Category: Skateboarding Product Reviews

With the majority of skaters split between the low and light or tough and buff designed trucks, it doesn’t leave much attention for the dozen other axle companies out there fighting for the undecided consumers. Often this competition leads to silly gimmicks being thrown into the mix. Krux know this and don’t shy away from self-mockery, in fact to a point where one of their first pro model trucks has been given to Tiltmode jester, Louie Barletta. If Krux and Louie know how to have fun, then the combination of the two must beam a little sunshine on your skating…

Despite being a thorough bred fan of trucks that were built to grind, it was time for a change and seeing how Krux are actually moulded by the same foundry as the market leader, I figured, why not? As I set up a pair I noticed how the kingpin had been shortened so as not to catch during rabid grinds. If there’s something worse than a wasted axle nut, it’s the wasted kingpin nut. So thumbs up to that important detail.

Once I was rolling I quickly felt how fast Krux trucks turn. The hanger design played imtricate angles with my skating, but essentially I found the bushings to be a bit too soft. I popped back home and swapped the bushings for hard mofo’s and the session was on! Usually the hard bushings really were too hard, but somehow they moulded to the Krux design perfectly and have left me with the perfect balance of twist and turn that I like.

Turns aside, essentially trucks bear the brunt of harsh grinds and slides. The Krux Barlettas performed well and didn’t stick or slip when I attacked metal, marble or stone surfaces. If anything everyone, myself included, got a good laugh at the Louie Barletta portrait of shock and horror emblazoned on each truck. The fear of an endless grind obviously worried the fellow.

Now, seeing as I have ridden virtually the same trucks since my first ‘real’ board dropped beneath my feet, it’s hard to believe that there is another option out there. Krux have got their heads screwed on straight and their trucks really tick each box (bar the one for tighness). If fact, they even serve you after the session as impromptu bottle openers. You didn’t thing that hole in the hanger was for aero-dynamics, did you? Then again…

www.kruxtrucks.com

8/10

RL-D

Ok, so the Element Tony Tave was the first Element board I think I have ever skated so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’ve been watching Lucien ride his about for a while now and in hindsight I think my expectations of the board may have been a little high.

I honestly thought riding it would instantly transform me into some sort of magazine cover European superstar and it didn’t. I was seriously so pissed off I went out and bought a snakeboard, turned pro, got bored, quit and decided to start skating again. So when I picked up the board for a second time with lesser expectations I surprisingly found I really liked it!

The shape was slightly more pointy than the Almost deck I was riding beforehand and had a longer nose and tail which worked well for me as I am admittedly a little on the lanky side. I think the best thing about this board though was the wood, it was really tough and showed no signs of tiredness, even on it’s last legs as I pummelled it into the concrete beneath the Canada water handrail. I was pissed at myself for delamming it; I know it would have lasted a lot longer had I not been so useless and landed on my trick. I suck – great deck!

www.elementskateboards.com for all the trimmings.

8/10

The Gardener.

Spending just over a year and a half in board sponsorship limbo hasn’t troubled me too greatly as in this time I have developed a skill vital to day-to-day survival in the skateboard and more importantly, real world; the ‘blag‘. The only reason I have had to write this damn review is because unfortunately The Silver Fox wanted something in return off me for stealing his boards… the cheeky bastard!

Apparently, the ‘special‘ thing about this Almost board is that it has two carbon plates under the mounting areas of the board, which apparently stop it from breaking over the trucks, the most common area of board breakage. Great, another pointless invention to a technology that needs no improving right? Much like the integration of the camera into the mobile phone, personally I really see no point in trying to improve on something that works fine on its own anyways and really needs no tampering with.

However, in fairness I guess it could be argued this does actually work or at least make some sort of difference as the board didn’t snap, which for me is pretty unusual. I have ridden Dwindle decks plenty in the past and I really, really like them, especially the resin wood is super poppy and the shapes are always spot on… but like anything in skateboarding, what works for me probably wont work for you.

