Newsflash
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The Innovator of Modern Day Surfing, Buttons Kaluhiokalani, has joined Kahuna Creations! He will be featured in promoting the Kahuna Big Stick land paddle. “I am stoked to join Kahuna Creations!” says Buttons, “Kahuna Creations is a soulful company that pays tribute to my Hawaiian ancestors. Hawaiians were the first people to feel the love of board riding, Kahuna Creations remembers those roots and has created a line up that weaves in the Hawaiian spirit.”
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Front Page  Press Releases Beach Rider Designs San Diego Style
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Beach Rider Designs San Diego Style |
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Written by MalakaiKingston
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Sunday, 17 February 2008 |
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We're always looking for innovation and stoke and, if you know where to look, there's a lot of it to be found. Recently, we came across Beach Rider Designs, located in San Diego and the brainchild of Dave Riess. We asked him, "what's the deal?" and got ourselves a quick interview. Check it out. Beach Rider Designs
I grew up in northern California and spent most of my time riding downhill bikes with a bit of dual slalom and urban assault thrown in. I had always skated a little, but through high school I was mostly a bike freak. I was 18 when I moved to San Diego in '04 and couldn't afford to keep my bikes so I sold them and started longboarding a bit. I started to get hooked on longboarding and long story short, I began to think about building some wheels for myself in spring of '05. I built the first prototype wheels in my tiny apartment in La Jolla that summer and after people started asking about my wheels I began investigating how to manufacture them. At the time I had extensive machining experience from back home, but I really only knew how to make one-off parts. After two and a half years of learning manufacturing the hard way, the Ace was finally born.
The Ace:
Part of what got me thinking about building wheels was a Physics class during my second semester at college. I had skated to class and the professor started jabbering about moment of inertia. He did a demonstration on an incline plane and my first thought was about how what he was saying related back to skate wheels. I think I have the notes from that class somewhere where I doodled the Ace for the first time.
As explained on the website, an object's moment of inertia is determined by its weight distribution relative to the axis of rotation. A typical example is the comparison of three objects: A sphere, a cylinder, and a donut. If all three objects have the same radius, the same mass, and have uniform densities, the donut will have the greatest moment of inertia and the sphere will have the smallest. Basically by pushing a majority of the mass toward the outer edge of the object, the moment of inertia can be maximized. In the Ace this was accomplished by using a large hub and by making the hub as light as possible.
Moment of inertia is related inversely to rotational acceleration. A large moment of inertia lends itself to a slower rotational acceleration while a small moment of inertia lends itself to a faster rotational acceleration. In physics, acceleration and deceleration are identical quantities, only separated by their sign (+ or –). This means that once the Ace is at speed, it is essentially able to store energy.
Because of the necessary large hub, I was concerned about a harsh ride from the beginning. I'd rather not go into too much detail regarding the specifics of the hub design, but certain features exist to improve the ride quality and also to improve grip. Obviously both are issues because of the limited urethane depth (13mm).
The Ace is currently available in an 80a on our website for $79 to residents of the US and international orders can be placed by emailing us directly at
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Rehab:
The board that I tested my first set of wheels on was a DH Race from Landyachtz. Until I bought the DH I had been riding pintails and hadn't had much exposure to drop decks. After riding the Landyachtz boards I knew immediately that I had to make a deck to go with my wheels. The Landyachtz decks that I've ridden the most (Evo and DH) are obviously great decks, but they really belong on a twisty downhill, not a boardwalk.
It's difficult for me to explain exactly how the Rehab rides. Its geometry is inspired by the drop decks of the downhill world but it incorporates a shorter wheelbase (30 inches) and some flex. The board is very active and provides a very comfortable and stable ride. The total drop is about one inch.
The Rehab as a deck and as a complete with Aces and Holeys will be available in February. In a few weeks I will try to provide a release date and a price on the website.
By the beginning of summer I will release a second version of the Rehab with some surprises and I'm also working on some alternative deck designs. I also have several additional wheel designs in the works but until the company gets off the ground they will have to be put on hold. Keep watching the website .
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 February 2008 )
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