnies Shoes

Hammer, nail, head; these are the first 3 words that came to mind when I first laced my eyes upon these vulcanised feet warmers. Believe it or not, this is Geoff’s 11th signature shoe on Vans and even though the Rowley 1 was a favorite of mine back in the day, he’s really got it right this time as far as I’m concerned. These shoes are absolutely FLAWLESS!

Inspired by the classic Vans Lampin from the early 90’s, the Rowley “Specials” are simple, yet sophisticated, ready to skate straight out of the box! They’re slightly wider in fit to allow extra room in the toe area and rocks a really low profile overall. The uppers consist of reinforced suede and the sidewalls have perforations to ventilate your sweaty kickers. Combine all of the above with a flexible waffle sole covered in vulcanized grip and you have yourself a winning formula, it’s not rocket science, it’s plain shoeoligy.

It’s almost as if Rowley had ‘done too much, much too young‘, I didn’t mind the other 10 signatures released prior to these, but not 1 of the previous pairs have anything on this model, these are truly special.

11/10

Crawl… Walk… Skate

2P

I don’t claim to know a lot about American politics, other than every single US president has either bombed a country or got his rocks off with some bird that wasn’t his wife and JFK had better taste in women than Clinton.

Thank God for Lakai, once again to the rescue with their 2008 campaign to get one of their riders elected as Mr. President. A very subtle election campaign mind you, no massive TV adverts slagging off the other side for being tough on the poor, etc. Just a series of t-shirts with simple slogans stating “Elect Rick Howard” or “I Like Mike”. Simple, direct, effective. That’s the secret to a successful political campaign.

Don’t confuse people with facts and figures, policies, promises and fancy suits. Give them a t-shirt with a picture of you and a statement on it, job done.

Get these from your local SOS, they are out now.

Moose.

Vans have come up with another corker, this time in the shape of the AV3.

In keeping with a rather vintage aesthetic, this shoe promises all the mod cons of up to date shoe technology and a lot more.

Light weight in construct and simple in design, this shoe is reminiscent of the Adidas ‘samba’ with the trademark waffle sole. You can ride them straight out of the box, supportability is high and they are fairly durable. I love these shoes, go try some on!

Live FAST, Ride FAST
2P

Having skated in es accel’s for most of my life, I was dismayed to discover the slight change in the shape of its sole- from pointy to round in the toe, had put me right up shit creek without a shit whacker.

Short of quitting skateboarding, I needed to find another trainer before my toes began to bleed. Luckily for me I had just been handed a fresh new pair of sneaks in the form of kaki Globe Encore’s.

At first glance, they appeared to be lookers, but without wearing them out skateboarding, I was initially dubious. To my surprise though, these globe’s felt rather good! The soles were refreshingly thin around the ball of the foot allowing a more sensitive ride with a cushion at the heel to minimise the insanely irritating bruising I get from being a massive pussy.

It has been such a long time since I skated any other shoe, that I had not realised the developments in shoe technology had come such a long way. The encore’s low cut and minimal construction works in your favour making this shoe light weight and cool, superb for summer usage. They look fairly sharp, with the side stripes no shoe of today is to be without, plus they go with most of my clothes so I’m pretty happy with them. So all in all, this shoe is a winner! Not over the top or made with nasa technology, just good simple shoes to ride with. Bon.

www.globe.tv for more.

8/10

Eyefeelsick.