Whatever, this was a really good board until I totally fucked it up trying to back tail shuv this rough as hell bank thing… you can see how the board took the three thousand tries it took me to make it and this was pretty much the only reason I took it off. I’m, pretty sure it would have lasted way longer if I hadn’t of taken four plys out the tail! OK, so I’m rambling now… this board apparently retails at £5 more than any of the other Dwindle boards and if you are a hammer time heavy hitter and like jumping down 50 stairs on a daily basis, then why not spend the extra £5 on a board with carbon plates in? They worked for me and let’s face it, you’re only gonna go spend it on crap anyways.

www.almostawebsite.com

8/10

The Gardener

Once upon a time collaborations didn’t exist in skateboarding, especially when the industry was on fire across the board and the need for collaborations wasn’t as in much demand. But these days as skateboarding becomes core again, the collaboration has emerged as standard practice with all sorts of brands teaming up to bring you something special.

One collaboration that raised eyelids recently is the Vox/Death shoe. Vox have used their Destroyer for this which comes with the famous Death Skateboards skull and crossbones on the side but what are the shoes like? Being used to a gum sole i found them a bit clumpy to start off with but as soon as these broke in they were rocking my feet.

Like any seude shoes, they are gonna go through wear and tear like any other but these held their way throughout a bunch of street skating and mini ramp sessions. Vox mention that the shoes are made from high quality suede or action leather upper plus a thermo plastic toebox reinforcement. Now does this mean that the next time i skate the Antarctic my tootsies will not freeze? God knows but i would probably imagine that they have adequate support for your toes of which was definitely felt whilst riding.

Vox have come a long way in a short time and they will only get better as time goes on. I had a good run in with the Beerhunters at the beginning of the year so Vox have been lurking ontop of my griptape a fair bit this year, let’s hope like Zorlac they ‘keep on keeping on’.

www.voxfootwear.com

Chuck Bangers
14.05.07

On the 6/6/06, Spitfire released 666 sets of wheels to commemorate the very existence of pure evil that lives within each and every one us. I decided there and then that I would happily partake in their march to keep death alive by placing an order for a set of the darkest wheels to ever roll above ground.

With years of excellence through experience, Spitfire colour coated another set of beauties with their fire stencils and produced a set of burners that will suit almost anyone who rides a skateboard. These are 52mm in size and ride 99A in durometry, a combination that makes them suitable for street skaters as well as pool riders.

They are hard, but not hard-lined, which means the roll tough, but doesn’t feel like you riding on plastic. They slide with ease across any skate-able surface and burn fearlessly on all kinds of terrain.

They hold their line in a 10ft concrete bowl equally as well as they do on a 4ft wooden mini ramp, but in a size small enough for you to get silly on them ledges, which makes them perfect for the all rounder. Only downer is that one of them flat spotted quite badly on a blunt slide-(out), but over time they made a full recovery and are still rolling strong, even though I guess they’re slightly smaller.

I haven’t had a chance to take these to S-Caterham, as I’m slightly sceptical about them setting the place on fire, but given the chance, I’m sure they’ll survive just fine within the walls of a skateboard church…only time will tell!

7/10
Live FAST, Roll FAST

2P

I wonder if Trinny and Suzanna from What not to Wear, or the Queer eye for a straight guy team skate..? I mean, the way these people criticise and take apart a person’s identity is pretty on par with any skate forum geek dissecting the latest video part, advert, pro model or bowel movement of skater X or company Y.

I begin this review with such blatant caricatures because I’ve made them myself, lurking behind a dirty keyboard or leaning on a skateshop counter. You can imagine my prejudice when I was sent an Element board for their first European Pro, Michael Mackrodt. The stereotypes flooded out: Element boards are made of cheap foreign wood, European pros suck, Bam Margera… All this criticism had steered my money and attention well away from one of skateboarding’s biggest and most successful companies.

However, I raise my hand and state loud and clear that Michael Mackrodt is a pretty damn good skater with the full capacity to maintain professional status. Just watch his part in Rise Up (the opening section), and you’ll understand why Element chose to pioneer their Euro-Pro team with the young German.

