Category: Skateboarding Product Reviews

The obtaining of this board was met with slight trepidation due to being a whole1/4 in slimmer than my usual 8in rig, this concern was heightened as this was around the time I was mid process of hording for the winter hibernation; if you don’t get the right rig for the English winter months your left out to the elements. Like entering the jungle without a suitable 28in knife ~ (the viewing of Rambo this weekend seems to have made an impression).

I had, in my questionable skateboarding career ridden a couple of those Speed Demon blanks, which correct me if I’m wrong, come from the same tree and I remember these being strong as hell, light and had an awesome ability to maintain pop. The Darkstar ‘Paul Machnau’ did not fail to impress.

I seriously rode (and still am) this rig for months, granted I’m no stair or rail guy but I like to think I can put a board to the test with a large array of sloppy landings, heal drags and monoski foot landings!
Not to mention the vast selection of liquids that came into contact with it…..no delams, stress cracks, softness or warts. Still great pop too.

I would not hesitate to recommend to those who like mellowish nose and tail, nothing too aggressive, like a football to the face on a cold Easter weekend, and weighing in with a 31in length you just can’t go wrong.

So, go on treat yourself to a post Easter peep at www.darkstarwood.com

9/10
Robin Hayes

Well with the weather being of almost biblical proportions at the moment; torrential rain one minute, hailstones and thunder the next, I haven’t actually got round to skating in these WeSC Tight jeans were going to have their first test drive doing some pretty mundane stuff.

First up was nipping down the shops for a pint of milk for teas, which is always the best test for new jeans anyway. Why? Because you have to half-run, half look cool and that ain’t easy in a brand new pair of slim jeans. These WeSC jeans managed it perfectly though, with their slight stretchiness it didn’t feel like someone had wallpapered my legs.

With the brews made, the next test of any good pair of jeans is how well they cope with a Sunday slob and watching telly on the sofa. I’ve got to say, they did remarkably well. Usually with new jeans, and especially these ones, they seem to have that new ‘sheen’ that means there is no friction between your arse and the sofa until you’ve worn them in and the back starts to fray a bit. Not these though. Perfect already, as I didn’t slip straight off onto the floor from my slouched position, and didn’t spill boiling hot tea in my face. Winner.

Finally, the last test for jeans in Britain is the 100-yard dash to Greggs, with the oncoming threat of rain. Make it there and back in time, or get a drenching and spend the rest of the day pulling demin off your crotch. Unfortunately this time, I lost. Rather severely. And ended up completely soaked worrying about how much dye was going to stain my legs, leaving me looking like a Smurph. Well, almost none was the answer. Not only did these sopping-wet jeans not feel that uncomfortable as I contorted myself into the right position to dry them on the radiator without taking them off, they left very little blue colour on my pasty-white twigs.

So all-in-all these WeSC Tight jeans are pretty much amazing for buying milk, drinking tea, watching T4 Sunday and running out to get sausage rolls. And if they can do that without any problems, they must be ridiculously good for skating in too.

Moose.

I like cords, in fact, I spent most of my skateboarding past time in cords due to they’re easy feel and well, stylish appeal. I enjoy being comfortable when I cruise, I don’t like looking like a gangsta with tracksuit bottoms that slides down my arsehole and covers majority of my shoes! Jeans I like, but I prefer sleeping in boxer shorts opposed to PJ bottoms if you know what I mean, total freedom, which makes cords my preferred Johnson cover when skating.

Vans have a great line of apparel these days and like other well established skate companies, they keep pushing the envelope for better products and have a mammoth following based on they’re eagerness to please the consumer.

These cords a slightly on the slim side, but not leg huggers, so your balls are safe! They’re not flared or baggy, just a nice, relaxed, yet slim looking pant. They feature your standard 5 pocket design, a tonal distressed checkerboard print on your ass and is made with a bit of stretch (98% cotton 2 % stretch) for those ‘daniel son‘ flips we all strive for. I’ve spent a lot of time on my knees and ass for that matter and have to say they’re not torn yet, so I’m only to assume that the quality is as high as they come.

They’re not expensive either, so make sure you’re geared up for this summer, cords are cooler than jeans, trust me, I wrote that one!

