New Skateboard

I went for a skate early on Friday morning, a couple of hours at Silksworth. It was dry here, but it must have been raining fairly recently over there because when I arrived all of the bowls and surfaces had water on them. It was sunny though, so I decided to wait it out. I wanted to take a few photos, and, suspecting that I'd be buying a new deck sometime soon I thought a photo of my current skateboard was in order...

Me in an empty park.

The dendex dryslope at Silksworth.

To start off with I was picking my way around the wet bits, but once it dried out, my main aim was to work the spine transfer to check that I could do it at a different park. There are three spines at Silksworth: a small one that leads out from the small bowl, one that joins the small bowl and large bowl together - so it's kinda got two sizes, and finally, a medium/large spine that joins the large bowl area with another area.

The small spine from the small bowl.

The large bowl, and spine leading to the small bowl.

The medium/large spine (in the background).

It didn't take long to conquer the small spine. It's concrete rather than wood, but no problems. Next up, I was dropping in from the large bowl to get speed to transfer back into the small bowl. So I was going up a large transition to the spine and then dropping down a smaller transition. That was more difficult, and a little scarier. I did get it though. Getting enough speed wasn't a problem; it was getting the right amount of speed. It was quite easy to overshoot, which meant jumping off at the last minute...

I haven't tried going the other way and I haven't tried the medium/large spine.

On Saturday I bought a new setup. My wheels are pretty tired, the bearings are kinda shot and the deck's worn and starting to delaminate. Plus I just fancied something fresh.

I decided to go for something a little wider. The current Almost is a 7.75", so I stepped up to an 8". I'm told that wider decks are more suited to bowls and ramps, which makes sense, and there are times when I feel a slightly bigger surface would be useful. I also went for bigger wheels. I'm not sure what my old ones are; probably 54mm to start with, but they're smaller than that now. The new ones are 57mm.

I've gone for this slightly bigger setup because I most like to skate bowls and ramps. A bit more stability and more speed. The whole thing looks quite a bit bigger. It's a little heavier too, but nothing that I think will cause me a problem. I'm keen to try it out. No doubt it will feel strange at first, but hopefully it'll turn out good. I'll post some pictures soon.

Out with the old...