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Skateboarding Product Reviews

Ben Raemers OJ Wheels

Essex dagger Ben Raemers has a new pro wheel out on OJ this week. Beans are the theme, canned baked beans from a traditional English breakfast. You gotta love him.

These are 101a in hardness for park and street abuse and 53mm in size. Support him at your local skate shop.

oj_wheels_ben_raemers_skateboard

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Skateboarding News

OJ Wheels Spring Blend with Shimizu, Akers +

The OJ Wheels team have a Spring Blend edit out to celebrate the sun finally dropping onto our UK heads. Grab some rays with Heroin’s Daniel Shimizu, Clint Peterson, Willy Akers, Mike Long, Ryan Harris, Marius Syvanen, Wes Kremer, Sid Melvin, Alex Horn, and Jon Dickson.

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Skateboarding Skateboarding Product Reviews

Line Check: Holiday 2010 2 of 2

The Holiday Season is always packed full of great products to chose from so here’s our second round up of what we’re stoked on arriving in skater-owned-shops right now, including a few last minute gift ideas at the bottom (because we can’t be the only ones shopping for them on Christmas Eve). Click here to see part one of the Holiday 2010 Line Check.

Vincent Alvarez name came up quite frequently when asking others who their favourite skater of 2010 was. His pro model for Chocolate was approved by the masses, and the watercolour line is classic Chocolate aesthetics.

Unbelievable right? It’s true, Alien Workshop turned twenty years old this year and to celebrate, all their riders got some classic AWS iconography attached to their name on these rad decks.

It was a good year for rippers getting the deserved bump to pro status as Boots’ first pro model for Death came out this month. Cliché close up for the holidays leaving us with this little team model to get bamboozled over.

Theeve have reportedly the lightest, strongest, straight up best truck on the market. If you have a little extra Christmas pocket money this year maybe you should try a pair out. Thunder continue to bring the goods with Marc Johnson’s ‘special blend’.

Momentum keep rolling out amazing looking wheels for the stocking filler hill bomber market this Holiday season, this time employing the capable hands of Andrew Pommier to decorate their urethane.

OJ Wheels made a welcome return to the urethane spotlight this year. Click here for a review of the the Street Razors.

It’s definitely the time of year to stock up on these badboys. So be sure to keep your head warm this winter, but also rep skateboarding while you do it, and who better to rep than the good folk at Girl, Chocolate and Fourstar?

Lots of good stuff from the Soletech camps are entering UK skateshops right now. éS may be renowned for keeping your feet secure above the good wood you ride but they’re pretty rad at keeping you warm and not a flu-stricken wreck too while you’re off it.

Etnies take the tried, tested and massively approved classic approach with these awesomely plain and simple hoods.

Emerica unsurprisingly go a little leftfield with their winter warmers, fully repping the kind of grandpa festive sweater steeze that some of us here at Crossfire love a little more than the others. Make your own mind up on that one but we’re all down for Heath Kirchart being rad.

More goodies from éS who have already won us over with their amazing Bobby Worrest collection earlier this year.

Only one pair of trousers are on our Christmas wish list: these perfectly crafted cords from Altamont.

Nick Dompierre’s pro model for DC is hitting UK stores this month, alongside more boot throwback goodness from Supra’s Tom Penny.

Simple, effective and guaranteed to have perfect board feel; standard practice for Emerica.

Hsu’s are such a great shoe to skate and this camel colourway is an excellent move. It would be rude not to give the pro shoe to come from this year’s SOTY a mention too, Leo Romero’s purple model is dope.

Perhaps it was the little interview éS ran this week with team rider Kellen James, but we’re definitely super stoked on this SK8MAFIA collab on the Square Two.

John Rattray is simply the best around. Rep Scotland with these in 2011. It doesn’t matter if you’re not Scottish, John Rattray is and therefore you should start wishing you were.

Need some last minute gift ideas? You can trust the Crailtap camp to deliver the raddest stocking fillers this year.

And there’s no way we couldn’t include these… amazing holiday merch from the ever rad DEVO. Watch our interview with frontman Mark Mothersbaugh here

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Skateboarding Skateboarding Product Reviews

Line Check – Holiday 2010 1 of 2

Across the UK, skater owned shops are currently getting fresh packages from distributors dishing out the new products for the Holiday Season. Understandably, there’s lots of quality goods included in these packages and condensing our favourites into one Line Check didn’t seem as appealing to us as running two of them. So before you head out with the intention of blowing your Xmas savings, have a look at our selection of some top shelf products that are arriving in your local skate shop now.