Live FAST, Ride FAST
2P

Hurrah, another free board to thrash. Moose said he was going to send me up a Jason Adams pro from Black Label, the only skateboarder in the world to wear shorter trousers than me (and they ain’t reason why I tried to grow a greaser quiff a while back). I’m totally out of whack with anything to do with skating because I thought “The Kid” was still on that “other” company, but apparently he’s gone back to suckle on the teat that reared him. Which is fine by me. Until, that is, I started tearing open the package, in a manly way, when I thought I saw a flash of, no, it can’t be this is Black Label here, no, oh my god… someone sent me a pink skateboard. A neon pink skateboard. And to make matters worse- it was indeed a Adams Black Label pro model. What the hell am I suppose to do with a pink skateboard?

So I took to my backgarden morgue to do a some pre-skate analysis.
I found a dead mouse. It was quite small, looked like it’d been there for a while- but the cool thing about small dead things is they don’t smell that much. I was hoping loads of guts and whatnot would spill out of it once I twatted it with the pink skateboard. But to my dismay it just went really really flat in a puff of dead dust. Mildly peaved at the lack of gore (but stoked that I had acquired a spanking new book mark) I went to go see how my headless deer corpse was fermenting. Gore assured.

I hadn’t gone to look at him in about a week, and he was a real mess back then. Ripped intestines spilling undigested deer poo everywhere and the rest of it’s innards seemed to have corroded it’s bum hole into gigantic proportions. But would you believe it, someone must of been uber hungry because there wasn’t much left of him. The hot smell was still there, but little else- I even I had to go and retrieve a couple of legs that some disrespectful little cretin must of pulled off. So to add insult to injury I stuck the pink skateboard deep in it’s bowels to hopefully purify it of it’s girliness. And I think it worked a treat.

Apart from the pink, the only other thing wrong with the skateboard is the fact it has a nose. I don’t think Jason Adams does any nollie tricks, I certainly don’t, so why bother putting one on. Instead they should have mounted a roadkill skull on the front, which I would of thought would fit Adams down to a T.

So what have you learnt reading this review? Let’s recap-

1) Black Label skateboards are good for flattening dead mice.
2) Black Label skateboards fit nicely into deer carcass’.

That and heavy metal is a wonderful thing. Today I recommend Rompeprop’s “Menstrual Stomphulk”.
Innit.

Zombie.

Following a some bone-graft surgery on a fairly ruined scaphoid, my Mum decided I needed a rucksack, seeing as the daily 5 mile cycle to central London wasn’t going to happen again anytime soon and feeling like I’d had my hand stamped on made me think ‘What the hell, a freebie’s a freebie’. Besides as anyone in the ‘smashed scaphoid gang’ will know the only gesture a scaphoid cast will allow is a permanent thumbs-up.

Why my judgement lapsed into insanity I don’t know. I blame the anaesthetic, because as we all know mums are completely incapable of purchasing anything remotely stylish, especially my Mum, as those who know me will know, enjoys amateur archaeology, civil war re-enactment societies and anything to do wish lay-lines or stone circles in her spare time. Which is all pretty rad in my opinion, but doesn’t help when choosing fashion conscious apparel.

What she bought me really was ‘special’ to say the least. The warning signs were there what with there being a Clarks shoe shop in Peckham, which seems to lure parents of my mums generation in, with promises of the quality of yesteryear, and made a whole generation of children look like dorks in primary school and ruined their confidence for the rest of their lives, because all I wanted was the kickers with the green and red tabs on the shoes and the leather boat tops like all the other kids had!

Oh, sorry. To this day the most positive comment I received on my new convenience related accessory was that it made me look like I had ‘a touch of the Downs’. After 2 weeks recovery and against the advise of my consultant I was back on the stallion, and back shredding Pecknarm bowl and in need of a rucksack that didn’t make me feel like a twat, so Moose swooped in to save the day.

Subtle this Emerica rucksack is not, verging dangerously on crusty-fat-pink haired Goth girl it is, but my son thinks its cool, so I guess it must be. The first day I used it was officially the wettest day of the year, and the only things that were dry by the end of my ride were my crotch and the inside of this rucksack. To sum things up its pretty cool, you feel like a psychedelic art-school stage Dennis the Menace wearing it, you can put stuff in it and keep it dry (leaky-thermos permitting) and it and you can strap a skateboard to it, not that anyone has ever done that because it makes you look like a massive dick.

