Categories
Skateboarding Product Reviews

Eothen ‘Kingdom’ Skateboard

Whilst skateshops stock up on the big names and flavour of the month product, there are still small operations running all over the land. Eothen Skateboards is one of these operations, and it’s about to step up to the next level. I tried one of the very first boards to come from this homegrown skate company a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t hear much from Eothen after that and wondered if people had overlooked the occasion, but I was wrong. There are now riders (Jack Ryder, Ben Bucklee and Tom Davey) and a whole new line of product to choose from.

The Kingdom deck is one of the new models that I got to test ride. The first thing I noticed was the shape: This board is virtually identical nose and tail wise. It took me a few minutes to figure out which way to set my trucks up… Next was the concave. There isn’t much, but I don’t mind that. In fact, the concave worked just fine and I din’t have any trouble trying to control the deck. There’s nothing worse than battling to control your board because it’s too flat or bent like a fish bowl.

Eothen boards are manufactured in the same warehouse as Traffic Skateboards – Ricky Oyola’s company- so you know that whoever rides these rigid maple veneers is going to dish out some beating, and needs a versatile board. Despite the odd bash and full frontal knock, each ply has kept intact which is good. In fact, the construction of this board is quite thick with no gimmicks or weight loss programs applied. So far so good, after a good 6 week session, this board is still holding strong.

Check out Eothen at www.eothen.co.uk

Ralph Lloyd-Davis
22/05/2006