Skate Reanimate

Welcome says,

We make boards that are not only of the highest quality, but that are unique. Our artwork is hand-drawn and our shapes are fun to ride. We think your board should excite you…

I agree.

And though this shape may be a little too out there to be my new deck of choice, it should be fun to try. This design mixes a shovel-nose and a more squared tail, with the sides tapering toward the tail. The Control Squid is advertised as a 8.6″ width, but I found it’s actually only 8.5″ at the widest (center) measure. The deck itself is sourced from Paul Schmitt’s PS Stix, so the quality should be on target.

I taped the deck with Mob perforated grip–a step up in grippiness from the default, according to Jon at Board of Provo, and folks I know online.

The current set up includes Theeve Tiax 8.5″ trucks, Bones Swiss bearings, and Rain Skates Mid-Tsunamis at 95A, 62mm. So this board is set up for transition skating. And though I expect this deck to neatly handle bowls, I may set it up with more street-happy wheels just to see how it will work on street.

The Element 8″ Muzka I’d picked up for ramps and parks began to delaminate, so I sent it back. In the meantime, I’ve set up a new Element 8″ Shape 16 Featherlight:

This time I picked the Element brand grip over the default cheap-o grip, and even just applying it I can tell it’s a better quality tape–thicker, denser grip that cut cleanly.

I picked up a new 8″ Element Muska deck today after checking prices and finding this on sale at the Vans store for $39 + free grip:

So a while ago I was riding an Almost Mullen “Uber” deck, which cracked at the nose about 30 days into use. After a couple of weeks I noticed the deck lost a significant amount of pop. I’m not being whiny, but my ollies were terrible unless I aimed and precisely snapped the tail at just the right position and angle.

After practicing ollie to manual off a little platform (no more than 12 inches) the nose just cracked and was suddenly useless. So I sent the deck back to Almost, and voila! They sent me a brand new one about 7 days later.

Because I hadn’t really expected them to replace it, I had immediately ordered a deck from Black Hole Boards as a replacement. But the shipment was delayed, and as the summer days sped past I found myself itching to skate. Our local shop was having a sale on decks that week, so on an impulse I picked up a Vallely Element deck for under 30 bucks with grippy. I mounted it up, thinking I would skate it for a couple months and have the extra BHB Element in case I needed it.

Surprise, surprise, the Vallely deck lasted all through the autumn, and though the BHB Element came, and the replacement Mullen came I saw no reason to change out.

So, yeah, I have 2 brand spankin’ new decks to dig into when the snow thaws. If it ever does. It feels really weird to have more decks than I need; in fact, it feels a bit constrictive, as I don’t have the anticipation or excitement of choosing a new one when the current wears out.

Oh well, at least I’ll be well-stocked and free from deck expenditures for 2008.