Bod

For 30 years strong, Independent Trucks not only gave the skate world the most consistent and reliable axles in the trucking world, they’ve also kept us wrapped up in winter and cool in summer with endless lines of quality cloth.

It’s not for me to say who should and shouldn’t like Independent Trucks as a entity, but I would find it hard to believe that anybody who’s ever suffered a skateboarding related injury doesn’t own a piece of they’re history, be it socks, hardware, hats or wristbands, you know you’ve rocked it somewhere along the line and you know that you rocked it with pride!

The next chapter in my Independent collection comes as controversial and as they come, 80’s legs, gun blazing saddles and a fuck off logo to those who don’t get it.

FTR-League Shirt is your typical raglan ¾ Tee with ‘Fuck the Rest’ screen printed across the chest! This is done deliberately to inform those who are not aware that Independent was and will always be on top of the rail, so you you’re either smithing with them or you’re not, in which case you can get fucked for not knowing better. It’s 50/50 cotton/poly and comes in a selection of different colours for various levels of impact on the eyes.

T.T. Savage belt buckle packs a power punch; there is no other way to describe the detail that embeds this belt accessory. Within the cross that bears Independent, you see an outlaw who covers his face with a bandana whilst his hat is lined up with Indy crosses. On either side of him is a Smith & Wesson style 6 shooter that point outwards to indicate that this savage outlaw holds back for NO-ONE…”do you feel lucky?….well do you?… PUNK!”

With a bold Tee and a well mean buckle you need a pair of jeans to match and nothing says your Independent more that having the balls to rock a pair of white Lizard King slim fit jeans to complete the puzzle. What better way to ‘BIRD’ any fool who comments on your style than to open your chest and say “Fuck you mate, I don’t follow the milkman, I bring the milk!”

These jeans were customized for Lizard with a low rise, slim leg and a 16 inch leg opening that comes in a 97/3 % cotton/spandex ratio. It’s comes with green screened pocket bags, green stitch details and embroidery including zig zag stitching with bar tacks to customize the leg openings, as well as green zipper tape, interior greenroom pocket and dual function belt loops for narrow or wide belts! It also sports Lizard’s psychedelic poster art as packaging! It’s a 5 pocket Denim and is so comfortable to skate in; you’ll feel like your training in slacks, but you’ll look cooler than Fonzi in Happy Days…I know your feeling it!

Live FAST, Ride FAST 2P

Firstly, I think this is the first set of coloured wheels i have ridden since my G bones back in the eighties. There is something odd about coloured wheels but this bloody eighties revival has brought them all back!

Anyway, after two sessions, one on wood and one on concrete, here is my verdict: These Spitfires are 54 mm, so bigger than i am used to but the size gives you a nice fast ride and they are not rock hard so they are real smooth. The sidewalls have very little camber, so that means rail tricks etc really lock in, but this can feel wierd for popping out early from rails. They are definitely better suited for concrete bowls, curves and those raw street spots that you always say “come back here with soft wheels” and are probably not the greatest for tech skating.

All flip tricks seem to have an odd balance, but saying that, it only took me 5 minutes to get used to. These demons are pretty grippy due to the medium durometer, which makes for a solid smooth ride. after riding loads of Spitfires before i suspect these will be the same, long lasting and making me smile.

So the bottom line is this. If you wannna carve up a pool, hit a rough old spot or relive the eighties, then these are for you!

Go to www.dlxsf.com for more.

Bryall

Last week a fresh whiz plank turned up at my door, turned out to be the very fetching 7.5 model from the new range of City team boards, rad!

The first thing you notice about this board is that it is rather short, short enough for me to think that it was a mini, and was just about to pick up the phone to give Moose an ear-bashing when I thought it best to actually check, no it wasn’t. Phew.

The width is perfect, and the shape is pretty chilled out, not too flat, and not too much like and old skip. As well as the shape being pretty much spot on the graphic is sick, and my eyes pretty original too. It reminded me of that old game ‘The Getaway’ on the PlayStation and instantly made me want to cruise around stealing Rover 75’s with my new wooden crowbar. And on the plus side the graphic matched my shoes, chosen sticker arrangement and tee shirt, so I was feeling pretty fresh, and decided it was time to actually skate this fucker rather than stand around like a ramp betty admiring it.