Anyway, the package arrives and at a first glimpse, my misconstrued mind is satisfied by the very uninspired graphics that Element gets slated for. If this was my first board, I’d be pretty pissed if the graphics department delivered a deck with Ralph L-D emblazoned in bold print and the Crossfire Target next to it. I guess it would sell well to the kids who share the name… It turns out Element released two models for Michael, the uninspired one that kids recognize easily on a shop wall, and another with little animals representing the different countries Michael has lived in. So, the choice is available, and there is a reason for the shit graphics. But who cares? It’ll all get scratched off in no time.

Two months down the line and I’m still riding my Element board. Single handedly, this deck has crushed all the stereotypical nonsense I mentioned earlier. The shape is very dapper with a finish only 20 odd years in board construction can teach you (c.f. Paul Schmidtt). The wood is strong and has retained its pop despite the bizarre climate changes that occur nowadays. And the size, 7.8 x 31.5 inches, has re-kindled the sweet relationship I once had with wider boards. If there was one slight area that I would have if I could have changed, I’d have to mention the rather big nose and smaller tail. I reckon a quarter of an inch off the front and added to the back could have had me ringing Michael to congratulate him on a mighty fine board. I don’t speak a word of German though, so this review will have to do.

Go to www.elementskateboards.com for more.

8/10

Ralph L-D
27/04/2007

Ashbury Series

One good turn deserves another so I finally got round to keeping my end of the bargain and reviewing a board for Zac – The Plan B Pat Duffy. The Ashbury series 7.5, the choice size for a tech wizard such as myself, well, to be honest it’s the size I like to ride, but my tech skills aren’t what they used to be and I thought seeing as the first Plan B board I had some 10-11 years ago was a Pat Duffy, I could perhaps in someway rekindle my youth and maybe some of those lost tricks.

For starters as with any Plan B board past and present. It is solid as fuck, this baby has smashed head-on to corners of ledges with out splitting or even denting the wood. The shape is a pretty standard lollystick style with a clean 6.5 rounded nose 6.0 tail, not to much in terms of concave, which initially took a little getting used to as the board I was riding before was super deep, however, my mind was soon in tune with this

The board felt light and snappy and I was almost 15 again feeling the board pop right every time, leaving me wanting to skate more street than I have in some time, I will say if you like a board graphic that has a punch in the colour department then this is clearly not one for the faint hearted with its bright pink/yellow colour tone.

It seems the most daring of the colour tones for the Ashbury series and the graphic style is the same for all the other Plan B pros in this series with a good range of colour styles. We all know Pat Duffy was one of the first innovators in balls out big handrail skating, but I am not sure if a 7.5 would hold onto your feet for a backlip down a huge rail in the rain, but It will be a pleasure to ride.

On the other hand I hear Pat Duffy has some seriously big Hospital bills due to a knee spitting slam on Bob Burnquist Vert ramp. Any extra cash could go to his beer recovery fund which is all important to any professional athlete.

Buy Plan B, get great board, get Pat drunk, simple really.

Harry

7.65″ – 7.875″ – 8.0″

Now I know some of you guys will shun the idea of riding a deck wider than your wang. Myself, I can’t be comfortable skating on a Popsicle stick, so it’s about time a company have produced a deck wide enough to support my Sasquatch feet without sacrificing smooth flippery. Thankfully, the cheeky geeks behind The Harmony’s wood production have made just that. And it handles like a dream.

What strikes you first is the lightweight design. With every bigspin carving circles into the air like a samurai sword, the feather mass of the deck enables you to invoke rapid movements with just a wee scoop. This at first is a fucking nightmare when the last deck you’ve been skating was like a fat bitch at the dinner table. Immobile as an anchor and was like a sorcerer of cramp or some shit. Nuff o’that blad. But when grown accustomed to, it’s Christmas come early, providing of course you get your mitts on this deck before the next one.

So while this lightweight model will be any tech, ledge-nerd’s best pal, it may mean nothing for the Gnarly Barkley characters who add another step to every session. Not the case. I flung myself and Harmony’s secret weapon off a Mark Baines style kicker to flat. A good half hour of landing on rough council park floor from a head height ramp and it still took a beating like Rocky Balboa’s punch bag without wincing. Go take this to your local leap of faith, you might have no legs left, but the deck will be unscathed.