Antiz have never been afraid to tell it like it is, so with the help of Ben The and Ludovic Gabriel they have produced the ‘Ass‘ Series. Just like everyone has an opinion, everyone has an ass; and the Antiz pro team are no exception to that rule.

Skate Mental have a huge range of decks available right now but those are our chosen six above, including O’Neill’s of-the-moment ‘Call Of Duty‘ deck and Matt Beach’s super rad Tre Flip model that provides Ewoks with the publicity they have always deserved.

Kill City are keeping things street in South Wales with their ‘Spray Paint‘ and ‘Marker‘ models. Note how good those sizes are; for those of you out there with pixie feet who haven’t made the jump up from 7.5″ here’s a good excuse to man up.

Tyler Bledsoe’s debut pro model for Alien Workshop is in shops now with a suitably trippy graphic to cause your own Mindfield to relapse. Crayon hooked up with the CSC mascot, ‘Boxman‘ and his model designed by the wonderful Philip Morgan is now available fresh from the press. Hype! are making a name for themselves with some superb web edits and quality decks to match and Karma hooks up with the insomniac Alex Maw who knocked up a couple of rad designs for their latest decks. We’re stoked on these.

Ace Trucks are starting to become a common name in UK stores so if you’re looking for something new to get your grind on with then try these out. They are selling fast having already made an impact on a competitive truck market in the US and are set to do the same here.

OJ Wheels have made a welcome comeback into the urethane spotlight this year and are our selected wheels alongside Andrew Pommier’s Tin Toy series for Momentum.

The winter warmers are in stock! Now, unless your skin is made of thinsulate material then you’ve probably noticed it’s absolutely bloody freezing outside; have a look at cozy jackets and shirts from Matix, Fourstar, Addict, Independent and Etnies right there above.

Ok, so we were so stoked on Beach’s 360 flipping Ewok that we had no choice but to include the matching tee in our t-shirt round up alongside other graphic gems from Girl and Hype! Uzi does it now…

Soletech may be reknowed for their innovative progress in shoe technology, but you shouldn’t think that less effort is put into their threads. éS and Emerica make some of the best clothes going and the cords and chinos you see above are nice, simple and ridiculously comfortable.

But if it is shoes you’re after because the ones your wearing are soaked through with melted snow then be sure to check out Habitat’s Footwear range. Like Soletech, they’ve got the talent and experience to dabble in more than just one area. We have a Habitat package to give away this month that includes a pair of their awesome shoes; click here to enter. And as per, DVS bring the goods with simple and effective designs in dope colourways. Port should be really considered more often.

Check back for more recommended products in the following weeks.

Categories
Skateboarding Product Reviews

Review: OJ Wheels Street Razor 53mm

Back in the day, OJ Wheels made the best urethane in town, so it was with open arms that we welcomed them back into the limelight, as their recent resurgence – complete with new riders aplenty – resulted in an online presence as instantly reliable as their name was back when it was all fields and shops were closed on sundays. The wealth of experience OJ have making quality urethane makes the brand one of the most trustworthy names in the wheel-making game. We were given a pair of 53mm (also known as the optimum size for getting radical) Street Razors to cruise and bruise on, a set of wheels with a reputation for being many a skaters favourite wheel in the late 80s. Sadly I was too busy rolling on whatever urethane Mothercare made their pushchair wheels on back then to compare results now, but the buzz on the new formula was too much not to be stoked all the same.

I’m sure some of you would wonder why a company so reknowned for making the best ‘thane in game would change a tried and tested formula. Well, for once it’s not the fault of ridiculous transient trends (although the sizes available suggest otherwise), but the US Environmental Protection Agency simply doesn’t let that traditional shit slide in the land of green and machine. The good news is that when OJ are brought into a new arena, they pack a mean punch. Coming in at a slick 99a durometer, OJ’s design permits for a smooth slide solid enough to satisfy any powerslide activist while not compromising on flatspot defence. Wheels are my most frequently purchased piece of hardware (sod the steps, I slide with the best!) and these have proven to be a reliably durable set that go easy on the bank too. Top shelf urethane since before I was born… they still got it.

Stanley

Check them out in action in this rad clip featuring the unmistakable stylings of Jason ‘The Kid’ Adams.