At first size was a bit of an issue, (I’ve found myself saying that quite a lot recently), and took a while to get used to as every ollie I popped felt like my foot was about to boot the nearest bloke next to me whilst doing an outrageous no-comply in the air, but once that was overcome the pop made you feel like Wainwright! Every trick was like you were being cannoned up, over, through, or whatever you were trying to do, and I’ve never had quite the same feeling on a board. If I’d had this back in the grom days, I’d have been wacking two fingers up at my mates as I cleared the nearest pebble. Plus because of the length of the board you have so much more control over it, so you can throw tweaks, and shiftys at will and even the occasional kebab if you want.

The board itself has lasted well, I’ve had it on a few weeks and it still looks near enough new, no Gillette diamond coated Mach 24 razor for a nose and tail, no delams or chippers, even after taking trips into the side a bus and the back of a tram. Oh, and a slightly immature moment on my part when I couldn’t do some grind that I saw on Fully Flared. So it’s holding up nicely, and will probably be staying on for a fair few weeks after this gets put up!

To be brutally honest I am an 11 year old child at heart and the paint finish on the board is a little disappointing. Instead of the graphic smudging so I can blag to the local kids I can do back tails that actually slide, the paint flakes and chips and makes me look like some mong who has been smashing his way up and down curbs even after one skate. This disappointed me immensely, especially after I was given a gully bad man graphic, it’s now all chipped and makes me feel a bit limp, much like a kid who plays music out of his / her phone on the bus. Get out!

But back to the serious stuff, the board on the whole was a really nice ride, had a great feel, and most certainly ‘bare’ pop. After you’ve addressed the shortness issue it certainly becomes a proper rad board to go out and skate. I must mention briefly that the other board (7.625″) in the same series comes in slightly longer, so if you have real sized feet and legs you are catered for. Plus the only real downside is the shitty paint coming off, but again if you are a proper person you won’t care about that. To conclude, City would be up there now for the next time I purchase a board down at the local wood joint.

www.thecitystreets.com

9/10

Neddington

A few years ago, Emerica released the Reynolds 2, now I was a fan of those shoes, but I always found they took ages to break in. So when i found out a slimmed down version had been released I was stoked.

These look almost identical to the Reynolds 2’s but as if they had been on a crash diet, a bit like when one of your ex’s puts on a slimming dress and slaps on make up, in the vein hope to seduce you again! If that was the case- I was well up for some ex-sex as these were straight out the box skateable.

Emerica have really slimmed the sole down, its not vulcanized like every other company seems to be going for at the minute, but you still get a good feel, and to be honest it was quite nice to skate all day and not look like you’re walking on nails when you get to the pub in the evening. The shoe is fairly narrow so they hug your feet really nicely, and the toe piece is nice a pointed for all those Reynolds-esqe frontside flips with ease. After about a week of skating there was little show of wear, a few scuff marks but nothing worrying, the only problem being snapped laces but we’re all used to that right?

The only problem I had with them was the weird pink spray paint effect on them, but to be fair that rubbed off after about 2 minutes of skating! Emerica know how to build a good strong shoe, and these are no exception. They look good, skate good, and you get free bling with them – what more could you want!

www.emericaskate.com

8/10

Sketch

Vans Apparel keeps rolling on throughout the cold season. The Illian Hooded Zipper is built with frayed sleeves, a thermal hood and signature Vans camo print in grey and green. This hoodie is thin and will not be the deep freeze buster you may be looking for but you will certainly appreciate the light weight, thin 80% cotton, 20% polyester mix to skate in once you get it on.

If you are looking for a new polo shirt you cannot go wrong with the Betinger Knit.

This slim fitting black and red striped number feels snug as it hugs your figure and also hold well after a few washes unlike the Classic Polo shirt that tended to fade quickly and go out of shape. The Betinger has a jersey collar, chest pocket and minimal branding making it pick of the week here at HQ.

Vans also have these cool, stripey Andover tees that are also worthy of your hard earnt pounds. Not a standard t- shirt by any means, fits well and feels soft, bargain. Find all of these and more at www.vans.co.uk