But I can’t finish the review without subjecting this harmless piece of wood to the snap, crackle and pop test.

Snap – Week of skating, solid as a rock. I can see this one living outside the month barrier. Good choice!

Crackle – No deep pressure cracks emerging yet, hard as you like son.

Pop – Claims the trophy like Andrew Brophy.

Not much more to say really, other than this Art Drop series is out now with other pro models from Joe Gavin and Danijel Todorovic.

I rate The Harmony’s efforts here. Click here to see all.

9/10 Boyyyy.

Joe Moynihan.

Let’s focus on the modern-day skate wheel for a minute.

Forget about downhill slalom sponges or vertical bulldozers – what’s relevant here is the contemporary spheres of urethane that street skaters use to roll around and stay stuck to the road with.

Essentially I can only see three choices on the market: generic blank blobs, original grippy fuckers or the hyped up cores.

You don’t want to buy the generic blanks because their chemical compound was probably mixed by an eighth grader, and the original grippy fuckers aren’t reliable for white balance when you are filming your ‘part’. So, now we see why the core trend has swept the wheel cabinet by storm- and everyone has their method! Initially, I kept my shit original grippy because the cores weren’t up to scratch- popping out, air bubbles, horrible colours, dual durometer madness… Things needed fine-tuning and today the standard is set.

Skateboarders can be a big bunch of nostalgic c***s at times, always reminiscing about the good ol’ days even thought they are blatantly stoked to see suits putting cash on the table in the long run. ( *cough* Bullet 66, OJ2… Z-Ed) I mention this because since Plan B got a second life, critics and personal opinions have not always been supportive of one of skateboarding’s landmark companies. It’s a been a steep hill to climb in the opinion polls for the new Plan B team, so their product definitely has to be setting the standard or one step ahead at all times. These 53mm cores are sitting nicely at the top of the pile of quality urethane.

They are hard, but that’s what the street generation want when they approach a curb. They don’t flatspot so it’ll take the smoothest of surfaces for you to hear otherwise. They stay white so your set-up looks fresh no matter what. That’s the top three criterions for a skate wheel to suffice. First the boards, now the wheels… You do know that Unquestionable is dropping sometime soon, right? $20 says you’re rocking Plan B gear by this Fall!

8.5/10

Ralph L-D
17.03.07

28.03.07
Not so long ago, I reviewed the DVS Baron as a shoe to chill in and lounge about with after skating. It was good for that.

Then, I came across a predicament where I was wearing my Barons and a session was going off. Naturally I got my skate on, but a little voice kept telling me to hold back a bit because I wasn’t wearing the toughest of skate shoes, and no-one wants to ruin a pretty pair of slippers, do they? That little voice was evidently squashed by the noise of boards slapping on coping and raucous cheers as the skate session thumped harder.

One session led to another and before I knew it, the DVS Barons had become my official skate shoes for the next couple of months. Why I was worried about rubbing a lo-cut pair of flexy sole slippers on abrasive sandpaper didn’t outweigh the fact that the Barons gripped and flipped better than a few armour-plated shoes I’d worn in the past. I suppose the simplicity of the design had something to do with it. A gum sole, rubber outline and canvas and suede upper can be combined to create a fine piece of footwear. No air bubbles meant optimum board feel. No ankle straps meant quicker response to ankle movement. And no pleather upper meant affirmative grip on each ollie.

I won’t lie and say that the Barons are indestructible because that isn’t true. The outline that took the most abuse obviously wore down rather fast, and a couple of shoe goo amendments to the laces had my feet buckled in safely.

However, the overall wear and tear of the underside and upper was pretty minimal considering such a lo-fi design for a shoe. The Baron is a no-nonsense skate shoe that looks good when you don’t skate it, and feels good when you do. Keep that in mind when you go looking for fashion over function and vice-versa.

Go to www.dvsshoes.com

7/10

Ralph L-D
17.03.07